Clark Behind The Headlines
From HLN’s Money Expert Clark Howard
I want to thank listener Douglas who sent me a notice about a nasty criminal scheme and it illustrates the point so well about how careful you have to be when you buy a used car.
You’ve heard me talk about the importance of having a car inspected by a mechanic as a condition of purchase, and how dealers are allowed to sell you a car ”as is” without disclosing the vehicle’s history??? Well… we’re way past that now!! Crooks are now going online and infesting some popular car-selling Websites with bogus car offers.
Criminals are re-posting legitimate vehicle offers from sites like Autotrader.com or eBay motors, complete with actual photos and VIN information. If they can’t get the VIN from the original posting, they will contact the seller directly. They will duplicate the exact vehicle and list it as being for sale!
In the case Douglas sent me, a criminal lifted an existing sale and said in the posting, “thank you for your interest in my car it’s a 7 passenger van. I have to sell it really quickly because I’m serving in the U.S. military in Great Britain. I need to sell it including shipping for $3900”. And that is a common trend in these phony ads.
When you are looking at a car listed online, you need to follow the advice Craigslist puts right on its Website: deal only with people who are local, that you can see face to face. You want to actually see the car. In the old days in fighting they used to say ”wait until you see the whites of their eyes.” Well, when it comes to buying a car, you want to wait until you can see the headlights. You’ve got to be so very careful when buying a car. The risk right now is off the charts.
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