Car Scams Are Out of Control

**The Art of Researching Used Cars: A Guide to Avoiding Scams**

When it comes to buying a used car, there's nothing more frustrating than discovering that it's been odometer-rolled. The numbers don't add up, and you're left wondering if you've been scammed. In this article, we'll explore the world of used cars, how to research them thoroughly, and most importantly, how to avoid scams.

**The Power of Super Glue: A Car Owner's Hack**

I remember a guy I knew who super-glued a bumper onto his car. He jacked it up, put it in reverse, and took off with the drill running backwards. The numbers on the odometer would decrease as he drove, making the car appear less used than it actually was. This is just one example of how creative people can be when it comes to manipulating odometers.

**The Ease of Odometer Rollback**

In reality, it's not that hard to roll back an odometer. The process is simple: jacking up the car, putting it in reverse, and running the drill backwards. This makes it appear as though the miles have decreased, making the car more valuable than it actually is. You can also swap out the cluster (the physical odometer) for a new one, which is essentially like switching out a fake one.

**The Importance of Research**

While some people might think that swapping clusters or rolling back an odometer is harmless, it's not. These practices can be used to deceive buyers and sellers alike. To avoid falling victim to these scams, it's essential to do your research. Check out the car's history using services like Carfax. Look for any inconsistencies in the numbers or stories told by the seller.

**Red Flags: Signs of Odometer Tampering**

When inspecting a used car, there are several red flags that may indicate odometer tampering. These include unusual wear and tear that doesn't match the reported mileage, worn-out accelerators pedals, or missing components like cluster hoods. If you notice any of these signs, it's best to be cautious.

**Inspection Techniques**

I once took a look at a Mazda Miata, and I noticed that the cluster hood was missing. When you run your hand over the area where the hood should be, you can feel the difference. This is because the seller had removed the hood to swap out the cluster for a new one. In situations like this, it's essential to trust your instincts.

**The Importance of Honesty**

While scams are prevalent in the used car market, there's still room for honest salespeople who want to make a sale without deceiving others. At the end of the day, research and due diligence are key to avoiding scams. The more time you spend figuring out whether or not someone is trying to screw you over, the wiser you'll become.

**The Donut Team: Your Resource for Used Car Research**

At Donut, we're committed to providing our viewers with accurate information about used cars and how to research them. We believe that education is key to avoiding scams and making informed purchasing decisions. If you think we've missed any examples of odometer tampering or scams, please share them in the comments below so we can all be a little wiser.

