How To Avoid Car Buying Scams

Fake Auto Sellers: A Growing Concern
We’re seeing this more and more with these fake auto sellers. They might have a vehicle for sale online and they might ask you to ship money and they’ll send you the car. They might even have the physical car available for you to look at, but it’s not a licensed dealer. One of the things you want to do anytime you’re buying a vehicle from a person or company is make sure you buy it either from a private party that’s the owner of the vehicle or a licensed dealer, and you have to verify both of those.

Verifying the Vehicle’s Title
If you’re buying a vehicle from a private party, what you want to do is look at the title, look at the name on the title, and make sure the person you’re dealing with is the same person whose name is on the title, not a third party that’s flipping the vehicle or saying, “I’m selling my cousin’s vehicle,” or “I got it from an auction.” If the person on the title is not who you’re dealing with, don’t buy the car. Because here’s the thing: vehicle titles cannot be reassigned. Once a vehicle title is signed over to another person, the title can’t be reassigned to somebody else. That person has to get a new title first before it goes to somebody else. So, let’s say somebody’s flipping cars. They buy a car from John Smith; their name is Sally Jones. Sally Jones can’t resell it to you until she gets a new title. So, if a car has been flipped and you’re not dealing with the person whose name is printed on the front of the title (not written on the back, printed on the front), you could have a title problem.

Unlicensed Car Dealers and Scams
Another thing is these unlicensed, fly-by-night car dealers. What these dealers are doing is pretending that they’re a legitimate dealership but they’re not licensed. How do you verify that? Get the name of the business and their address and check with the Licensing Bureau of your state to see if they have a valid auto dealer’s license. If you’re buying it from a company that does not have a valid auto dealer’s license, they’re not allowed to buy and sell cars for a living. Now, if you’re buying it from a company that owned it, like Joe’s Plumbing, that has a bunch of trucks, that’s a different story. They’re selling a vehicle with a title with their name on it, like we talked about with the private sell. But if you’re buying it from a company that’s flipping cars, buying cars at auctions, and they’re not a licensed dealer, that’s not allowable under the law. In this case, there’s a couple in Oregon that lost $45,000 because they bought a vehicle from a fake dealership from a stolen car.

Protecting Yourself from Fraudulent Sellers
If you buy a car from a licensed dealer and they make a mistake and sell you a vehicle that has a title problem, they’re supposed to make it right, and there are funds and bonds that can make up for that. So, make sure when you’re buying a vehicle, that’s your hard-earned money you’re putting at risk. Either buy it from the person whose name is printed on the title or buy it from a company you can verify has a dealership license, and they can show you the title. Don’t give them money if they can’t at least show you the title. They might not be able to give it to you because they might have to process it into your name, but make them show it to you to make sure they actually have the title and are not selling a vehicle that they haven’t paid for yet.

Additional Resources
If you like this blog, be sure to click on a few others on our website, cartitles.com, to see if there’s other information that might be helpful to you about this same subject or maybe even other related subjects that could assist you with your resolution of your issue.

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