Car selling scams are on the rise online as scammers use online anonymity to fool people out of their hard-earned money. However, it’s not just buyers who get scammed; sellers can also get cheated.
Selling a Car Online: Scams to Avoid
It’s important to know the different ways an auto scammer operates so that you can recognize the signs and avoid them before they can get their hands on your personal information.
Here are some examples of car selling scams to look out for:
Fake Buyers
These buyers pretend to be interested in buying second-hand cars, but the moment they obtain the seller’s information, like your name, address, social security number, and banking details, they disappear.
The danger with fake buyers is they might commit identity theft. They can use your information to impersonate you and steal from more buyers to your detriment. Alternatively, they can steal from you by using your personal information to access your bank accounts or other assets.
Sight Unseen Buyers
You might wonder, what if someone wants to buy my car without seeing it? This is actually common practice in car buying and selling today, but it merits extreme caution.
If you’re selling without the assistance of an agent or reputable car-buying company, you will be a target for scammers posing as buyers. They will ask you to do something that may seem harmless, like buy a $15 report, pay a moving company to transport the car to where they are, and provide your banking details for the payment to be wired to. But, in truth, they only want you to visit a website to increase their Google Adsense revenue, scam you into paying them for a useless report or a fake transport service, or obtain your banking information.
It should be noted, however, that there are legitimate car buyers who buy second-hand vehicles without checking them in person. These are seasoned, well-funded buyers who can tell if a seller is telling the truth or not and have a knack for getting sellers to give accurate information about their cars. It would be best to be careful with the private, individual buyers who respond to ads on significant online marketplaces like eBay and Craigslist.
Asking For Payment Plans
This is extremely risky for private car sellers because there is a legitimate risk for the buyer to stop paying after the first installment. Alternatively, legitimate buyers might take advantage of this informal deal and take as long as they need to pay you.
Asking For Escrow
Besides proposals to pay in installments, you should also be wary of escrow requests. It’s very easy to create a fake escrow account and fool a seller into giving up personal and banking details.
Overpayment
A buyer “accidentally” wiring you more money than was agreed via money order or a cashier’s check is a giant red flag. An auto scammer would act apologetic and embarrassed for the mistake, then meekly ask for a refund. But the truth is they never sent you anything. The cashier’s check or money order receipt was fake, and they were never interested in buying your car. What they were after was to con you into sending them money.
Too Eager Buyer
An honest buyer will want to know they’re getting a good deal for their money, so they will ask lots of questions about the engine, detailing, maintenance, mileage, gas consumption, your driving habits, etc. Be on your guard if a buyer sounds too eager to close the sale despite having little information about your used car.
For example, suppose you come clean about a flaw in the engine or that the trunk smells terrible because you once left your groceries of meat and fish in it for the day. If the buyer immediately says it’s good or won’t try to negotiate for a lower price and instead wants to rush the payment, that can be a red flag for a buying scam.
Payments via ACH Transfer
ACH or Automated Clearing House is an electronic funds transfer system that enables account holders to transfer funds from one bank to another. It doesn’t require a personal appearance because it was designed to make inter-bank transactions faster and easier. Unfortunately, there is a loophole in its policies for ACH return disputes that scammers use against people selling a car online to scam them.
An ACH return dispute is when an account holder claims they mistakenly transferred money or sent it to the wrong account. Banks do not easily grant ACG return disputes, but when they do, the seller can no longer get the payment back. Worse is that the fraudulent buyer keeps the car.
The last item in this list is one of the worst situations for any car seller. Unfortunately, safeguarding oneself against these scams may complicate things in this online car selling and buying era. For example, as mentioned above, some legitimate buyers buy cars without checking them in person. You could miss a good deal if you immediately blacklist people who buy cars sight unseen.
What To Do if Someone Wants To Buy My Car Without Seeing It
What should you do if presented with an online buyer? How do you avoid car selling scams without losing legitimate offers? Here are some things you can do.
- Do A Background Check: Look a buyer up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn to verify their identity. If they provide a telephone or cell phone number, search it on Google to ensure it’s not a fake number generated by a website.
- Invite Buyers To Do A Test Drive: This next tip can also help verify a buyer’s identity. The best way to get to know them is to invite them for a test drive. You can meet them in person, get a better feel of their character, ask to see their driver’s license, and ask questions like if they are local or from outside the state.
- Only Accept Payment in Cash: This is the safest way to ensure you receive your money after parting with your car. If a buyer insists on paying via a cashier’s check, agree on the condition that both of you will meet at the bank and finalize the sale while watching the teller verify the transaction.
- Meet in Public When Turning Over the Car: If you feel vulnerable and unsure about meeting a buyer and doing the exchange, pick the meeting place and choose a public location with many surveillance cameras or people in the area. Alternatively, you can agree to meet at a police station and bring a friend for additional security.
- Don’t Get Emotional: Here’s what we mean by this: some auto scammers claim to be military veterans and give sellers sob stories about their supposed experiences while in service. They do it to earn your sympathy and convince you to lower your asking price. So be calm, ask questions, take their stories with a grain of salt, and keep your emotions in check when negotiating prices.
- Do Your Legal Obligations As A Car Seller: Check your state’s laws about second-hand car selling and whether there are things you need to do immediately after a sale. For example, some states encourage sellers to notify their county tax assessor’s office about the sale and title transfer. This protects the seller because it divests them of legal liability if the new owner fails to transfer the title of ownership under their name.
Protect yourself and your bank accounts when you sell a car. Follow these tips to reduce the chances of getting scammed by a fake buyer.
Sell Your Car Successfully and Safely With GivemetheVIN
There is yet another way to sell your car online without going through the hassle of watching out against scammers: to sell via GivemetheVIN. We are an established online car-buying company with a nationally syndicated radio show where the host and our founder, John Clay Wolfe, talks to car owners and buys their vehicles sight unseen. A well-known public figure, Wolfe leads our team of professional buyers in making accurate appraisals and giving sellers a fair and satisfying offer for their used cars.
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