Online car buyers beware!
Posted Jul 13, 2011 4:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The police are out with that warning after an increase in fraudulent buying and selling through the internet.
What some thief’s are doing is using a bogus bank draft and fake ID to buy a vehicle.
The seller finds out only after they tried to cash the bank draft that it’s worth nothing.
Then the fraudster changes up the vin number and sells it to someone else pocketing between $30, 000 to 60,000 each time
Acting Staff Sergeant Mike Saunders says there’s red flags to look for so you don’t fall into that trap.
“Registered within the previous six months, documentation that’s not in the name corresponding to the identification that the person is providing. A seller who refuses to provide ID and someone who refuses to give the history of the vehicle.”
Saunders adds “We’re asking that people to accompany the sellers to a legitimate bank and observe the bank draft being ordered and have it in their possession prior to releasing the vehicle.”
He says so far this year this type of fraud has been reported 24 times in Calgary.
