Scam alerts

Most people who lose money on a used car lose it before they ever see one. These are the tactics being used right now, and what stops each of them.

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The most common right now
Reported by the FTC and consumer-protection groups
1Fake listings for cars that don't exist

A scammer posts an attractive ad for a car that isn't real, often claiming they're out of town or in the military. They pressure you to wire money or pay by gift card through a fake shipping or escrow company before you ever see the vehicle.

2Fake escrow services

The seller directs you to a bogus escrow service — sometimes spoofing real names like eBay, PayPal or Apple, with convincing logos and emails — to make the payment request look legitimate.

3Fake checks and overpayment

More common on the seller side, but buyers get hit too. A "buyer" or intermediary sends a check that looks real and asks you to wire back an overage. The check later bounces and you're liable for the full amount.

4Title and mileage fraud

Odometer rollbacks, "title washing" to hide flood or salvage damage, and VIN cloning — putting a clean VIN from another car onto a stolen or wrecked one — all get disguised in listings and paperwork.

5Yo-yo financing

A dealership lets you drive off believing the financing is final, then calls days later to say the loan "fell through" and demands you accept worse terms or return the car.

6"Run the VIN through this site"

The seller insists you check the VIN on one particular site and sends you the link, often saying it's the only service they trust. The site is theirs or pays them a cut: it takes your card details and returns a worthless report that clears a car it never checked. A seller steering you to a specific history-report link is running this scam. The check itself is worth doing — just go to Carfax or AutoCheck yourself and type the VIN in. Never use a link a seller gives you.

How to avoid them
Any one of these breaks most of the scams above
Never send money before you've seen the car in person and confirmed the seller actually owns it. That means no wire transfers, gift cards or cash apps.
Insist on meeting at a real address — the seller's home or a public place. Never buy on the strength of "shipping" alone.
Check the VIN matches on the dash, the door jamb, the title and the registration. Then run a history report for salvage titles, odometer discrepancies and branded titles.
Buy that report yourself, by typing carfax.com or autocheck.com into your own browser. Never follow a history-report link a seller sends you, however official it looks — that link is the scam, not the report.
Get an independent mechanic's inspection before you finalise anything.
If someone sends a check for more than the price and asks you to refund the difference, treat it as fraud. Banks can take weeks to detect a fake check, even after the funds look available.
With dealership financing, don't drive off until the loan is fully approved and funded — and get any spot-delivery terms in writing.
Be suspicious of urgency. Legitimate sellers don't rush you, and a price far below market is a red flag rather than a bargain.
Pay by a method that's traceable and reversible where you can, and be wary of anyone steering you away from safer verified payment options.
Where CarXMarket helps, and where it doesn't

Every listing here is scored on what the seller disclosed, and a car priced far below comparable ones is flagged for exactly the reason above. You can report any listing that looks wrong, and three reports hide it from everyone.

None of that verifies a seller is telling the truth. The score reflects what you've been told, not whether it's accurate — so the checks on this page still apply to every car, including the ones scoring well.