**Final Tips: Research, Research, Research**

In conclusion, when it comes to buying a used car, research is king. Don't rely on sellers' stories or fake Carfax reports. Trust your instincts and inspect the vehicle thoroughly for any signs of odometer tampering. By following these tips and doing your due diligence, you'll be better equipped to avoid scams and make informed purchasing decisions.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: encar scams are getting out of hand the number of Online vehicle scams is on the rid this is happening all over the country scammers are taking advantage of people shopping online watch out car scammers are the worst kind of people they're jerks and we are sick of them scamming people last year car scams Rose by 30% So today we're going to walk through the most common scams that you can avoid when buying a used car so you don't get screwed out of your hard-earned money Jared what's really going on with all of this I mean I've been buying and selling stuff since I was 15 you get screwed enough times doing that you get a six sense for it I do think with these tips you'll be a lot better than where I was before I started so trust your gut I'm jar this is Jimmy welcome to Donut hey now first up we have some JDM import scams Jimmy you know a thing or two about importing uh some cars from Japan I do yes so what's the deal with this first off it's very hard for you to find history on cars that come from another country so you can find that perf car in Japan but you don't know if it's been in an accident you don't know if the odometer has been rolled back okay so you go on a foreign auction website there's no Carfax at all in Japan it's not easy for you to find it through that listing but you can use car VX which is the Japanese site to find that Carfax got you so the guy selling it is burying where you can find a history what about like your importer so yeah that's another big process actually getting the paperwork right to get the car from Japan to where you live you can can get an import service guy to go and check out the car for you there's a ton of companies that do it you just need to find the ones that you trust the most personally I trust stacked there on Instagram they've got awesome collection of cars and they've brought in nothing but clean cars in the United States get someone you trust and then verify the details of the car Vin details mileage want to make sure you don't have any rust that's really a thing that super common people try to cover up if you see the underside of a car and it's beautiful sprayed black that's a good sign that someone is just trying to cover up an unsightly undercarriage of a car yeah that is a sight all too common with import cars like if I were looking at that just on the surface you look at like oh that looks really clean it looks super nice there's no oil there's no dirt it's just solid black under there but typically in a lot of cases when you're buying cars from overseas they are covering something up the next scam to look out for Vin swapping this is an old trick that surprisingly still happens from time to time even in our era of digital Rec records interconnected DMV BMV systems services like Carfax car vertical they still get fooled sometimes because people are just dirty dirty dogs so this actually happened to Jerry Seinfeld he was sued for selling a fake Porsche 356 not too long ago so almost certain he didn't know it was fake what's the deal with vin swapping I guess the deal is this you got a car something's wrong with it stolen salvage title so you go get you one off of a car in a junkyard that maybe you know might still have a salvage thing do a little bit of trickery and cut the tab and then weld it back paint all over it print the labels too to match the door jams I've seen that happen yeah I mean that's crazy but here's what you can do to avoid getting screwed this way the first and easiest thing is to check multiple Vin locations on the car so manufacturers they're going to put vins in several spots the trunk the firewall the dash inside the doors under the hood sometimes they're going to be all over the car check those vins also good if you use a VIN decoder that you can find exactly what model the car is and what it was spec from from the factory it said it came as this color from the factory but it's actually a different color the VIN tells a story so a VIN decoder is a great way to do it also one of the things that I do probably the easiest thing is spend a little bit of money a Carfax car vertical something where you can go put your information in Pay 35 bucks and get a report $35 is going to save you a lot in the long run Matt what is this so this is my demo car it's basically a stock vet with a Texas Speed engine and sequential gear boox and a borla attack system is there any chance that uh maybe we could drive it a little have at it boys no let's get in before he changes his mind for almost 50 years borla has been the go-to exhaust for all drivers around the world woohoo the patented Technologies give you perfect sound balance and Cutting Edge performance with no compromises it's loud as hell on the track but quiet and refined at home plus there's no annoying drone that's huge each system is manufactured in Johnson City Tennessee using the highest quality stainless steel with many different tips finishes and other customization options borderer helps tailor an exhaust system that best fits your Unique Style and S so if you want savear performance reliability and the best damn sound out of your car get a Bor exhaust today to learn more click the link below let's get on to our next scam Jimmy okay this next one might not be a scam might not be