What is the scam of all the free or cheap vehicle on FB marketplace
- Thread starter CarLuver
- Start date
Too cheap by today’s standards, or those of two years ago?
Case in point...a neighbor had a Subaru that needed a lot of work, it barely ran and drove. He couldn’t get the $500 he felt it was worth in late 2019, so he kept it and invested a small amount of cash to make it pass inspection. I think he put $400 into it.
He sold it last week for $3500 to the first person who called him. No haggling, that was his asking price.
To someone who doesn’t realize that the seller may be out of touch with the current market, that same vehicle appearing back for $500 or $1000 may seem too good to be true.
Case in point...a neighbor had a Subaru that needed a lot of work, it barely ran and drove. He couldn’t get the $500 he felt it was worth in late 2019, so he kept it and invested a small amount of cash to make it pass inspection. I think he put $400 into it.
He sold it last week for $3500 to the first person who called him. No haggling, that was his asking price.
To someone who doesn’t realize that the seller may be out of touch with the current market, that same vehicle appearing back for $500 or $1000 may seem too good to be true.
soemthing like a 2013 lexus for $1200 or a 2012 civic for $1000 .
I've seen those too...many times a very nice looking and desirable Toyota truck or some such for $1000 with only 60K miles...I think some just get their jollies out of making someone jump...
Bill
Bill
There is usually some story connected to the vehicle where you need to send them payment and then you can see vehicle. My SIL was looking at Honda but the story was the car was in Germany but getting shipped back next week by the Air force but the seller needed payment for something before hand. Many many scams!
As far as transactions, I think it's best to avoid Facebook. A few weeks ago, there was a Facebook posting advertising Honda portable generators for $89 with free shipping. Obviously a scam, right? A person I know posted on the comments that it was too good to be true and that it was a scam. Facebook came down hard on him and told him that any more postings like that would get his account yanked because he was scaring away their viewers. I guess the Facebook admin doesn't care about people getting ripped off or their employees are too stupid to know a scam.
Here's an example from me. A local Ford dealership advertised on Facebook and wanted people to post a photo of their Ford. The ad didn't say "Ford car" or "Ford truck", it just said post a photo of your Ford. Humorously, I posted this. It got flagged and I got a message from Facebook saying that I was in danger of getting banned. Seriously? I guess their computer algorithms kicked into high gear. I protested to FB, and again they said it was against their policies and anything more on the subject would again get me banned.
I'd say just forget about buying a car on FB.
Here's an example from me. A local Ford dealership advertised on Facebook and wanted people to post a photo of their Ford. The ad didn't say "Ford car" or "Ford truck", it just said post a photo of your Ford. Humorously, I posted this. It got flagged and I got a message from Facebook saying that I was in danger of getting banned. Seriously? I guess their computer algorithms kicked into high gear. I protested to FB, and again they said it was against their policies and anything more on the subject would again get me banned.
I'd say just forget about buying a car on FB.
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AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
Or just forget about FB.
As much as I dislike FB and the type of people it attracts, there are many buyers that look nowhere else, so you pretty much have to list you car there or miss out on many possible sales. Same if you're looking to buy. As for the scam, they usually lead you to a fake Ebay or Paypal site that says you have a 10 day money back guaranty if you don't like the car as well as free shipping both ways. Apparently there are people dumb enough to fall for that when shipping one way alone would be more than the $1200 sale price.
Probably gonna roll the mark in the parking lot for the cash.
The scam posts will always direct you to a email address, rather than using the Facebook (or craigslist) messenging capabilities.
Some super cheap cars will be a used car lot using the down payment price as the listing price.
Some super cheap cars will be a used car lot using the down payment price as the listing price.
Yep. When I was trying to find a used boat I ran across this. What would typically happen is, when I contacted the seller on FB messenger and asked some questions, the response would come back something like "I don't own the boat, I listed it for a friend/relative who doesn't have a FB account, he can be contacted at ... (an outside email address)", an immediate red flag. After several of these I gave-up on FB Marketplace. It is as infested with scammers as CL was before they started charging for vehicle listings. CL still has some scammers in the vehicle sections, but they are much less prominent now. Boat listings are still free on CL and the scammers are still very active, many of them have moved from cars/trucks to boats.
That's become quite annoying. Looking for later models needing work in the $1000-$2000 range and wasting time clicking on ads for $1,000 cars that in the description say, $1000 DOWN.
Their goal is to get you to send them money. Deposit or whatever. I sold a motohome to a lady that had lost $18k on one of those ads for the Mercedes diesel class C motorhomes. It was way below market value. They wanted half now and the rest when they delivered the MH. They were nice people and I felt sorry for them. They got a good deal from me as I only wanted loan payoff for it.
I have to admit that I fell for the Honda generator. I figured it was worth $100 to see what they would send. Total scam. PayPal wouldn't investigate unless I reported it to the Feds. My bank finally refunded my money. And FB gets mad at us for reporting it??
Reminds me of year ago. I was looking in the newspaper classifieds for used cars. Saw a car at a good price and called the number. Guy gives me a bizarre runaround and tells me he's a physician and selling the car for a friend and doesn't have a lot of time to show it. He must have a lot of friends because he was listing a different car every week with the same phone number.
Caveat emptor
Not everything on FB is a scam.
Saw a listing for a nearly new Powermatic 8” Jointer in a local FB woodworking group. Contacted the seller. Arranged for a time to pick it up. Brought cash and a trailer. Went to his house.
Completely delighted with the purchase. Fair price. Exactly as advertised.
Not everything on FB is a scam.
Saw a listing for a nearly new Powermatic 8” Jointer in a local FB woodworking group. Contacted the seller. Arranged for a time to pick it up. Brought cash and a trailer. Went to his house.
Completely delighted with the purchase. Fair price. Exactly as advertised.
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Many market places like FB and Offerup are filled with impossibly low priced mint condition old vehicles. Skip them, don't even contact them. The verbiage is generally something about it not being local, or they are selling for a friend/relative who doesn't use the computer, etc. These are scams.
They scam is generally some form of a way to get you to give them a check or account numbers or other access into your accounts or phone or other accounts, thru sharing of pin numbers, and probably signature and name and address, or giving them your bank account routing and checking numbers or other more sophisticated stuff. Never participate in any of this nonsense. Don't even contact them as they may have ways to worm into your computer or phone systems.
The reverse is when you sell items sometimes others will offer to pay you by check (which is not legit) where they overpay you and then later want you to repay them the difference. Theirs bounces but you've already repaid them, and given up your account and routing numbers and address and name and signature, etc. for future frauds.
They scam is generally some form of a way to get you to give them a check or account numbers or other access into your accounts or phone or other accounts, thru sharing of pin numbers, and probably signature and name and address, or giving them your bank account routing and checking numbers or other more sophisticated stuff. Never participate in any of this nonsense. Don't even contact them as they may have ways to worm into your computer or phone systems.
The reverse is when you sell items sometimes others will offer to pay you by check (which is not legit) where they overpay you and then later want you to repay them the difference. Theirs bounces but you've already repaid them, and given up your account and routing numbers and address and name and signature, etc. for future frauds.
Never heard that they will finance. Probably a dealer.
