http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/07/24/article/scams_find_new_home_on_the_web

SUNDAY, JULY 25, 2010

(Updated 3:00 am)

By DIONI L. WISE Staff Writer

Accompanying Photos

Margaret Baxter (News & Record)

NEED TO REPORT A SCAM?

• Call the Greensboro Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division at 373-2255 .
• Call the Greensboro Better Business Bureau at 852-4240 .
   

GREENSBORO — Dominique Ledyard thought the $6,000 used Saab pictured on her computer screen would soon arrive in her Greensboro driveway.

It would be the 17-year-old’s first car, which she saved for over a year by babysitting.

But because of her father’s diligence, she found out the car dealership website was a sham. The car was real, but the vendors were not and only wanted to scam her out of hundreds of dollars.

“I’m so grateful that my dad is the way he is,” Dominique said. “If it would have been me alone, I probably would have done it.”

The Greensboro Police Department and Better Business Bureau agencies across the nation have been warning potential buyers about fake companies posing as legitimate, well-established dealerships.

“(Buyers) see property generally advertised on popular websites and oftentimes the people they contact will tell them to wire money and just the things that they’re telling them are way too good to be true,” said Joan Stanley, of the Greensboro Better Business Bureau.

Dominique looked at a website in early June, thinking that it was the BBB-accredited, Memphis auto dealer America Auto Sales. That company’s website is www.memphisautoworld.com.

The fake website said it repossessed cars, which enabled it to sell the cars online at cut-rate prices.

Dominique’s father, Tony Ledyard, said the scam artists provided a forwarding address to wire cash — as much as $5,000, the BBB said. Potential buyers were advised to give a down payment and pay the balance when they received the car.

“The good news is you never owed the rest. The bad news is you never get the car,” he said.

The Ledyards said the website was attractive and looked legitimate.

It had information about the real dealership, estimates of shipping costs to get the car from Texas to Greensboro and links to vehicle registration reports, they said.

“The (history reports) on this thing are real,” Tony Ledyard said. “They just don’t own them. They just take legitimate VIN numbers, but they don’t have the titles.”

Dominique and her father received an estimate for $200 to ship the car.

“It was really skeptical, but it seemed like such a great thing. I was like, 'Let’s see,’” she said.

Her father called the BBB in Memphis to learn that hundreds of people had called the agency and the real dealership inquiring about the cars.

“I double-check everything,” Tony Ledyard said. “We work too hard to give our money away.”

Dominique said that she has learned a lesson in prudence.

“I’ve been a lot more cautious, and I’ve only used the big websites,” she said.

“Obviously you need to see the car before you put any money down, which you think is common sense. But when they tell you that they can ship it for $200 you think, 'Why do you need to see it?’”

A car is just one of many commodities that can be advertised to swindle money from online shoppers, said Sgt. V.W. Craven of the Greensboro Police Department’s fraud investigation unit.

Suspects are usually out of the country, so some cases are beyond the Greensboro Police Department’s jurisdiction, Craven said.

Scam artists are also mobile, never running a certain operation for too long in one place.

The department often alerts the federal authorities, perhaps the Secret Service or the Federal Trade Commission, about the incidents.

“The possibility of (victims) ever seeing their money again is very slim to none,” Craven said. “That’s why we try to be proactive and get this information out.”

She said some victims act out of naivete or on impulse.

“When people are online, they probably tried locally, so when they see something, they say, ’Wow, there it is,’” Craven said.

“A lot of times common sense goes out the door and they’re stuck on getting that object.”

But police and the BBB offer these tips to recognize the online scams:

• The prices are too good to be true. Repossessed or no, it’s not likely you will find a late model vehicle at a price well below market value on a legitimate company’s website.
• The dealer only accepts payment by money wire transfer. Never wire money to anyone that you do not know well and trust completely.
• You are told to wire the money to an individual rather than the company. The scam artist explains this is in order to “avoid taxes.” No legitimate auto dealer will advise you to do business in this manner.
• The dealer communicates only through online chat or e-mail, never by phone or in person.

Contact Dioni L. Wise at 373-7090 or dioni.wise@news-record.com