illegal but it's pretty scummy and something we want to talk about and bring awareness to you guys Shady dealership tactics now dealers are going to do a couple things but there's three main things to watch out for first is the classic bait and switch so you go on their website great deal on a car go in store to the dealership they're like uh actually sorry that that car is sold it's gone it's not here but we do have this one that's really scummy next they will add on unnecessary things that you didn't ask for now I said at the beginning of this I've never been scammed but let me tell you I did get scammed with this one time really what what happened I got the lowjack system installed and the undercoding and all this stuff I bought in one brand new car in my entire life it was a Ford F-150 all that price all it does is just adds unnecessary fees to inflate the cost so maybe it's a low Jack but because they had to install it it's now a thousand bucks right so there are plenty of other ways that they can just keep padding that cost and making it go higher so you got to check all those things don't feel pressured it is their job to sell you this stuff nobody's going to pressure anybody around here St it's literally walking into like a professional who does this on the daily I know what you think it's he knows all the tricks in the book I think you got to buy it today right now you want to know why don't feel bad when you tell this person no yeah you can tell them no tell them no don't be so polite I was just looking and the third thing they'll do Jimmy is dealers will make a lot of money off of interest rates if you're financing the car through them who they have in-house financing right you have a good credit score they run it so say you qualify for a 5% interest rate but what the dealer would do is they'll tack on an extra 2% and say hey you're actually your interest rate 7% and they're going to pocket that extra 2% criminal I'm not a lawyer but I would think that that would be illegal now one of the easiest things you can do to see if a dealership is kind of scammy and does these things Google their name and see what pops up read the reviews we found a review for this company premium Autos premium Autos is a scam these guys will lie and say what they have to get you to the dealer if I didn't know about selling Vehicles they would have taken advantage of me as well read the reviews that is yeah someone's going to get screwed and they're not going to be happy with it and luckily the internet is free for the most part if they are consistent with being a shady dealership a lot of people will voice their displeasure on the internet so just do a quick Google search make sure that the dealer you're working with isn't Shady okay the next scam we have are fake dealer websites so scammers will build out websites and list cars at unbelievably low prices to lure in potential buyers they'll build out a very incate website use stolen images fake reviews it's going to appear super legitimate but it's not how do you avoid that well the first thing is you can actually plug the website into different sites that'll tell you whether or not it's a legitimate site so there's things like this for people who sell like wholesale products over in China it's the same thing that applies here in the states it'll check the legitimacy of that website specifically the Better Business Bureau will be able to tell you that the BBB another good way to tell if a dealership is legit or not is to do a reverse Google image search to check if the images are stolen or used elsewhere yeah that's a good one yeah I've used that a few times I've used that a few times too deals too good to be true take those images pop it into Google image and then you see like oh why is this now in Nebraska on a Facebook Marketplace page no it's just some guy scamming all different local market he's just screenshotting next up is deposit scam scammers ask for a deposit to hold a car that doesn't exist then disappear with your money that sucks I almost fell for this as a kid once I wanted a Yamaha Banshee and the guy was like all right I'll hold it for you cuz it was a good deal give me like 300 bucks yeah give me a couple hundred bucks and I was like all right how do I send you this money and then you know my mom got involved and she was like are you sure about this this how old were you I was probably 15 so we actually found a few examples of people on Craigslist who were screwed by a listing and actually sent money 1966 Corvette scammer oh 11,000 bucks Reno Nevada yeah this seller is a bastard liar and cheat he repeatedly told me he was only 24 years old don't know why I traveled out from Central California to Reno all the while texting the guy and trying to reach him on the phone after I spoke to him over the phone he flat out ghosted me first of all here's the thing if you're doing a multi-hour trip to go get a good deal on a car you better 100% be certain that that guy is not going to screw you over cuz not only did he potentially screw you over by your deposit if you gave him one he now just wasted your time that is a crime in itself I have done some deals where the person was a little bit Shady me like oh I got a guy he's already here I'm like dude I'm on mying way I'm an hour in this trip so this guy got scammed out of time out of his time it's a 60 Corvette it's not going to be $111,000 there are good deals out there too good to be true 95% of the time it is too good to be true so how do you avoid getting screwed over by these guys first things first never pay a deposit without seeing the car in person and verifying the seller's identity if you must pay a deposit write out some sort of quick