Anyone ever hear of scam like this before?

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Just read this on Youtube and I'm surprised to hear this. Is this a common thing?

"A popular scam around here is. A person owns a car free and clear, files for a lost title, uses the replacement title to get a title loan, then sells the car to a unsuspecting buyer and gives them the not lost title. The buyer is unaware of the lien until they try to transfer title at DMV. Meanwhile seller disappears with cash, and repo company takes the vehicle"

If this is true and is happening, then even the original title in hand means nothing if you are buying from a scammer. How would you know?
 
Just read this on Youtube and I'm surprised to hear this. Is this a common thing?

"A popular scam around here is. A person owns a car free and clear, files for a lost title, uses the replacement title to get a title loan, then sells the car to a unsuspecting buyer and gives them the not lost title. The buyer is unaware of the lien until they try to transfer title at DMV. Meanwhile seller disappears with cash, and repo company takes the vehicle"

If this is true and is happening, then even the original title in hand means nothing if you are buying from a scammer. How would you know?
Dubious.

If you get a replacement title, it invalidates the old one.

So if the operating principle is that the bank wouldn't know this... (it says right on the title. I am sure they check it out.)
 
What's to stop someone from piling up duplicate titles and selling a car private party multiple times? Do it at a too-good-to-be-true price on a Friday before a long holiday weekend so the DMV will be closed longer.

My title calls itself Prima facie proof of ownership-- "at first glance."

For the paranoid, run a carfax, it might show duplicate titles having been printed. Of course that database might lag.

Go with the seller to the DMV and exchange cash there, walk out with a title or certified title application depending on your state.
 
What's to stop someone from piling up duplicate titles and selling a car private party multiple times?
Who is going to give you money for a car they don't see and can't test drive after the first buyer took it home?

Go with the seller to the DMV and exchange cash there, walk out with a title or certified title application depending on your state.
Not always possible if the buyer is out of state, and what seller wants to spend hours at the DMV with the buyer?
 
What's to stop someone from piling up duplicate titles and selling a car private party multiple times? Do it at a too-good-to-be-true price on a Friday before a long holiday weekend so the DMV will be closed longer.
Because you can't print cars? There is only one vehicle, so you really can only sell the vehicle once. The OP is referring to using a second title (illegally) to defraud a buyer in a private party transaction before the lien appears.
 
Not always possible if the buyer is out of state, and what seller wants to spend hours at the DMV with the buyer?
That's how it's traditionally done in Kentucky, which was strange to me when I first moved here. Buyer goes with seller to the county clerk to do the transaction together, and old plates stay on the vehicle for the new owner. You can do without the DMV/county clerk, but at your own risk. I've asked people why, and they say it's because some folks will buy the car, never transfer/pay taxes, and drive the car that's still legally owned by the seller (i.e they slap fake/different plates on, or if the seller is dumb enough to leave the plates on, use theirs).

Every other state I've lived in, you keep a copy of the bill of sale, sign title, hand title and car over, remove plates, and be done with it.
 
Who is going to give you money for a car they don't see and can't test drive after the first buyer took it home?


Not always possible if the buyer is out of state, and what seller wants to spend hours at the DMV with the buyer?
That's a valid concern, someone does not necessarily know what to look for on an out of state title.

Get to the local motor vehicles, they tell you title is no good.

Seller's phone is off...

So, maybe then, the scam is to "sell the car" with the invalid title. Present the invalid title to the seller.

Hmmm.

Well, yes, same time same place and leave Motor Vehicle with new title...

But for a financial institution to not know a title is bubkus is bubkus.
 
Dubious.

If you get a replacement title, it invalidates the old one.

So if the operating principle is that the bank wouldn't know this... (it says right on the title. I am sure they check it out.)
This is the crux of the scam. Yes, the replacement title invalidates the old one. But you use the old one when you sell the vehicle, and a private party buyer (that is not financing through a bank, presumably a cash transaction) never knows the difference. Sounds easy enough but I bet there's severe legal/criminal repercussions that make this a rarely used scam.
 
