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
Source: Brian Silvestro
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
One of the best/worst car sales scams I’ve ever heard of was an old family friend who was a self described con-man in his younger days.
Back in the ’50’s and ’60’s, he and a partner would buy a car for next to nothing somewhere in town. One of the pair would then go to multiple used car lots in town, seeking the exact same car and offering over market value if one could be sourced. He’d leave a number to call “just in case you find one.”
Partner would then shop the recently aquired used car around town with a sob story about diapers and baby formula or some such, setting up a bidding war amongst the dealers who all have a “buyer” on the line.
They would double their money on an old heap and head out of town.
Got to admit, it’s hard for me to feel too sorry for a bunch of fly-by-night used car salesmen who got left holding the bag.
The old man did admit that it was a scam that generally only worked once per town.
I’ve had the opposite experience. Sold an ’89 Nissan Maxima (white on blue interior with the SE package) to a young guy who up and down was in love with it. Started the car and it wouldn’t stay running, you had to hold the gas down to keep it from stalling.
To his friend’s dismay, he gave me full ask without a second thought. I still don’t get it.
“cash in my pocket (or, if I’m smart about it, stashed in the glovebox of my car)” reminded me of this Seinfeld bit about storing valuables while at the beach.
I had a group of these guys try to scam me on a car I was selling once. Distracted me at the back of the car while one of them put oil in the overflow. I had heard of this scam before, so I told them to get lost as soon as I saw the nastiness in the overflow.
Here is a “fun” fact – the oil will sit on top of the coolant, so it will look horrible in the overflow, but there’s no oil in the engine or radiator. I changed my coolant anyway, but it drained out clean.
“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.”
And yet another reason that reinforces my view that auctions are THE WORST place to buy a car.
And when I’ve sold cars in the past, I’d get the odd jackass who would make up some BS that what I was selling was in terrible TERRIBLE shape and thus, I should accept their lowball offer.
I would handle those jackasses by telling them to go pound sand… or some variant of that. One time, I got sarcastic and “agreed” with the seller… and basically said “Yes, you should not buy my car… instead, look at buying this one”
And then I’d provide a link to a similar car in much worse shape… LOL
Fun fact: you can buy those pens for testing currency (to identify counterfeits) on Amazon and at places like Staples; generally they are under $10 each. I take one along when selling more expensive things at a swap meet.
I still have a set we bought for when we sold our ATVs and trailer years ago. Well worth the cost to offset the risk
I know someone trying to sell an MGA. Most who respond are flippers who try to talk the price down several thousand because of the poor paint and panel finish; spoiler alert, it’s a nearly 70 yo British sports car,.not a modern Lexus! Did you NOT look at the pictures in the ad?
The other type of interest is from lonely old guys who just want to reminisce about the MGA they owned in the long ago.
Does intentionally wasting the sellers time count as a scam?
I’ve bought and sold more cars than I wish over the last 10 years. So far no issues like this, but yeah mostly public meetings unless I know him thru the GRM forum or something. Usually have a friend, if nothing else to be the notary.
Most recently though, I sold my bugeye WRX last year. Guy asks a million questions by text, which is fine, most are legit. But he asked about the trans a few times, I told him I’ve owned the car twice (had sold it to a friend) & none of these times any issues with trans. Tried to be honest & told him issues I’ve had over the years.
He shows up to drive it, asks about trans again. We both drive it, he ADMITS the trans is working very nicely but he’s concerned it’ll go bad (for some reason). I come down on my $ twice a little just to be done with it, supposed to be a project with his kid. Close the deal finally, get my $.
A WEEK LATER I get a message from him that the trans is making a weird noise, he’s concerned & will be taking it to a “mechanic friend”. Another week or so and he says his friend says there’s a big issue and it’ll either be $$$ to repair or need replacing. “I know this sounds bad, but is there any way you could refund some of the price?”
I had a reply but decided it wasn’t worth it and let him twist in the fucking wind.
I sold my Corrado to a guy who said that we was buying it for his dad and shipping it to Poland. My paranoia kicked in and I had him bring all cash ($13K) and then come with me to the bank to deposit it to make sure the bills weren’t counterfeit. All good. That was the day, though, that I learned that you had to fill out paperwork for cash deposits over $10k because of drug and other illicit transactions. I still miss that car though.
I sold my Lancia that way, they guys showed up at my shop near midnight gave me a McDonalds bag of cash and drove away. I was a bit scared for my safety so I put the cash in some ziplocs and dumped them in our used oil tank and then went home. No issues and lucky the bags didn’t leak
Haha, my dad had the complete opposite.
When he tried to sell his ’92 passat which, after two decades of hard use, had turned into a real POS. He cleaned it inside and out. Then he posted it for a take it or leave it €500.
A young lady came over, it started on first try, didn’t rattle or leak anything and behaved perfectly.