agreement detailing the terms take a photo of the seller's ID so that'll provide a record and adds a level of security to the transaction if I'm being honest will that ever hold up probably no no it won't but at least it'll let the guy know that you're doing your due diligence or just be content with knowing like hey this is a risk if I lose it I lose it no big deal okay next scam Jimmy this is a bad one we're talking about stolen vehicle tracking scams this sounds dangerous and illegal scammers will offer to help recover stolen cars for a fee praying on Desperate car owners who are eager to get their car back kicking you when you're already down what a bunch of terrible people say your car has been stolen you you posted on Facebook Marketplace or your Instagram and they hit you up and they go hey I can help you get your car back uh you just got to send me $300 that's right so you're in a very vulnerable state you just had something that you love your Miata has been jacked the world is running a million miles a minute in your head and someone reaches out to you in this very vulnerable state offering false hope end up screwing you over even more that would suck some person is like oh dude if you give me 500 bucks I can find it for you I have a crew of people we recover 98% of people's cars back don't worry I'll find it and You're vulnerable You're like okay I want the car back I want the car back I'll pay 500 bucks right now you're out of car and whatever money you gave them yeah that's horrible how do you avoid getting screwed like this Jimmy well avoid paying anyone who offers unsolicited help especially through social media stick to the official channels and trusted sources for the best chance of recovering your car this would just be just heartbreaking but the thing is is here's what scammers do they pray on vulnerable people who are a little naive and I think if you got your car stolen someone's going to say oh that was a naive individual let me see if I can exploit their naive even further and so those are messed up people if you're that kind of person watching this video don't do that don't be a scumbag be a better person okay Jimmy you're up this is undoubtedly the oldest trick in the book but it still happens counterfeit cash W just do a transaction at a bank where the money can be verified immediately learn how to read bills too sure you know get one of those pens yeah it's hard to counterfeit new bills for sure especially the one with the little blue stripe yep so they got the old Benjamins maybe be a little weary but hold it up to the light see if there's a watermark in it there are a bunch of ways that you can look at make sure your money is right also do this you count the cash don't let people count for you CU there guys SL a hand who can like make acks look like 5,000 bucks by just like flipping bills multiple times I've given an envelope to a person they're like oh I trust you I'm like well you should still count it a lot of people will get screwed over because they want to be polite yeah this is a business transaction you are doing business things this a business anytime it's over a set amount of money in my brain I'm going let's just do it at the bank one I don't want to be walking around with a bunch of cash that's another thing too that's a liability yeah you have to be careful especially if you're doing high dollar amounts because the person might seem really nice but say they hire someone to rob you immediately there's another person involved in this you don't know you don't know that and so there are plenty of ways that you can get screwed over meet at a bank a next Jimmy is a scam called title floating and this is when you buy a car off somebody who hasn't owned the car long enough to be on the title so you sell a car without transferring the title to avoid taxes or hide leans on the car so the seller skips the title transfer process which can lead to legal issues for the buyer this has happened a few times to some of my friends a guy finds a Miata or Lexus it's a good deal and he's just like oh well I'm not going to have the previous owner sign it I'm going to keep it for like 2 months work on it sell it but I'm not the seller and then you go to the DMV or tripa and they're like hey what's up with this I mean it could be stolen you could be avoiding paying old fees the title could have leans on it all of that is things that you will now be responsible for if you hold that title you can get screwed really quick now title floating isn't necessarily nefarious all the time I've had some friends who buy and sell a lot of cars and they buy a car for a good deal they know they're not going to keep it they don't title it in their name and then when they sell it it still has the previous owner's title now that comes with a couple things but I think the main thing to watch out for is when you buy a car and there's a lean on it or there's fees on it right other things attached to that title if you would to register it in your name it would show up you don't want that you don't want all those things you don't want the smoke you don't want the smoke so then you just pass it off to the next person make sure you're buying the car from the person who's on the title do your due diligence this happened to me actually next up is fake online listings for cards or parts that don't exist designed to steal your money I am a victim of this you know me I love you know dabbling in rare parts Exquisite Parts exotic I bought a set of Tom's Gundam seats uh they're very rare Toyota Racing company from Japan they made a seat that was this awesome seat in the'80s it looked like a Gundam fighter pilot like seat yeah and this guy in Thailand was selling