Car Scams Warning

These Scams are documented and worldwide costing Americans Hundreds of Millions of dollars a year. Please do not fall for any of these scams. Follow the precautions below and be suspicious of every inquiry.

• Do not BUY or SELL any cars outside the USA
  

• Do not accept a cashiers check without contacting the 800 number of the issuing bank and validating its authenticity then wait for it to clear the bank before releasing the vehicle. Today anyone can print a check while the banking system has no way of validating it quickly.

• Scams have involved sending sellers a foreign or out of state cashiers check that was later to be found fake. In many cases even a bank cannot determine if a check is fake until it is submitted to the issuing bank, often taking 3 weeks and more often 2 weeks after the car is gone.
  
  In one case a man is on trial for depositing a fake check that he accepted for his vehicle. Now with no car, no cash and facing jail time for being a victim.

• Do NOT Refund an overpayment. Some sellers are faced with a buyer that either sends a check or claims to have someone send a check exceeding the sale amount and requesting that the seller pay the shipper and refund the balance to the fraudulent buyer. Not only have sellers lost their car they also spent their own cash to do it.

• Do not give out personal information. We have also had attempts at identity theft. Scammers try to sell your car on e-bay using your name and credentials while collecting the money at their PO Box or foreign address, leaving the buyer looking for you to get their money back.

Please take every precaution to protect your identity. Don't give up any information. If someone wants to send you a cashiers check no questions asked its most likely that they are scamming you.

If someone is sending you a check for an amount exceeding the vehicle cost and asking you to send back the difference, you are being scammed. No one is going to trust a complete stranger in a foreign country to send back thousands of dollars.

You can read more about these scams on almost any automotive website, yet people are being taken daily. It's not just individuals, car dealers and businesses alike have been scammed and often enough to close them down.