Scammers Are Tricking Sellers Into Thinking Their Cars Are Broken. Here’s What To Watch Out For

Most people assume salesmen at dealerships are held to some level of accountability and professionalism. There are no such expectations for randos on the internet. Buying or selling a car online, as an individual, can be a daunting task because there’s no way to vet whom you’re dealing with.

As a person who buys and sells cars on places like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace with some frequency, I’m acutely aware of the dangers associated with meeting up with someone whom I met over the internet to conduct a relatively large—and usually cash—transaction. It’s an objectively risky situation, especially if you’re just doing it in a driveway and not a police station parking lot.

I’m usually more afraid as a buyer, simply because I show up to viewings with a fat stack of cash in my pocket (or, if I’m smart about it, stashed in the glovebox of my car). There’s always the possibility that the seller made up the listing just to bring you to a secluded location to rob you. On the flip side, there’s always that small chance the buyer gives you counterfeit bills and runs away with your car before you can do anything about it. Neither of these things has happened to me, but I’ve heard stories of both, so they weigh heavily on my mind every time I’m involved in one of these transactions.

This Is Some Real Low-Life Stuff

There’s another scam that sellers have to increasingly worry about when trying to offload their vehicle online: Buyers who sabotage a car while the seller isn’t looking in an attempt to trick the seller into thinking their car is actually broken so those sellers will lower the price.

Here’s how it works: The “buyer” (in this case, the scammer) brings along one or several accomplices to the sale. While the original buyer distracts the seller on one end of the car, their accomplice futzes with the other end. “Futzes” could mean a number of things. For Instagram user notanthonynguyen, it meant having oil poured into his Toyota Tacoma’s coolant overflow tank and into the tip of his exhaust.

 

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In a video documenting the incident published last week, notanthonynguyen says the prospective buyers were trying to fool him into thinking his car was burning oil or that it had oil in its coolant.

During the test drive, the guy kept bringing up, “Oh, what’s that smell? Is that coming from the car?”

We come back, and he’s like, “Yo, can you pop the hood?” And mind you, he came here with like, four other dudes. So I pop the hood, and he was like, “Oh shit bro, come here. Look, it’s smoking.”

Presumably, one of the four men had spiked the exhaust pipe with some used oil and got smoke to shoot out, hoping the seller would think the engine was burning something not noted in the original advertisement.

While the “buyer” had notanthonynguyen distracted at the back of the car with the exhaust snafu, one of their accomplices allegedly poured some oil into the coolant overflow tank and around the driver-side exhaust manifold.

[This was] the final thing which really got me, which really almost convinced me to sell it for them for super cheap.

Thankfully, the seller was smart enough to, in the moment, look up what oil and coolant actually look like when they’re mixed (result is usually a coffee-colored sludge, not pure oil). So they were sent away empty-handed. I’ve reached out to the seller via Instagram message to see if I could get a bit more clarity on the situation, but they have yet to respond.

Notanthonynguyen linked the “buyer’s” phone number and Facebook profile in a comment on his original video, in an attempt to warn others against falling for their scams. I reached out to them as well, but didn’t get any word back (the phone went straight to voicemail, and Facebook wouldn’t let me message their profile. I also sent a text, but it went green, giving me little hope of a response.)

Scammers Have Been Doing This For Years

The above case is far from a one-off. Shady buyers have been pulling these stunts for years, to the point where the police department in Redding, California put out a PSA to residents in 2024 to watch out for the trick. From ABC 7 KRCR:

Representatives with the RPD said, during the scam, one person will distract the seller while fellow scammers pour oil into the vehicle’s radiator, on top of the engine, as well as in the exhaust pipe. This is all done to make the seller believe the engine is blown and get them to sell for a much lower price.

“Unfortunately, it’s been going on, we found out, down in the Sacramento area,” [RPD captain Ron Icely] said. “This is the first incident we’ve heard of up here. If people can figure out a way to cheat other people or victimize people, they’re probably going to do it.”

It’s not just private buyers who have come across this type of swindling. Shady dealers are guilty of playing similar games. Writing this story reminded me of a TikTok I recently watched from Omar Afaneh, the owner of World Class Auto Sales in Savannah, Georgia. In the video, he talked about how dealers will sometimes (but rarely) sabotage cars on auction lots to scare away other buyers, using a Jeep he purchased at auction as a prime example. From Afaneh:

I got this 2012 Jeep Liberty. When I test-drove this thing at auction, it was perfectly fine. It ran and drove perfectly. All the windows worked. Everything was great.

But then transporter drops it off. [One] window won’t go up. And it’s got a misfire. It’s pretty fucking bad. Like, bad enough to where [the check engine light] starts blinking if I drive it.

@the_richest_cardealer Someone messed with it at the auction. #CarTok #TikTokAutoCampaign #CarMaintenance #CarTips #CarMechanic ♬ original sound – Omar Afaneh

Afaneh soon discovered that someone at the auction had likely unplugged two of the injector wires, causing it to misfire and throw the CEL:

What ends up happening is, somebody took a look at this car at the auction, they ended up liking it, and wanted to get it for cheaper. And instead of bidding for it like everybody else, they fucked with it. They unplug shit, they fucked with other shit, they break shit so that they can get it cheaper. Then, when they get it to their lot, they plug everything back in.

Now, unfortunately for people like this, they don’t always get the goddamn car, and it ends up with someone like me, who’s left to chase down the fucking issue.

Here’s How You Can Avoid Being Tricked

People like you and me, who obsess over every detail of their car, will likely be able to spot this sort of tomfoolery from a mile away. After years of driving shitboxes, my eyes, ears, and nose are incredibly attuned to picking up even the slightest whiff of burning coolant or the tiniest noise from the engine bay that wasn’t there before.

But it’s easy to see how a normie can be tricked by a scam like this. Not everyone knows what a coolant overflow tank is supposed to look like, or understands why an engine bay might start smoking out of nowhere. So here are some tips for anyone who might be selling a car on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or any other peer-to-peer private sale website:

1. Bring someone with you. Being alone in any private car transaction is asking to be taken advantage of, so if you have family, a friend, or even a dog to bring along, do it. An extra set of eyes and ears always helps.
2. Meet in a public place. Having someone come to your house to get a deal done is incredibly convenient—I’m guilty of doing it myself. But, similar to having someone else by your side, being in public means more eyes on you and the prospective buyer. This way, you’re not in the middle of nowhere if something goes awry.
3. Know your car inside and out. Again, this might be second nature for hardcore enthusiasts, but for normal sellers, it’s easy to get caught out by sellers who are more knowledgeable. The goal here is to know everything that’s wrong with your car before the seller brings it up. If you’re not mechanically inclined, bring your car to a mechanic for an inspection. This way, there won’t be any surprises. And if the seller then claims to have found something catastrophically wrong with your car, you’ll know something suspicious is going on.

Stay vigilant, my fellow Autopians.

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Top photo: Jason Torchinsky