it he was like legit they're clean and I was all in it I was like I've got to have these for col they look sick it was a pair of them which you never see you always just see one which should have already been a red flag I sent him the money he was like okay I'm going to send it out next week he kept stringing me along and stringing me along he sent me photos of it in a crate you know and I was like I had a buddy in Oregon he also was interested in these seats oh so you got your friends involved too great and he got the seat first and it was just the one seat it was just one seat and he was like it's fake oh the seats are fake how much you get scammed for 1,500 bucks so I'm out 1,500 bucks and I don't have rare seats in my collection but you know what it's all good well I will say say that if you're in this position of buying parts best thing you can do is if you can figure out if this is a reputable seller if this person has sold stuff to your friends or if you're 1,500 bucks is a lot of money and I've done this before where like a guy is selling a bunch of different things there's one part that might be a little bit cheaper I'll just buy that one first see how the process is to work with them if I get burned by them at least it's not a lot of money and then I can come back to the table and like hey I'm actually interested in this do you want to work out something like that start small work big don't go $1,500 Gundam seat in a guy's living room it looks legit he's got carpet in that house well it was funny because he posted them in this group and other people in the group got real stuff so I was like we're all good last but definitely not least is odometer roll back rolling back the odometer to show lower mileage and inflate the car's value do you remember the movie Matilda with Danny DeVito I do remember the movie that's the one thing I remember about that is I think think the car was like I remember he like super glued a bumper on super super Glu it put it on and then he like jacked the car up and ran it in reverse yeah with the the drill you run it backwards the numbers go down cool to roll back an odometer it's super easy especially on older cars and when you do that it makes the vehicle appear less used making it more valuable than it actually is I mean yeah and you can also just swap out a cluster too that's how easy it can be it can be as easy as jacking the car putting the car in Reverse running it backwards or like you saying changing the cluster out so that that physical odometer that's in there is now a different unit yeah and I think sometimes the cluster swap is not meant in a bad light because you know for cars like a GTR there's like a Nismo cluster that you want or you know and you swap that in and you're like oh that's adding value but actually you are indicating a wrong mileage I think just make sure you're doing your research on what you're buying look at that Carfax make sure all the numbers are lining up I know for example there's a certain ailia motorcycle the internal battery would go bad and it would reset wa yeah so if like your battery dies on the motorcycle it resets back to zero like that's a great hack for a guy who's got 20,000 miles on a th000 cc motorcycle been ripping it you know like he can just like oh no it's actually 400 miles but the thing is is with that particular model it's a very known thing so people are going to do their research so do your research how about we check out an example J of a odometer roll back let's do it scammer 2003 Land Cruiser four-wheel drive I checked out this car and was given a fake Carfax it has an odometer roll back buy or beware oh that's funny too I didn't think about that but that's another it could totally fake the Carfax someone could Photoshop a fake Carfax in 2 seconds we just found a scam in the middle of this video that I didn't even think about you buy your own Carfax do not let the owner of your future car potentially give you a Carfax also one of the things I do when I go check out a vehicle I talked about kind of the things like going with your gut I always ask like hey do you mind if I take some pictures of it 99% of the time if they're legit and in my experience people are like oh yeah sure go for it when I sell stuff people want to take photos out I got nothing I go for it take as many phos you want run the VIN do whatever you want I do not care and some things you can do is inspect the car for signs of odometer tampering unusual wear and tear that doesn't match the reported mileage one thing always check the accelerator pedal car has 30,000 Mi but the pedal is worn out or the carpet the bolsters in the seats there are things that are like little signs that'll let you know that there's some inconsistencies with the quality and the state of the vehicle and what the odometer is telling you I went and looked at a Miata once and I saw that the cluster Hood was missing and you could just see the cluster and I was like probably a swapped cluster yeah nobody ever got rich being honest after everything we've taught you today just use these points to help you so you don't get scammed in the future but at the end of the day just do as much research as you can and do your due diligence it's only going to help you the more time you spend figuring out whether or not someone's trying to screw you over it's all about research research is knowledge thank you guys so much for watching this video and everything else here at donut if you guys think we missed any scams let us know in the comments below share it so the whole Community can be a little bit wiser to these guys cuz no one likes to get scammed thank you guys so much for watching this video give Jimmy a follow follow me