Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Buyer learns about spotting a car scam online | ksl.com

Buyer learns about spotting a car scam online | ksl.com:

SALT LAKE CITY — Imagine finding the perfect car for sale online, and for an incredible price.

Spencer Powelson of Stansbury Park found a Toyota Sienna with low miles, in great condition and for a stunningly low price. It turns out the car was a steal, but not in a good way.

Countless fake car ads pop up on classified ad sites every day. In fact, the national internet crime people said last year, almost $65 million was lost to auto fraud from classified advertising. Crooks get away with it because they're invisible.

When Powelson's minivan was totaled in a crash, he needed a replacement quickly. He went online and found what he thought was the perfect van in ksl.com's classifieds.

"Plenty of good deals, but this one was a 2005 Toyota Sienna with 96,000 miles for only $2,900," Powelson explained.

That price is about one third of what the Kelley Blue Book indicates the van should sell for. Powelson emailed the seller to ask why the low price.

"He said, ‘I'm getting deployed. I really want to get this sold. I'd even ship the car to you for free,' " Powelson said.

He said, 'I'm getting deployed. I really want to get this sold. I'd even ship the car to you for free.'
–Spencer Powelson
The seller said he was in North Dakota but assured Powelson the sale would be covered by eBay's well-regarded Vehicle Purchase Protection program, because eBay would be a third party processor.

"'It's all safe and reliable. Send your payment to eBay and it'll just send me the payment after you get the car. You can check it over for a few days,' " Powelson quoted the seller as saying. "'If you like it they'll release the title and I'll get my payment. That's how we'll do it.' "

Does eBay even do that? Powelson contacted eBay to find out.

"'We don't act as a third party processor,' " he said. " ‘We only process payments for vehicles listed only on our website.' "

How the scam works

The minivan sale is a scam and here's how it works: The seller says he needs your full name, address and telephone number. The next day, you get what appears to be an official email from eBay - complete with logos.

Gephardt's assumptions and advice
If anyone ever asks you to wire money through Western Union or Moneygram - under any circumstances - assume it's a scam. No matter who you think you're sending it to, it can be picked up by anyone anywhere in the world, and they can vanish.
Any seller who says the car is out-of-state but can be shipped for free is probably a crook.
Anyone who says they need to sell something quickly because they're on a mission, have a medical problem, or are being deployed by the military may not be telling the truth.
If I can't inspect and drive the car, the deal doesn't exist.
In the email, eBay gives you the OK to wire the money for the car to the seller. The email even says if you're not happy with the car, you can ship it back within 10 days and the payment will be fully refunded.

It's not true. Actually,eBay never allows the use of its Vehicle Protection Program for cars bought on any website other than eBay. Additionally, eBay has had previous run-ins with the scammer that tried to take Powelson's money.

"Davidbronson79@gmail.com, instantly they said, ‘We've had a lot of reports on this guy,' " Powelson said.

Pete Ashdown is president of Utah internet provider, Xmission.

"The Internet is a dream for con artists and scam artists," he said.

Scammers love free email addresses because they can be fake, Ashdown said. They're disposable and any con man in any country can hide behind them.

"They can create one for each scheme or scam and throw it away when they're done," Ashdown said.

Free email accounts usually cannot be traced.

"It's usually done through compromised servers or machines that don't keep logs of the addresses coming into them, or sourcing from them," Ashdown explained. "So they're essentially dead ends to any investigative technique that's out there."

This scam is especially lucrative because the same car can be sold to many buyers.

"For a con man who can get a list of 10 million email addresses, if they get a .1 percent response out of it, that's great," Ashdown said.

Powelson dropped the deal before he wired any money. He said he's now a wiser shopper.

"More informed, more what to watch out for, those red flags that popped up that you can say, ‘Hey, this is a little inconsistent. I need to investigate further and look into this more,' " he said.

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