Identifying a Scam

I speak with a lot of people throughout the day with questions about an email they received or a conversation they had with someone and they all wanted to know if they were dealing with someone who was legit or not. So I thought I would give everyone guidelines to help identify a scam whether your a seller or buyer.

If your a buyer here are some tips to help keep you safe:

1. You see an ad and notice that the seller is in the U.S. and then the buyer tells you they just moved and they are living in another country. They may say that they moved due to personal reasons or a job, etc. This should be a red flag and ask more questions.
2. The seller won't accept a check and is only accepting a wire from Western Union or a financial insitution. Wiring money to another institution is like sending cash and trying to stop a wire is virtually impossible.
3. If the seller asks you to wire money to their business associate or someone other than then themselves, this should raise a red flag. If the seller asks you to wire money and they are in WA but the account is registered in IL, this is a red flag and more questions should be asked.

If you are the seller here are some tips to keep you safe:

1. If someone is interested in your vehicle and they want to buy it without seeing the vehicle, be cautious and ask why they would buy a vechile without seeing it.
2. If you receive a text message from someone who is interested in your vehicle and they ask to send them more detailed information about the vehicle, this is a red flag b/c if they saw your vehicle they would have all of the information about your vehicle.
3. There are times where as a seller you may sell a vehicle and accept a cashier's check as payment. A day or two after the sale, the buyer may send you an email stating that they sent you too much money and if you could wire the difference back to them. This is a red flag and you should contact the financial insitution where the cashier's check is drawn on to report the suspicious activity.

The other question I seem to get a lot is; I've been the victim of fraud or I received a phishing email and clicked the link within the email, what should I do?

1. If you are the victim of a financial crime, contact your local police department and file a police report.
2. If you wired money to an institution, contact the institution's fraud deaprtment to report the scam.
3. If you were the victim of a scam that occured on the internet, file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at www.ic3.gov
4. If you want to report a phishing email you can report the phishing scam to the Anti Phishing Working Group (APWG) at http://www.antiphishing.org

 

Comments

[Laurencewoods269]

According to the local officials, the float hit by the train was the second being pulled along the parade route. The first had already safely crossed the railroad.

[Stephen Brown]

I recieved a text from somebody wanting pictures of my car and condition. I did both of his request's and he said he wanted to pay through paypal. Also said he would have the car picked up. Is that normal. I dont even think I put where I lived in the add...

[john mc donald]

same thing, wanted info non car, buying sigh un seen, want to pay on pay pal, will have car picked up, have no location.. 2 people did this to me.

[Junior]

I got a email from a seller who I emailed about a car, he lives in Florida & I'm in California. The seller was telling me that we can do the transaction threw cars.com, making cars.com the 3 third party so that none of us would be screwed over. Is that possible? He asked for my full name & address.

[Jeramie]

Junior - Cars.com does not involve itself in monetary transactions between a buyer and seller. Nor do we send out Invoices. Please do not give the seller your name and address. Any information on the seller that you can forward to me would be appreciated.

[Moises]

I also sent an email to a seller about a car that was supposed to be here in Florida, once i inquired about driving up to see the car he replied saying he was in a military base in Texas but that with just my full name & address he could do the transaction through cars.com using them as a third party in order for both of us not to get screwed over, sound like a scam ?