follow donut bye don't get scammed don't get scammedcar scams are getting out of hand the number of Online vehicle scams is on the rid this is happening all over the country scammers are taking advantage of people shopping online watch out car scammers are the worst kind of people they're jerks and we are sick of them scamming people last year car scams Rose by 30% So today we're going to walk through the most common scams that you can avoid when buying a used car so you don't get screwed out of your hard-earned money Jared what's really going on with all of this I mean I've been buying and selling stuff since I was 15 you get screwed enough times doing that you get a six sense for it I do think with these tips you'll be a lot better than where I was before I started so trust your gut I'm jar this is Jimmy welcome to Donut hey now first up we have some JDM import scams Jimmy you know a thing or two about importing uh some cars from Japan I do yes so what's the deal with this first off it's very hard for you to find history on cars that come from another country so you can find that perf car in Japan but you don't know if it's been in an accident you don't know if the odometer has been rolled back okay so you go on a foreign auction website there's no Carfax at all in Japan it's not easy for you to find it through that listing but you can use car VX which is the Japanese site to find that Carfax got you so the guy selling it is burying where you can find a history what about like your importer so yeah that's another big process actually getting the paperwork right to get the car from Japan to where you live you can can get an import service guy to go and check out the car for you there's a ton of companies that do it you just need to find the ones that you trust the most personally I trust stacked there on Instagram they've got awesome collection of cars and they've brought in nothing but clean cars in the United States get someone you trust and then verify the details of the car Vin details mileage want to make sure you don't have any rust that's really a thing that super common people try to cover up if you see the underside of a car and it's beautiful sprayed black that's a good sign that someone is just trying to cover up an unsightly undercarriage of a car yeah that is a sight all too common with import cars like if I were looking at that just on the surface you look at like oh that looks really clean it looks super nice there's no oil there's no dirt it's just solid black under there but typically in a lot of cases when you're buying cars from overseas they are covering something up the next scam to look out for Vin swapping this is an old trick that surprisingly still happens from time to time even in our era of digital Rec records interconnected DMV BMV systems services like Carfax car vertical they still get fooled sometimes because people are just dirty dirty dogs so this actually happened to Jerry Seinfeld he was sued for selling a fake Porsche 356 not too long ago so almost certain he didn't know it was fake what's the deal with vin swapping I guess the deal is this you got a car something's wrong with it stolen salvage title so you go get you one off of a car in a junkyard that maybe you know might still have a salvage thing do a little bit of trickery and cut the tab and then weld it back paint all over it print the labels too to match the door jams I've seen that happen yeah I mean that's crazy but here's what you can do to avoid getting screwed this way the first and easiest thing is to check multiple Vin locations on the car so manufacturers they're going to put vins in several spots the trunk the firewall the dash inside the doors under the hood sometimes they're going to be all over the car check those vins also good if you use a VIN decoder that you can find exactly what model the car is and what it was spec from from the factory it said it came as this color from the factory but it's actually a different color the VIN tells a story so a VIN decoder is a great way to do it also one of the things that I do probably the easiest thing is spend a little bit of money a Carfax car vertical something where you can go put your information in Pay 35 bucks and get a report $35 is going to save you a lot in the long run Matt what is this so this is my demo car it's basically a stock vet with a Texas Speed engine and sequential gear boox and a borla attack system is there any chance that uh maybe we could drive it a little have at it boys no let's get in before he changes his mind for almost 50 years borla has been the go-to exhaust for all drivers around the world woohoo the patented Technologies give you perfect sound balance and Cutting Edge performance with no compromises it's loud as hell on the track but quiet and refined at home plus there's no annoying drone that's huge each system is manufactured in Johnson City Tennessee using the highest quality stainless steel with many different tips finishes and other customization options borderer helps tailor an exhaust system that best fits your Unique Style and S so if you want savear performance reliability and the best damn sound out of your car get a Bor exhaust today to learn more click the link below let's get on to our next scam Jimmy okay this next one might not be a scam might not be illegal but it's pretty scummy and something we want to talk about and bring awareness to you guys Shady dealership tactics now dealers are going to do a couple things but there's three main things to watch out for first is the classic bait and switch so you go on their website great deal on a car go in store to the dealership they're like uh actually sorry that that car is sold it's gone it's not