Who is going to give you money for a car they don't see and can't test drive after the first buyer took it home?
Last time I looked on Craigslist, there was someone taking pictures of cars on the street (A BMW X6 I believe) and said, I kid you not.. $500! Send Western Union

I gotta say.. car with one picture, from the front, pretty obvious someone walking past, not their car.. implied, of course I can't prove it..

What is next, gift cards? Yeah, that's legit.
 
This is the crux of the scam. Yes, the replacement title invalidates the old one. But you use the old one when you sell the vehicle, and a private party buyer (that is not financing through a bank, presumably a cash transaction) never knows the difference. Sounds easy enough but I bet there's severe legal/criminal repercussions that make this a rarely used scam.
Yeah, it is called prison time for fraud.

I have had Craigslist sellers represent themselves to me as Federal agents....... Oh if I had only known then what I know now. (I've purchased a car from impound sold by the police officer who put it there before but the title was clean, so, as to what could be called believable. It is just one of those things.)

Quick note: Scammers know who to pass on, they know who can get them locked up.
 
Who is going to give you money for a car they don't see and can't test drive after the first buyer took it home?
My state is a "plates stay with person" state so someone buying a car on Friday night won't be able to get legal plates until Monday, when they come back for the car, if it's there.

Very few people show up with a trailer. A few more drive home immediately on illegal plates.
 
My state is a "plates stay with person" state so someone buying a car on Friday night won't be able to get legal plates until Monday, when they come back for the car, if it's there.

Very few people show up with a trailer. A few more drive home immediately on illegal plates.
Every state I've lived in, except KY, has been this way. Plates are supposed to be surrendered back to the DMV when you sell the vehicle. In my experience, nobody does that; most get hung on garage walls.

Anytime I've sold a vehicle in one of those states (where I keep my plate) the buyer has always taken their chances with no plate, or pulled the front plate off the vehicle that drove them there, and slapped it on the back of their new rig just to get them home.
 
My state is a "plates stay with person" state so someone buying a car on Friday night won't be able to get legal plates until Monday, when they come back for the car, if it's there.
1) In many states you can print out a temp tag from your computer.
2) If you're not picking up the car until Monday, only leave a deposit on Friday.
 
Every state I've lived in, except KY, has been this way. Plates are supposed to be surrendered back to the DMV when you sell the vehicle. In my experience, nobody does that; most get hung on garage walls.

Anytime I've sold a vehicle in one of those states (where I keep my plate) the buyer has always taken their chances with no plate, or pulled the front plate off the vehicle that drove them there, and slapped it on the back of their new rig just to get them home.
I guess maybe I'm a little too trusting. Last time I bought a car out of state, I paid for it, took the bill of sale and one key and let the owner drive the car home and I told him I'd pick it up in a few days. Got the plates in my state and then went out there with the new plates and drove it home. I did call Geico on the way home to put insurance on the car so I guess if the owner stole it or if it had gotten stolen, I would have been covered.

Don't do what this guy did, buy a 65k car and then let someone test drive it with no insurance and the guys take off.

 
1) In many states you can print out a temp tag from your computer.
2) If you're not picking up the car until Monday, only leave a deposit on Friday.
You can't leave a deposit if you're going to register the car and pick up plates. No temp plates in MA.
 
1) In many states you can print out a temp tag from your computer.
2) If you're not picking up the car until Monday, only leave a deposit on Friday.
What about those of us with 9-5 jobs? I need to pay the whole thing off when I first see the car to get the title to take to the DMV to get plates to have my wife drop me off at my "new" car with so I can drive it home legally.

BTW, in any state you can print out a vermont temp tag on your computer. (y)
 
Every state I've lived in, except KY, has been this way. Plates are supposed to be surrendered back to the DMV when you sell the vehicle. In my experience, nobody does that; most get hung on garage walls.

Anytime I've sold a vehicle in one of those states (where I keep my plate) the buyer has always taken their chances with no plate, or pulled the front plate off the vehicle that drove them there, and slapped it on the back of their new rig just to get them home.
In Arkansas, for the first 30 day, a copy of the bill of sale taped to the rear window meets legal requirements as long as you also have insurance.
 
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