My husband and I are looking to purchase our daughter's first car. We have visited various dealerships used car sections, looked through the paper as well as looked on craigslist. There were several affordable and seemingly reliable cars on craigslist. I received several responses to my emails about some of the vehicles however they are coming from individuals in another state that tell me, for various reasons (about to be deployed, child in hospital, etc.) that they have contracted through propay, fast-auto trader, etc. that would handle the sale, ship the vehicle to us and we would have 2-3 days to accept or decline the vehicle. With so many scams out there I am not sure if this is safe or not. What happens if we don't like it, how long would it take to get our money back and would we get it back? Has anyone ever purchased a vehicle this way or heard about this type of transaction?
Thanks to everyone that responded. After reading through them I decided to have a little fun and contacted one of the people via email to confirm they still had the vehicle. They quickly responded back that yes, they did and needed information from me in order to pass it on to their pay venue to get the paperwork started. I then responded to that email right away stating that I have family where they claimed to be and would like to arrage a time for them to meet and view the vehicle and if all looked good, we could eliminate the middle man as my family member would have cash in hand to purchase the vehicle on the spot. Surprise, surprise - I have yet to recieve another email from this person!! Chalk this up as a scam.
I would highly recommend the CarMax dealerships. You can use their internet site to see what is available www.carmax.com and they don't play games at the dealership.
If you are in the Plano area then contact Dennis Hartsock at the West Plano Pkwy location ###-###-#### is his cell #.
Stick to a local dealer/individual. I would not go beyond the metro plex.... I have had several friends purchase used vehicles from individuals within a few miles of their homes. A little hint. Talk to a local mechanic that might have leads on a used vehicle. What I always do before purchasing a used vehicle is get a friend or a trustworthy mechanic to check out the car. You will need to note the following things. Check the battery for build up, trunk/lights for water damage, ..... If purchasing from an individual, inquire about the maintenance history ie oil change....Good luck.
This is a pretty simple issue since you live in the DFW Metroplex. Forget about looking & purchasing something as important as a vehicle out of town. There's thousands of cars for sale within 100 miles west of you that you can see feel touch & drive, you just have to put in the time & effort right here. You can do most of your narrowing down online then on your short list take a short drive to test & decide. Be ready money in hand you will find what you like easily, it just isnt that hard!!Why would you even consider a major purchase of something that is long distance when you live in a major market right here?
Those are most likely scammers! It does not make sense to me that they can only sell it to you through some company when they are listed on craigslist! It's gotta be BS. . If I were you I would only deal locally.
Ever hear about the puppy from Africa scam ?? I actually know a girl that was gonna fall for it!
Craigslist themselves, warn people about those kinds of scams. I would go back to the orginal post and flag it as a scam and let craigslist deal with it. You might very well find that the orginal post is already gone.
Keep looking locally. You will find something. I have bought and sold vehciles on craigslist and ebay. My last ebay car was beautiful on the inside & outside, however the rebuilt engine was a lie! It was even a dealership. So just becareful.
This is definitely a scam!!! We just sold a suv and a truck on Craig's List so I thought I would look to see what was out there for me. I came across an Expedition for $4350! I emailed and asked if this was a typo and got this response... my son is in the hospital and I need the $$, my brother works for a shipping company and gets one free ship a year. If you can come to Utah tomorrow or send your $$ through paypay I will ship in 2-3 days. The posting listed Dallas not Utah and you cannot pay through paypal unless you are using eBay (I checked)I called my husband who is a police officer and told him about it. Definitely a scam!!! But don't get discouraged. We use Craig's List all the time to buy and sell. You can also go to autotrader.com and put in a list of peramamters you are looking for. There are individuals and dealerships. We found exactly waht we were looking for and didnt have to drive from dealership to dealership. Good Luck!!!
DO NOT purchase a car unless it is through ebay. And DO NOT send cash to anyone through any service even if the ebay emails they send you look completely valid. Go through ebay (and you contact them, do not let the seller send you an ebay link or an email that looks valid) and use paypal so you are protected. If the seller is not willing to do that then it is a scam.
The seller should give you a number that you then take to ebay yourself and log in. You can forward ANY email to ebay you are uncertain of and they will respond very very quickly to let you know if it is real or not.
I know lots of folks who have purchased a vehicle online and been incredibly pleased, and I know folks who have lost every penny. If it seems to good to be true, it is. If they insist you pay cash through a wiring service, it is a scam.
Good luck
V. S
Be careful! Any that ask you to "send money ahead of time and then they'll ship" are all scams. We almost fell for this recently. We paid $25 to run the vin # and it came across as a scam. We'd rather be out $25 than $5,000! He had a very believable story about being in the military. He even had professional looking military letterhead! They are so good, its scary. Dont believe sob stories. Only deal with local people.