The lady wanted to buy, but my dad refused. Said this car would bring her trouble and financial hardship.
Right after, he sold the car to one of those places that sell used car parts for just a little less than €500.
I like your dad.
I haven’t sold that many cars. But I’ve always been honest with perspective buyers. Before the test drive, I told them everything I knew that didn’t work. Perhaps I’ve been lucky, but between being forthcoming and setting the price appropriately, I’ve always gotten my asking price in non-counterfeit bills.
My asking price was always what I would buy it for, knowing what was wrong with it.
The last time I was part of unloading a car, it was a BMW X5 that my (then) wife and I traded in on a new Acura MDX. The BMW had an occasionally sagging self-leveling rear suspension but was otherwise in good shape. We got more than we expected and had a celebratory lunch afterwards. And a much nicer car to drive.
I suppose the inverse of this situation is when I traded in my old van for my current one. The old one was a true POS, smoking engine, flashing CEL, dirty and beat-up worse than you can imagine. But it met the specifications of the manufacturer trade-in credit, if not the spirit of it, so I was actually proud of the fact that it was able to drive to the dealership under its own power.
I’ve seen the oil trick before mainly on Toyotas with a group of guys. I’ve known people that have caught them in the act too and it doesn’t go well. They won’t admit it even with the container in their hand or thrown down. Also the same people who will message you first when you are selling a trailer and don’t want to give you what you are asking even though for some reason people go crazy for trailers in certain markets.
The people who do it to private sellers are definitely more targeted and brazen then the auction people it could be anything because the guy thinks he can scare people off and make more money selling it. I’ve seen fuses pulled wires pulled lights left on with keys in the ignition to drain the battery. Lots of stuff goes missing at auctions too books cables jacks. And it’s not like they don’t have security and let anyone in. Just terirble people who think it’s not stealing somehow.
The first car I bought was a ’71 Fiat 128. The PO was selling partially because of a scammer. The scammer dented the body and the driver’s door and returned the next day saying he was a body worker and could fix it cheap. He did a really crappy job, managed to get paid, and split. I bought the car and ended up pulling all the bondo, found a different colored door, and did the body work myself. I paid a painter and they did a great job of matching the color.
That’s a great first car!
I take issue with people that show up and want me to knock money off because it was so far from their house. Sorry you live three hours from me, probably should have thought about that before making the drive.
I had a guy try to meet next to a busy intersection with no parking to buy a motorcycle tank from me. Told him to go 5 minutes further to a place with parking and where people were. AFTER exchanging the hardware and cash, he had the audacity to ask for “change” since he had to drive “so much further.”
Are you going to let me drive all the way home without this car over $100?
Yeah, man, I am. Are you gonna throw away the hours of driving over $100?
My buddy and I were selling an ’86 Monte Carlo (it was his, but I had helped him do so much work on it, he and I were going to split whatever it sold for). I think we had it listed for…$1200 or something? No drivetrain, body was solid, we had removed all the tubular suspension we had installed and it was back on stock stuff I had found online for only the price of shipping. But a solid roller.
Guy from across the state is talking to him, they agree on $1k, which I was fine with. He shows up and “only brought $800”, but my buddy “felt bad”.
I was at work, but had I been there, he’d have either had to find $200 more to get to the price that was agreed on before he drove here or else he can drive back, without a car.
We had other interested buyers, so I was pretty annoyed, as I could’ve made a few hundred more dollars.
My bank has nice comfy chairs and a security dude. Also friendly people who will give me cash or put it in a safe place. Sometimes there is coffee.
Usually I sell cars to friends or just give them away because I have great friends and shitty cars by the time I want to dispose of them (the cars) but I have bought a couple of cars in bank lobbies.
Years ago there was a discussion in a forum (not sure which one but it was one of those boomer street rodder communities, I was following a link from the old Car Talk website back when Tommy was still alive, that’s how long ago it was! And street rods aren’t my cup of tea so I simply don’t recall the name) about shady shenanigans pulled in the automotive world and someone told of how as a youngster he would go with his grandfather, who was a used car dealer, to those auctions frequented by dealers where they would have cars available for inspection; his grandfather would open the hoods of cars he wanted to bid on and surretipiously switch a spark plug wire or two around. Those cars would still start but run really rough when driven in front of the bidding crowd with the result that they would attract few bids and the kid’s grandfather would win these cars with really low bids, take them to his used car lot, put the spark plug wires back in the correct order, and sell them for a pretty penny. Surprisingly, the person talking about his grandfather didn’t think it was such a big deal as he saw it as just a case of typical used car dealers doing typical used car dealer things and he actually thought it clever of his grandfather so he never ratted him out but fortunately he got a good earful from other members who were rightly and properly appalled by his grandfather’s ethics even as some other members just shrugged it off in typical boomer fashion. Good grief.
