So I’ve been shopping for a car and I found lots of scams. Here are a few easy ways to spot the common shipping scams.
Be aware. Craigslist puts a warning about shipping scams in giant letters on every car page – don’t ignore it. It looks like this:
But also don’t expect it to always be obvious. Look for:
- Images of text instead of text. This isn’t sure-fire, but common.
Look for the location of a car. If there’s no city, look for a zip code that’s way off from yours. Like anything that starts with a 1 if you’re on the West coast. Skip it. Instantly. You can report it if you like, but it doesn’t *say* shipping so it might not get pulled.
- Any mention of any form of electronic payment of any kind. ANY. If it’s eBay, go find it on eBay, not CL. No PayPal, no escrow, no transfer weirdness. If anything smells weird, it is. There are plenty of cars to choose from, skip that one.
- In general, skip anything that says they don’t have a title. Don’t mess with it!
- If it’s a rare car, truly, then be prepared. Go drive to see it asap and take cash. If you wait, you might lose out.