There are lots of internet fraudsters out there, with a range of shocking scams at their disposal. And they are targeting just about every market going, including that of classic cars. But while safely selling online is great, it can also be risky if you do not know what you are doing. The internet is an anonymous place, which makes it susceptible to scammers. The possibility of being ripped off makes it essential to familiarize yourself with common warning signs so you can take the proper steps to protect yourself with tips for safely selling classic cars.
It has never been easier to buy and sell vehicles on the secondary market. Remember to take great photos of your classic car before posting it online for sale. Private car sales between individuals can be a great way to find a deal but come with a high potential for financial and personal risk, made even worse by scammers pretending to be private buyers or sellers. We have compiled some common types of scams for you, firstly to inform you of the “traps” that may be waiting for you; and secondly to prepare you well enough to avoid them and the scammers behind them.
Safely Selling a Classic Car
There are a variety of scams that would-be buyers can use to try to rip you off. We present the most common types of internet scams below so that you are protected against them:
The Vehicle Is Supposedly Collected by A Third Party
You have advertised a classic car and are contacted by an interested potential buyer. He or she declares that they are interested in buying the car, but that they cannot collect it themselves and would send a haulage company, i.e., a “third party”, to do so. To immediately dispel any skepticism and doubts on your side, the alleged buyer offers to send a payment confirmation from an online payment system in advance, which convinces most sellers for the time being.
On the handover date, the car is collected as agreed by the commissioned third party, the freight forwarder, and a corresponding confirmation is usually handed over. As part of the fraud scam, the allegedly interested buyer reveals himself as a fraudster at this point. He claims that the car never arrived, freezes the money transfer in the online payment system and passes the buck to you.
Here, the buyer protection of online payment systems, which is sensible in principle, is undermined by the fraudsters. Since the seller cannot clearly prove that the buyer has received the car based on the shipping company’s confirmation, the buyer is usually awarded the money after a few weeks. And your vehicle is gone for the time being. If a supposed buyer suggests this procedure, actively raise the issue.
Alternative: The Double Scam
In a variation of this scam, a supposed buyer has a third party represent him or her at a personal meeting with you, the seller, to sign the purchase contract or hand over the vehicle. To prove that everything is going correctly, a power of attorney to sign the contract by proxy (subsequently proclaimed to be forged) and copies of the alleged buyer’s identity papers are presented. The identity papers usually belong to a third party from whom they were previously stolen for exactly this use. In addition, a forged receipt of the transfer of the purchase price is presented by e-mail. Following this action, the vehicle is resold to another, unsuspecting buyer. Here, only the “double fraud” takes place. The subsequent buyer cannot acquire ownership of the fraudulently sold vehicle and, in case of doubt, will have to return it to the original owner. In the meantime, the scammer has enriched himself with the sales sum from the resale.
With this scam, both you as the original seller are cheated out of your money from the sale, as well as the subsequent buyer who, despite paying, must hand the vehicle back and, in the worst case, is not compensated. Therefore:
- Always insist on a personal handover of the vehicle with the signing of a written contract of sale and cash payment. If your counterpart does not agree to this, it may be a reason for you to become skeptical and break off contact.
- A confirmation of a transfer is not the same as an actual payment and can easily be faked! Cash payment is better!
Scammers And False Repair Costs
You have successfully sold your car; everything went smoothly, and you are already thinking about what to do with the proceeds of the sale… A few days after the sale, a supposed friend of the buyer calls you. There is allegedly a problem: Shortly after the purchase, a defect is said to have occurred and you, as the seller, are now supposed to bear some or all the repair costs, as it is your lack of care that is supposedly responsible for this. The actual buyer does not contact you himself because he is not available, i.e. he is travelling abroad. And there, usually abroad, you are supposed to transfer a certain sum to an account from which the repair will be paid.
Attention: Fraudsters at Work
This is a fraud method in which perpetrators closely observe sales transactions on the Internet and contact the seller after a vehicle sale.
Buyers themselves usually know nothing about this procedure, let alone about the alleged damage.
Do not be tempted by a possibly guilty conscience. Ask carefully and always ask to speak to the buyer himself, possibly later!
The Fictitious Case of Damage
In response to a car advertisement, you are contacted by a potential buyer who would like to purchase your car. What keeps him away are the high insurance costs. He or she asks how much you pay for insurance and then where you are insured, as he or she wants to compare costs between providers. He or she may ask you for your car registration number and other vehicle data.
The supposedly interested buyer party uses this data to file a fictitious claim with your insurance company in the name of a non-existent garage. However, this vehicle damage was never repaired at your garage. If your insurance company is one with no-claims bonus classes, this insurance fraud could lead to a higher insurance premium for you. Therefore:
- – Always obscure the number plates before taking and uploading vehicle pictures to the internet.
