Avoid these scams

Vehicle Condition Scams

Lemons: Hiding Mechnical Trouble

The most common scams involve hiding mechnical trouble with the vehicle or simply not ensuring the car is up to quality standards. There are many ways to hide a lemon, depedning on what's wrong. For instance, if a car starts and runs poorly when cold, a seller might only show after it's warmed up.

Protect yourself:

• Always get a professional mechanical inspection.
• Always ask for maintenance records and receipts, if they have done work on the car or inspected it, they should be able to show yout this.
• Consider buying a car with only one to two previous owners, but dont trust the dealer on this, use a company such as AutoCheck.
• Consider buying a factory or dealer certified vehicle which comes with a minimum set of standards and usually a warranty.
• Ask the dealer what their return policy is, many dealers and states now allow a customer to return their used car within a pre-determined time frame and mileage limits.

Odometer Rollbacks

Rolling back the odometer (or lying about the mileage-- 175,000, not 75,000 miles) is the oldest trick in the book.

Protect yourself:

• Explicity ask a professional mechanic his assesment of the mileage and whether the odometer has been tampered with.
• Try to verify mileage from maintenance receipts and/or a Vehicle History Report.

Hiding Structural Damage

Sellers may try to hide a major accident that has permanently damaged the vehicle.

Protect yourself:

• Explicitly ask your mechanic to look for signs of major body work. There are many tell-tale signs, such as doors or bumpers that don't fit perfectly. An experienced mechanic can spots the signs and tell you if the the vehicle has suffered permanent damage.
• Run a Vehicle History Report to determine if the vehicle was ever been flooded, salvaged, or the like.

Financing Scams

Making Your Credit Seem Worse Than It is

The finance manager lies and tells you that your credit score is lower than it actually is. Now, you have to pay a much higher car loan interest rate than you planned.

Protect yourself:

Know your credit history better than the dealer does. If they pull this scam, pull out your credit score and you win. Line up your financing before you go to the dealer, give them a chance to beat your quote. If they can't beat your quote, pay with your loan from your lender, or walk out!

Not Paying Off Your Old Car Loan

The dealer says he'll obtain a payoff figure for whatever you owe on your trade-in, saying he'll add the amount to your purchase price. Months later, you're greeted with the fact that your old car loan is partially, or completely outstanding (meaning the dealer paid less for, or even worse, essentially stole your car!). You are responsible for the loan, not the dealer, because the loan is in your name! Your credit score goes down and you're left without a contract from the dealer stating that they'll pay off your old car loan.

Protect yourself:

To be safe, pay off your car and get the title before trading or selling it. If you trade in a used car which you still owe money on, get it in writing that the dealer will pay off your loan in 10 days, or the deal is dead. If the dealer refuses to put these promises in writing, walk out and take your business to another dealer.

Con Artist and Internet Scams

The "Ooops, I Overpaid You," Internet Scam

The Internet Escrow Service Scam

These internet scammers appear online and looklike they are the seller of a used car. When looking at used cars online, you see a car with a much lower selling price than other listings for the similar items. The seller claims to be in another country and cannot keep the car. By communicating through email, these scammers have you have you outside the eBay Safe Harbor, or whatever online service you are using. The seller asks you to use a 3rd party escrow site that he claims to be trusthworthy. In reality, he just created that fake escrow site only a few days ago.

The "seller" is out to steal your money. After convincing you to register on the "escrow" site, you receive payment instructions to Western Union or MoneyGram the funds to the escrow company, and your money is gone. These scammers often trick you by telling you they are signed up for escrow with Yahoo Motors, or eBay, or Square Trade, none of which do escrow or collect money for cars. The scams trick you into thinking you are sending thousands of dollars to a trusted escrow company.

Protect yourself:

NEVER use wiring services like Western Union to pay for purchases online. They are all dangerously unsecured networks. Don't use any escrow sites other than Escrow.com. Don't believe even the most realistic looking emails sent to you. Never use the site recommended by the seller.

Back to the Used Car Buyer's Bill of Rights