For those who don’t have the money necessary for brand new car – or want to buy a car that is no longer manufactured – the market second-hand is like our second home. The websites of online classifieds are a huge showcase where we advertise thousands of cars, but are not exempt from dangers. These hazards are the scammers, people harmful just looking to take advantage of the naivety and desire to have a new car from the others. With these 5 tips to avoid falling into scams and traps when buying a car.
1) Beware of prices too attractive
The advertisement may be poorly drafted, or only have email as way of contact. Trust.
The easiest way to have scammers captarnos is by using an attractive price on the car you are selling. I’m sure you have seen advertisements that offer cars several thousands of euros below their market value. Cars seemingly flawless, with few miles and years. Perhaps the purported seller will say that urges the sale, or you are “moving to an island and need to sell the car. Eye, the ad might be real, but you’ll have to be extremely cautious and distrustful of the contact with the owner.
what A Nissan Skyline for 10,000 euros? is Not its market price.
2) Never pay in advance: “the thymus of the English”
“The thymus of the English” is usually given in cases like the above. Has happened to Me a few hours ago, when you go to check the availability of a sports second hand at a good price – without being wildly low. The little bit of contact with the seller, they replied to me by e-mail in a Spanish, a somewhat disfigured, showing the use of a translator online. In the email, tells me that he lives in Northern Ireland for work, and that is where the vehicle is located – which has plates of spain in the listing images.
In many cases, these advertisers steal photos and descriptions of vehicles already sold on the same websites. The announcement usually gives the pego.
Insists that the sale will be made through a company of international transport, which will send the car to my home address and you can try it for 5 days without commitment. I only have to pay the cost of transporting the vehicle from Great Britain to Spain. It is a scam of a book: if he had shown even an interest, I would have requested an amount of between 500 euros and 2,000 euros approximately, pay by using a service like Western Union or MoneyGram. The seller will disappear afterwards and I will have been without my money.
“The thymus of the English” can occur with other kinds of nationalities, but has always the same format: a seller and a car outside of Spain. Sometimes, it’s a car with steering wheel to the left in a country where we drive on the right, and the seller argues that it is impossible to sell it in that country. What never changes is that there is always a mediation of a transport company or associate company, with the goal of desembolses a moderate amount of money that they never see.
3) Ads and buyers that make you suspect
Speaking by phone with the seller, and ask all the necessary questions. Never buy a car without seeing it and test it.
we have provided guidelines on how to sell quickly and effectively your used car. One of the details that we mentioned is the need to write a good ad. Do not need the seller to be Cervantes, but you must be wary of ads excessively both plain, without any description, or which appear to be written by the translator of Google. , be Wary of vendors who refuse to provide the license plate number of your car, or that give long to your questions. As much as you like the car and its price, it is better to prevent than to cure.
A good seller to be communicative, and will not refuse to test the car or take it to a mechanic. Also, pay attention to the photos of the car. It does not matter that they are made with a lot or a little quality, but some of the details should sound alarms in your head: photos of different cars in the same ad, photos of catalog or photos in a place that clearly does not correspond to the location of the car. By this last I mean to another country, detail that is apparent in any photograph.
4) Consultation to the DGT, CarFax, and your mechanic
As we have explained 5 ways to detect if the miles of the car on the occasion that you are going to buy are real. Read our opinion in this article.
Before you buy the car, make sure that your mileage is real and that your buyer is wheat clean. See that the car has no reserve domain in the General Direction of Traffic, and if possible, have a mechanic verify that the car has no hidden faults – or faults that the seller even ignored. Before paying the amount to the seller, it is advisable to change the car name, in the presence of the seller. That way, you’ll make sure that there is no problem in the operation and that everything is in order.
5) Complaint scams
If you detect scams in classified ads on the Internet, report the ad to the web. The main websites for the sale of vehicles allow denounce ads for suspicious and fraudulent. If you encountered an ad is fraudulent, please report it. In this way, you may avoid a buyer’s naive to fall into the same trap. If you’ve already been a victim of the scam, your chances of recovering the money are limited but we encourage you to go to the authorities equally. The hope is the last thing you lose.
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