Thursday, May 7, 2015

Fraud Artists Still Operating Used Car Cons

By Cornelius Nunev


There are a bevy of rip-off artists working everywhere, in every country and in every state, at each moment. Naturally, this extends to the buying and selling of cars, so consumers should invariably be meticulous of used car cons.

Increasing number of used car frauds

There will always be crooks around attempting to scam you no matter what the particular business. There are a ton of crooks in Wall Street and Washington D.C.; however, there are generally not that many around.

A lot of eBay cons and Craigslist scams are starting to show up for used car cons. Used car cons are becoming more and more common and are much easier with the internet in place, according to USA Today. Between 2008 and 2010, there were 14,000 used car scam complaints to the ICCC, according to the Chicago Tribune, and there were 4,066 instances of the scam on the internet in 2011, according to the Internet Crime complaint Center. An estimated $8.3 million was lost.

This year, the ICCC registered 1,685 grievances of used car cons by the end of July, costing victims an estimated $4.9 million.

Watch out for internet scams

Online car cons are very different from in person. In percent, car dealers in Everett, WA and all the way to Florida are fairly honest, though you will sometimes find ones that make an effort to sell you a wrecked car or use the "the auto approval fell through" scam.

It is much easier to scam online. The shady person puts a vehicle up for sale, asks for the cash to be sent upfront, and then the car never shows up.

Search for scams

Generally, the scam will post a bad story about why they are selling the car, including divorce much of the time, according to USA Today. Then, the buyer will be emotionally manipulated into purchasing the car. Rushing a transaction is typically a scam of some sort.

According to USA Today, you need to be cautious because scam artists will quote low costs that can be realistic still. Daily Finance explained that late-model luxury car models are used a lot. Watch for costs that are ridiculously too low too, according to Bankrate.com.

In case you are not able to get a test drive or meet the buyer, it is a scam. Avoid emails saying you won a vehicle for free. It is never good when someone asks you wire the cash to them or to put it on a prepaid debit card.




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