The boomer shrug is probably because they knew someone who did the same thing at some point. In the early 90s my dad had a friend with maybe 12 to 15 50s though early 70s mainly gm cars. He had cancer and was getting chemo was weak and decided he wanted to move somewhere warmer. So his cars had to go. He hadn’t touched them for a while. So his wife was mainly selling them because he was too weak and couldn’t really be around people.
A few times she called my dad for help with them. The first time I went with him he started the car it sounds terrible turned it right off looked at the plug wires two were switched them back and started it right up again. He told her what happened and she was speechless.
We got in the truck and he started laughing and said karma’s a bitch. I asked him what he meant. He told me that guy would brag to everyone he would switch plugs wires around or adjust the timing if the cap was loose enough or do other little things to get cars cheaper mainly from old ladies in the decades prior. I think he had to go back at least one other time for a similar problem.
This guy was also one of the guys that felt the Pentagon parking lot was the world’s best and biggest auto parts store. Boomers just laughed about it.
Fantastic to hear that negging and gas lighting has moved on from just incel males with mommy issues on the dating circuit.
Is this what passes for insults these days? I’m not sure what half of this means 😮
Gaslighting has been around since 1938. How old are you? 😛
Born in 1880. All you young whippersnappers and your hip lingo. Get off my lawn!
🙂
Google a popular book that was around 15 years ago called ‘the game’ basically insult your date until they apparently submit to the males ‘superiority’ – and we wonder why there is a male loneliness problem.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s . . .
Some one came up with the punchline, a discussion ensued, and a well written and informative article came about. But is all about the header!
I had a variation of this one happen to me years ago at a police auction. Bought an ’84 Cavalier for $150. Typical turd from that era, interior roached, but they started it up and it ran fine. Went in, paid, come back out and it wouldn’t start, made a loud backfire instead. Suddenly there was a dude walking by with a tool box who was “pretty sure” he could fix the car for fifty bucks. That seemed weirdly convenient so I told him no-thanks and started looking at the engine myself. A couple of minutes later another guy walks up and says he saw the first guy messing with my plug wires when I was in the office paying for it (they had the hoods on all of the cars opened up).
Sure enough, dipshit with the toolbox had apparently switched a couple of them changing the firing order. I got them back in the right order, thanked rando number two with a couple of free Camel Lights, and was on my way.
People suck. Or in the words of Super Hans:
People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can’t trust people, Jeremy.
Most people are idiots.
I thought they were held to a below the bar level of accountability and performance
They limbo dance the bar of accountability and performance.
Once I had the stupid idea of selling my 50 year old Corolla. A guy came to see it and we went for a test drive. He never stopped complaining about how slow it was, how loud it was, how it smelled like fumes, how it only had 4 gears…
Yeah, that’s exactly how these cars were 50 years ago, man. What did you expect? A modern day Yaris or something?
He wasn’t trying to scam me more than he was trying to get a big discount by making me feel the car was a piece of shit. What he wasn’t aware of is that I already knew that.
I once had a guy come look at a 1st Gen 4Runner I was selling, and asked if he could take it to his mechanic. Fine I said. He comes back with a list of everything that needs fixing on the car (which was listed for about $3500) a total of $2k of repairs, and asks for $2k off the price. I asked him if he’d ever bought a used car before because perfect generally isn’t on the menu at this price. I thanked him for the repair list and said I might just keep it now that I know what it needs.
Oh you mean like the insurance company did when my car was totaled (not my fault) and they came and did an appraisal and due to a minor crack in the bumper that was barely visible it suddenly needed a $800 bumper and thus my car was worth $800 less?
I’ve been witness to that sort of thing happening and have had to step in before. The one that got me the most furious was when a neighbour was trying to sell an old Toro riding lawnmower, and as it was her dead husband’s that thing had been sitting in the basement for about ten years. She just wanted to get rid of it and priced it way cheaper than it should’ve been considering how well taken care of it was. It was a big bulky tractor style one she said he bought in 1981, and if you’ve ever seen a riding lawnmower made before like 1985 they all look crude as hell. Well, the guy trying to buy it from her was complaining it was missing parts, specifically the “bagging latch” and related accessories and said he wasn’t paying the $300 she wanted for it if they were missing. I figured out what he meant was the grass catcher. I walked over and told him that riding lawnmowers didn’t come with grass catchers in that era and that they were special add-ons you ordered from someone else. We argued back and forth for a while with him making complaints about stupid things like the engine being exposed until he backed down and left as angry as he could’ve been.
I’ll never understand why people do that. They come in knowing it’s older, cruder, and missing features that modern equivalents have, and then get indignant that the thing they came to buy is older, cruder, and missing features that modern equivalents have.
They all just think they’re smarter than the person selling it and they can get one over on them.