Sell My Car: Scam and Fraud Awareness (2024)

We’ve compiled some general guidelines to help you prepare and safeguard your interests when advertising and selling a car.

Tips for Personal Safety

• Get information about the prospective buyer, including full name, street address, phone number, driver’s license number, and insurance information. When you initiallycommunicate with the potential buyer, mention that you’ll need these documents before the test drive.
• Scout out a logical route for the test drive in advance. Choose streets that don’t have a lot of traffic butdon’t venture into secluded areas.
• It’s best tomeet in a public place, like the parking lot of a shopping center. And keep your cell phone with you.
• Decide whether you’re more comfortable going with your buyer on the test drive or staying behind. This is a judgment call on your part, made more easily if you have someone with you.
• If at all possible,bring a friend or family member along. And make sure someone knows where you’re going, the route you expect to take, and when you expect to return.
• If you let the potential buyer take your car alone,ask them to leave their keyswhile you wait, and be very specific about the maximum length of time you expect them to be gone.

Tips for Avoiding Scams

• Secure payment before you transfer ownershipand work only with the specific person who is purchasing your car (versus someone acting on his behalf). If you accept a check, be sure to verify it with the issuing bank — not your bank. (The easiest way to avoid problems is to go to the buyer’s bank and complete the final transaction there.)

  For tips on how to complete the deal, readTransferring Ownership, and review thePaperwork to Close the Deal.

• Be wary of anyone who makes an offer to buy your car sight unseen, especially overseas buyers. This is often part of a larger scam to pass a bad check or to get the title of the car without paying for it. Always verify the buyer’s street address and phone number.
• Anescrow service— a third party that holds the title to your car until you are absolutely certain your payment is secure — can be a good option, but only if you use a reputable bank or attorney, or a well-known, established online service.Never agree to anescrow servicethat the prospective buyer suggestsunless you have thoroughly researched it — theBetter Business Bureauis a good place to start.
• In anoverpayment scam, the potential buyer tells you that someone else owes them an amount that is higher than your selling price and they want that person to pay you instead. They then ask you to give them the car, plus the difference in price. (Sometimes the prospective buyer will offer you additional money as compensation.) Regardless of how legitimate they seem, these situations are almost always scams to get you to part with your car and additional money.
• A prospective buyer who wants to work out a payment planfor your car is likely up to no good. Autotrader.com strongly advises against agreeing to a payment plan, regardless of the terms. In these scenarios, the buyer typically gets you to agree to a payment plan, frequently with substantial interest, only to leave you with an initial payment (which may or may not be fraudulent) and disappear with your car.

Where to Report Fraud

If you suspect fraud relating to your interaction on Autotrader.com,please report it to us immediatelyatFraudWatch@Autotrader.com. Our Fraud Watch department regularly reviews suspicious e-mails and other activities for fraudulent activities and works with consumers who believe they may have been victims of a scam.

In addition,if you are a victim of fraud, you should file a complaintwith theInternet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3. IC3 focuses solely on cyber crimes and is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Finally,contact local law enforcement. If there was any interaction with a scammer posing as a prospective buyer within their jurisdiction, they should take a report, plus it will help their fraud department identify trends for scams in your area.

Facts About Autotrader.com

We don’t own, buy or sell vehicles listed on our site.
Autotrader.com is an online vehicle listing service that connects car buyers with sellers. We are not car dealers. Any listing information about a particular car comes directly from the seller, not us.

If you receive an email that implies Autotrader.com is selling or buying a vehicle, pleasereport it to usand to local law enforcement. It’s a scam.

We don’t offer automotive warehousing or shipping services.
Any email that requests a deposit or payment for the shipment of a car “stored in an Autotrader.com warehouse” is a scam. Autotrader.com doesn’t own a warehouse, and we don’t ship cars. We don’t get involved in transactions between buyers and sellers(see more below).

There are many reputable warehousing and shipping services that can make long-distance transactions easy. Check out the proposed services for yourself.

If a seller recommends a bogus warehousing or shipping service,report the seller to usand to local law enforcement.

We don’t get involved in transactions between buyers and sellers.
Don’t respond to any email that appears to come from Autotrader.com (for example, by displaying our logo) and urges you to complete the sale or purchase of a car listed on our site. Such emails are scams.

Other signs of fraud are emails that:

• Claim the security of a transaction is guaranteed by Autotrader.com.
• Imply we’ve verified information about a particular buyer, seller or listing.
• Describe a “preferred” or “pre-approved” buyer or seller program.

Autotrader.comdoesn’t guarantee or endorse transactions, and we don’t have preferred or pre-approved buyers or sellers. We’ll never encourage you to buy any particular vehicle listed on Autotrader.com or to sell your vehicle to any particular buyer. If you receive a suspicious email such as the ones described above,report it to usand to local law enforcement.

We don’t ask you for personal or financial information via email.
Online fraud often begins with a spoof email requesting financial information. These spoof or scam emails often impersonate a reputable company such as Autotrader.com by illegally displaying a company’s name, logo, or trademark.

The intent is to deceive customers into revealing information such as:

• Username
• Password
• Social security number
• Bank account number
• Bank routing number
• Credit card number

The only time we’ll ever request your credit card information is when you’re in the process of purchasing an ad on our website. We will not take down your listing because you don’t provide account information. If you receive an email that asks for the kinds of information listed above, don’t respond. Instead,report the email to usand to local law enforcement.

Internet Fraud Resources

InternetCrimeComplaintCenter(IC3)
File a Complaint

Better Business Bureau (BBB)
Consumer Tips

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
How to Protect Your Personal Information and Privacy

Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)
Latest Alerts and Scams from SEC.gov

California Department of Corporations
Top 10 Tips to Avoid Online Escrow Fraud

Department of Motor Vehicles
Contact Your State Department of Motor Vehicles