I have been on a mission over the last couple of months to find a small SUV for a new garden maintenance crew that will be starting next year. I didn’t anticipate the battle ahead of me. This post is about what I learned along the way. Maybe, just maybe, I will save someone from a fraudulent seller or a scam.
I mostly looked for a vehicle in 3 places, AutoTrader, CarGurus and Facebook Marketplace. At some point, I realized that very few CT dealerships post on these sites so I would occasionally look on 8-12 individual dealerships websites to see what I was missing.
In my opinion, the majority of the low mileage cars on Marketplace have been in an accident. Some have washed titles, some have stolen Vin’s, some people are honest and tell you about an accident when you ask but they forget to mention it in the description so be careful. You’d think a legitimate, name brand dealership would alleviate some of that fraud but I found out, it even happens there. Below is a CRV that a Ford dealership had in Long Island. It had a clean title. Before driving over two hours each way, I asked for an out the door price. They forgot to mention the $1800 ‘non negotiable reconditioning fee’ which did not make me happy.
When deciding on which vehicles that were worth reaching out to on Marketplace, I slowly developed a list criteria that the post had to meet. It involves going back and forth between the vehicle and combing the profile of the poster. First, car had to be listed in the same state that the selling said he lived it. It’s very common for a car to be listed in CT and the owner is from NY or NJ. There is a way to wash a title by quickly registering a vehicle multiple times, in multiple states. You can Google it!
I found one car that interested me. The car was listed in a CT town. The person’s profile said he was born in the same town the car was listed in and he was currently living in a neighboring town. The only oddity at that point was the name of the person didn’t match his look in my opinion.
So far, the information looks good. We start messaging through Facebook. He sends me the title. Things going normally so it was time to get him on the phone. My scam radar came on as soon as the person picks up. The voice on the other end didn’t match the picture. I purchased a $45 Carfax and that was it. He must have been new to the game because when i told him I wasn’t interested, he called me back to see how I figured him out. I did not tell him but I will educate you. First, the Car Fax will show the history. He supposedly has spent his whole life in CT but the car was purchased in NJ and every service record was tied to NJ. I went back to his profile to poke around. When i clicked on the profile picture, another picture popped up. Below is the other profile picture I found. Didn’t quite look like the other picture does it?
At least some of your friends should look like you, don’t you think? Does list friend list look like the family of four above?
The title he sent was a NY title. He spent his entire life in CT? He had an excuse of why he was holding a NY title but it made no sense. This reminds me, paying attention to license plates in posts is helpful. A lot of time the plates are blurred out but you can still see some part of the plate. NY plates are either white or orange and navy blue, NJ plates are yellow, CT plates are light blue. It didn’t take long to find the actual CRV. When I Googled the VIN, it popped right up. The real CRV was currently for sale at a Honda dealership in NJ. Both cars were white, both had similar mileage. The car I was inquiring about had tan interior. The actual car had black interior. In my search, I came across two cars with stolen VIN’s. How is this even possible? The other car was for sale in CT but the CarFax history showed a purchased and service history in NC. Again, The NY VIN said he purchased the car two years ago yet he told me he only owned it for 1 year.
Here’s a good reason to look at everyone’s personal profile. I was about to call on another car at a dealership in NY. I found this on the person’s personal page. No thank you! Remember the heavy rains and flooding that happened in the city earlier this year?
All of this is common sense but when I see a car I like, that is within my price range, I probably react too quickly by immediately reaching out and telling the person that I’m interested in looking at the car. Slowing down and looking for any clues within the post or the profile page and lastly then the Carfax will hopefully root out the scams. Be careful. There are a lot of scammers out there. It’s not just individuals but also at dealerships. Proceed with caution. As a side note, my patience and homework did eventually pay off. I purchased a 7 year old CRV with 13,000 miles from the original owner. An elderly gentleman who lived in Manhattan. The car spent most of it’s life sitting in a parking garage. All well than ends well!
