Stopping Fraud in Car Sales

Introduction

Automotive fraud is a growing problem both on and off the Internet, and automotive e-commerce Web sites such as cars.com are not immune to such problems. While the vast majority of vehicle listings on cars.com are legitimate, you should be aware that certain individuals post vehicle listings on Cars.com for the sole purpose of scamming potential car buyers.

In the same manner, the vast majority of e-mail and phone leads that are sent to sellers using our Web site are from real, interested buyers. However, you should be aware that certain individuals may contact a seller or express an interest in purchasing a seller's vehicle for the sole purpose of scamming the seller.

We have also received reports that Internet scam artists are illegally using the cars.com name and logo along with e-mail addresses that spoof or are confusingly similar to Cars.com e-mail addresses (such as support@cars-support.com and financial@cars-safeharbour.com) to make their fraudulent pitches seem more legitimate. These techniques may be used to defraud both car buyers and car sellers.

When using the Internet, you should always exercise caution and common sense. When using the cars.com Web site, you can help protect yourself by learning more about how the cars.com service operates and taking the precautions outlined below. If an activity seems suspicious or a transaction seems unbelievably good, it probably is.

Advice for Sellers

Dealing locally is best: The safest way to deal is in person and face to face. Be wary if the seller only wants to communicate via e-mail. Be more wary if the buyer is currently out of the country or resides overseas or far from where the vehicle is located. Be extremely wary if the seller flat out refuses to talk on the phone or claims they cannot talk on the phone.

Avoid complicated payment schemes: Be suspicious of a payment process that involves many steps. One popular scam involves sending you a cashier's check for more than the purchase amount and asking you to wire the difference back to the buyer. These cashier's checks are almost always counterfeit and your bank will hold you liable. Any overpayment you wire back to the buyer will come directly out of your pocket.

Verify payment: Do not transfer title of your vehicle to the buyer until the buyer's check has cleared or you have otherwise received full payment for your vehicle. You should always verify the authenticity of any cashier's or certified check with the issuing bank. Do not rely on the phone number printed on the check; look it up yourself. The bank can verify its routing number, describe the specific security features of its checks and even verify that there are sufficient funds to cover the check. Never accept a check for more than your asking price.

Advice for Buyers

Avoid ads that are "too good to be true." Ads for popular sports cars and SUVs priced at half of what they're worth are almost always lures used by scam artists. Check Cars.com to see what a vehicle is worth before responding.

Exercise extreme caution before wiring deposits or payments using Western Union or MoneyGram, especially to foreign countries: Sending money in any form overseas will likely result in losing all of it. Western Union and MoneyGram are very popular for Internet scams because the funds are available instantly, untraceably and worldwide. See the More Resources section below for more information.

Always see the car in person: Better still, have a professional mechanic inspect it before you give the seller any deposit or payment. Under no circumstances should you do business with an overseas seller unless you have personally verified their identity and that they actually own the vehicle advertised. Be especially wary of sellers that only want to communicate via e-mail or claim they cannot talk on the phone.

Learn about a vehicle's history: Request a copy of the vehicle's title and consider purchasing a vehicle history report such as those offered by Carfax. It can be indicative of fraud if the seller is unable or unwilling to provide a copy of the title or is unable or unwilling to provide the vehicle's vehicle identification number.

Scan any attachments from sellers with anti-virus software before you open them: One of the latest scams involves a "seller" e-mailing an unsuspecting buyer additional photos of the item for sale. However, one or more of the e-mail attachments contains a virus that can fool your Web browser to make it appear as though you're going to a legitimate site but in fact are being sent to a site controlled by the scammer.

The best way to protect yourself is by using commercial anti-virus software, keeping it up to date and by scanning all e-mail attachments before opening or double-clicking them. Commercial Web-based e-mail services such as Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail provide virus-scanning services free of charge.