- – Do not give out any information, either verbally or in writing, about your vehicle insurance or your registration number.
No Contract Conclusion by E-Mail
You have advertised your classic car and a prospective buyer contacts you: he or she wants to inspect the vehicle and asks you to confirm an appointment to view the vehicle. You are asked to confirm your address by e-mail or to send an “Ok”. In some cases, only a test e-mail is sent with a request for confirmation.
However, mail of this kind are not requests for confirmation of an appointment, but for confirmation of the purchase contract – usually at a much lower price than the one you stated in the advertisement. From this point on, the scammer insists on contract fulfilment, i.e., the sale of the vehicle at the allegedly agreed price.
If you refuse to sell the vehicle or have sold it to someone else in the meantime, the scammer threatens to take legal action and claim damages for breach of contract/non-performance. With your confirmation via e-mail, he or she wants to have proof of a valid purchase contract. In court, the fraudster can even get away with this in some cases.
Foreign Notary Fees
You are contacted by a prospective buyer from abroad. He wants to buy the classic car you have advertised. You sign a contract of sale, and the buyer wants to send an expert to hand over the vehicle, who will take it away in exchange for cash if everything is in order.
Now the scam: According to competition law, the purchase contract to be sent must be notarized. You, the seller, supposedly must pay for the notary’s fees. However, so that this is not to your detriment and the sale is completed, the agreed purchase price is simply increased by the notarization costs by the buyer in your favor. In this way, you will not incur any costs. Shortly before the transfer date, however, you receive a notary’s invoice and are supposed to transfer the fee in advance. Assuming that you will be reimbursed later by the higher sales price, many sellers transfer the comparatively small fee. Afterwards, however, neither the supposed prospective buyer nor the surveyor gets in touch and the advance payment is lost!
Do Not Send Digital Documents
In today’s digital context, your data is you and your data is you: Therefore, be extremely careful with confidential documents such as identification and vehicle papers! These allow anyone who has them in digital form to assume your identity and act in your name. In most cases, this does not even require manipulation of these documents or anything similar. In the worst case, a breach of law, i.e. fraud, can be committed under your name with the digital versions of these documents, which can result in very unpleasant consequences such as criminal prosecution and the like.
Therefore, caution is advised: Never scan, copy and send vehicle or identity documents by e-mail to prospective vehicle buyers!
The Brokerage Fee
It may happen that you receive an SMS or e-mail after you have advertised a car: You are asked to contact a marketing company. This company pretends to act as an intermediary for potential buyers and offers you this service for a commission. You may pay – the price is not too high – if this means that the car is sold quickly and at the desired price. However, experience teaches that it is likely that no mediation will take place. This is an extremely dubious scam used by outright letterbox and bogus companies.
Overdrawn Check
This scam is characterized by prospective buyers from abroad making contact and usually accepting the purchase price immediately. Allegedly by mistake, a much higher cheque is issued to the seller than the agreed purchase price. The difference is then supposed to be either handed over in cash or transferred by cash transfer. The catch: after a few days, the check that was first credited bounces and, in the worst case, both the car and the difference paid are gone.
In No Case: Cash Transfer
Money transfers by means of cash transfer via Western Union, MoneyGram or the like are unfortunately more often instrumentalized to pull off a false trust service or the classic “check fraud”. Such cash transfer services are intended for transfer transactions between known persons, on a basis of trust. They are not suitable for online car trade payments.
Confidence Trick
Recently, sellers told us that they are contacted by prospective buyers who offer them, for example, works of art in exchange for a vehicle. Typical for online trick scams is the rather vague reference to the advertisement and the effort to gain trust as well as the long-winded explanation of why and how the “return transaction” is supposed to come about. Often pitiful stories are constructed, and distressing situations are described in detail. Genuine prospective buyers will probably not offer you money or valuables in the first step, even before they have obtained information about the vehicles!
Fake Or Fraud E-Mails
With so-called “phishing” e-mails, fraudsters try to obtain your log-in data. The e-mails, which are sent from fake URLs such as klassik-trader.com or classic-trader.pro, ask you to click on a link that leads to a fake login page. These pages do not run under our URL classic-trader.com/, but under other, obscure addresses. Do not give out your password there under any circumstances!
Finally
Be alert if you are contacted by email, SMS or other channels and asked to click a link or provide personal details! Especially in recent times, internet fraudsters have tried to use this for phishing. The internet can be a great place to find information for researching as a buyer or a seller but, when using the “net” you need to be prepared and cautious to the various scams that are out there lurking on the web. Unfortunately, scammers are constantly updating their methods to take your car or hard-earned money so stay on top of the current trends so that you can be safe in selling classic cars online. Lastly, remember good preparation is the key whether it is the car itself of your understanding of the online sale process.
