http://www.prlog.org/10792728-connecticut-bbb-warns-car-shoppers-about-repossessed-car-scheme.html

Connecticut BBB Warns Car Shoppers about Repossessed Car Scheme


Scammers Posing as Neighborhood Dealerships Online



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



PRLog (Press Release) – Jul 13, 2010 – BBB is hearing from consumers across the country who thought they were buying repossessed vehicles from reputable dealers but instead, were being cheated out of thousands of dollars by scammers.



Connecticut Better Business Bureau President, Paulette Scarpetti, says the scheme begins when scammers steal the names of legitimate, well-established community dealerships and use that information for a sham online auto dealer site.



“Web sites purporting to be selling repossessed vehicles at too-good-to-be-true prices are preying on consumers’ trust of well-known local dealerships by stealing the company’s name, address and contact information. In essence this is a form of corporate identity theft that is being used to cheat consumers looking online for good deals on used cars.”



One car dealer in Memphis, Tennessee received thousands of complaints from consumers across the country who shopped for cars at www.americautosales.com, thinking it was a Memphis dealership’s Web site. Operators of the phony site used the Memphis dealer’s location and contact information for their fraud.



The Web site, which has since been taken down, claimed to sell repossessed cars at prices well below market value. Buyers were instructed to wire a $5000 deposit to an individual with the balance due within 5 days upon delivery at the buyer’s address. The scammers subsequently disappeared with the money and no vehicle was delivered.

After paying the deposit by wire transfer, victims contacted or showed up at the real dealership’s lot to pick up the cars they believed they had bought from the bogus site.



The owners of similar scam Web sites have pretended to be car dealers in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas.



The Web sites usually disappear after a few days and turn up under a different Internet address, using information stolen from another authentic dealer.



So far no such complaints have been filed with Connecticut BBB.



There are a number of warning signs that an online car dealer is fake:

-The prices are too good to be true.

-The dealer will only communicate through chat or e-mail, and never by telephone.

-The dealer only accepts payment by money wire transfer.



If you are the victim of a fraudulent online auto dealer, notify your BBB at www.bbb.org and the Internet Crime Center at www.ic3.gov to file a complaint.



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