Posted on 07/21/2024 5:32:36 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
We just bought a new used car for my wife off of craigslist. Now I am selling her old car on craigslist. Within minutes of posting the ad I got a response. The people were "very interested" but wanted a report on the car from some website. I paid $22.95 for the report and sent it to them. Never heard from them again.
Today I got another guy who was "very interested" in the car, but wanted me to get a report from some website for $27.
Fool me once, your fault. Fool me twice, my fault.
all other info is ‘redacted.’
I called my credit card company and told them I wanted to cancel the card because I was pretty sure it was compromised. The rep refunded the charge instead, plus they have my statement the card may be compromised. Even if the card had been used I was covered, but I wanted to make sure.
According to yelostar and Retrofitted I fell for a well-known scam, except to me. I am always the last to know. 🤡
https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2018/10/steering-clear-vehicle-history-report-scams
https://www.snopes.com/articles/436483/vehicle-history-report-scam/
Sorry you got scammed. But it is a good scam. You probably paid to get someone high.
that of course doesn’t mean more info couldn’t be recovered but at this point i’ll stop
My credit card company gave me a refund. I told them the card was probably compromised, but they are not going to cancel it since they have been alerted to the scam account holder. A cheap lesson. I haven’t sold a car online for fifteen years and forgot to put my guard up.
It was an international charge, which put me on red alert when I got the email about the charge.
I have all charges sent to my email and text accounts, and I get them within seconds. Caught fraudulent transactions four or five times that way.
Thank you for posting this. You just saved a couple of people from this scam.
We all get taken at some point, my friend — some folks call it “marriage”. ;) The fact you didn’t know about it just shows that more people need to be told about it! Thanks for bringing it to folks’ attention!
It happens. You did things to get a refund and alert your credit card company, so you did those things correctly.
I’m selling a car and a potential buyer wanted to see a vehicle report. I provided him the VIN (he’s already been to see the car) and said he can use the VIN to order a report himself, but that cost is on him.
“Just do the Carfax.”
that’s what i was thinking: pay for a carfax report up front, and send it to anyone who is likely to be legit buyer ...
Yeah, I had trouble figuring out why TV ad car check people would gain from this scam.
Lock your card down. Now.
Thanks for posting this information from your painful experience. It is of benefit to others.
I paid for the CARFAX report when I was car shopping.
The seller should pay for the CARFAX report so they can give it out to prospective buyers. YOU DO NOT want to give out your VIN# to somebody who says they want to do a CARFAX report on your car. Once they have your VIN#, they could magically become the new owner of your car for free.
When you do sell the car - PULL THE PLATES.
Or notify your DMV immediately. Whatever your state allows to relieve you of liability.
I trusted a nice couple who bought a car of mine. I then got toll bills for over a year. After the first toll bill, I did send the state a notice of the sale. But the damage was done.
I never paid the toll bills of course. They ran up only $500 in unpaid bills. I got a call one time from a collection agency making veiled threats. I told them to go pick up the car. Never heard another word from then again.
Since the buyer never registered the car it was still legally mine. I thought about hunting it down and taking it back. But that would probably backfire on me.
Why bother? His money is gone!
Chump agreed to pay to have some (fictitious) company send the "interested party" some sort of "report."
If cornered, the (fictitious) company can claim they sent the report, and the "interested party" can claim that they received the report, but then lost interest.
Regards,
I bought a pair of “AT&T” Bluetooth earbuds for $9. ‘Just had to pay “shipping”
A month later, my bank was charged another $99...!
Flagged, the bank said, “They can do that!”: so I was out all that money for a pair of cheap earbuds.
Good point, thanks. Won’t they see the VIN once you send them the report?
I read about that scam last year. The scammers look for “auto for sale” ads, pretend interest and then ask for a report from the company they are in cahoots with.
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