Beware of Dealership Cloning

On Memorial Day weekend, car dealerships turn up the charm and roll back prices as much as their budgets will allow.  These days, cars are so expensive that, even if you trade in your old car and use the proceeds for a down payment on the new one, you will probably have to finance the loan over seven years, which was almost unheard of a decade ago.  If you have already figured out that there is no way you can afford a car payment on a new car, or even a used one, you are in the same boat with most people.  Instead, you can spend the day lounging on the pool deck at your apartment complex and read longform blog posts from the old days, when the Internet was still fun.  These posts are so old that they format awkwardly on your smartphone, but unlike the new content, they are neither paywalled nor soul-crushingly hateful.  You can find first-person narratives by people who worked at car dealerships in the pre-Internet era, and you will get the impression that used car sales became a cleaner business once consumers could thoroughly research vehicles on the Internet before buying them.  Of course, leave it to Internet scammers to stay one step ahead of vigilant consumers.  Dealership cloning is the latest Internet scam to target buyers of used cars.  If a doppelganger dealership defrauded you when you tried to purchase a car online, contact a Philadelphia used car fraud lawyer.

Dealership Doppelganger Scams Pennsylvania Woman Out of $46,000

Adrianna Parsons of Doylestown did her due diligence when shopping online for a used car.  She thought she could find better prices by broadening her search to dealerships outside Pennsylvania, since so many of the local cars were out of her price range.  She searched CARFAX, a reputable website with detailed information about used cars available for sale nationwide.

Parsons found a Lexus SUV listed for sale at a Nebraska car dealership called Specialty Auto.  She called the number listed on the advertisement and spoke to a man who claimed to be Jim Woods, the owner of Specialty Auto.  At first, she was hesitant to buy a car so far away, sight unseen, but the man who claimed to be Woods gave her the used car salesman treatment and convinced her to wire the money after seeing a video of the car.  The car never arrived, and Parsons realized that she had been scammed.

Dealership cloning is when scammers post fake listings using the names and other identifying details of real dealerships.  There really is a used car dealership in Nebraska called Specialty Auto, and its owner’s name really is Jim Woods.  Therefore, dealership cloning scams are able to fool customers who are cautious enough to verify these details.  When in doubt, call the dealership’s phone number as listed on its website, not the one listed on an advertisement on CARFAX, Craigslist, or Facebook Messenger.

Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com About Used Car Scams

A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help you protect yourself against scams such as dealership cloning.  Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.

Source:

yahoo.com/news/preyed-us-pennsylvania-woman-scammed-123100745.html