here but we do have this one that's really scummy next they will add on unnecessary things that you didn't ask for now I said at the beginning of this I've never been scammed but let me tell you I did get scammed with this one time really what what happened I got the lowjack system installed and the undercoding and all this stuff I bought in one brand new car in my entire life it was a Ford F-150 all that price all it does is just adds unnecessary fees to inflate the cost so maybe it's a low Jack but because they had to install it it's now a thousand bucks right so there are plenty of other ways that they can just keep padding that cost and making it go higher so you got to check all those things don't feel pressured it is their job to sell you this stuff nobody's going to pressure anybody around here St it's literally walking into like a professional who does this on the daily I know what you think it's he knows all the tricks in the book I think you got to buy it today right now you want to know why don't feel bad when you tell this person no yeah you can tell them no tell them no don't be so polite I was just looking and the third thing they'll do Jimmy is dealers will make a lot of money off of interest rates if you're financing the car through them who they have in-house financing right you have a good credit score they run it so say you qualify for a 5% interest rate but what the dealer would do is they'll tack on an extra 2% and say hey you're actually your interest rate 7% and they're going to pocket that extra 2% criminal I'm not a lawyer but I would think that that would be illegal now one of the easiest things you can do to see if a dealership is kind of scammy and does these things Google their name and see what pops up read the reviews we found a review for this company premium Autos premium Autos is a scam these guys will lie and say what they have to get you to the dealer if I didn't know about selling Vehicles they would have taken advantage of me as well read the reviews that is yeah someone's going to get screwed and they're not going to be happy with it and luckily the internet is free for the most part if they are consistent with being a shady dealership a lot of people will voice their displeasure on the internet so just do a quick Google search make sure that the dealer you're working with isn't Shady okay the next scam we have are fake dealer websites so scammers will build out websites and list cars at unbelievably low prices to lure in potential buyers they'll build out a very incate website use stolen images fake reviews it's going to appear super legitimate but it's not how do you avoid that well the first thing is you can actually plug the website into different sites that'll tell you whether or not it's a legitimate site so there's things like this for people who sell like wholesale products over in China it's the same thing that applies here in the states it'll check the legitimacy of that website specifically the Better Business Bureau will be able to tell you that the BBB another good way to tell if a dealership is legit or not is to do a reverse Google image search to check if the images are stolen or used elsewhere yeah that's a good one yeah I've used that a few times I've used that a few times too deals too good to be true take those images pop it into Google image and then you see like oh why is this now in Nebraska on a Facebook Marketplace page no it's just some guy scamming all different local market he's just screenshotting next up is deposit scam scammers ask for a deposit to hold a car that doesn't exist then disappear with your money that sucks I almost fell for this as a kid once I wanted a Yamaha Banshee and the guy was like all right I'll hold it for you cuz it was a good deal give me like 300 bucks yeah give me a couple hundred bucks and I was like all right how do I send you this money and then you know my mom got involved and she was like are you sure about this this how old were you I was probably 15 so we actually found a few examples of people on Craigslist who were screwed by a listing and actually sent money 1966 Corvette scammer oh 11,000 bucks Reno Nevada yeah this seller is a bastard liar and cheat he repeatedly told me he was only 24 years old don't know why I traveled out from Central California to Reno all the while texting the guy and trying to reach him on the phone after I spoke to him over the phone he flat out ghosted me first of all here's the thing if you're doing a multi-hour trip to go get a good deal on a car you better 100% be certain that that guy is not going to screw you over cuz not only did he potentially screw you over by your deposit if you gave him one he now just wasted your time that is a crime in itself I have done some deals where the person was a little bit Shady me like oh I got a guy he's already here I'm like dude I'm on mying way I'm an hour in this trip so this guy got scammed out of time out of his time it's a 60 Corvette it's not going to be $111,000 there are good deals out there too good to be true 95% of the time it is too good to be true so how do you avoid getting screwed over by these guys first things first never pay a deposit without seeing the car in person and verifying the seller's identity if you must pay a deposit write out some sort of quick agreement detailing the terms take a photo of the seller's ID so that'll provide a record and adds a level of security to the transaction if I'm being honest will that ever hold up probably no no it won't but at least it'll let the guy know that you're doing your due diligence or just be content with knowing like hey this is a risk if I lose it I lose it no big deal okay next scam Jimmy this is a bad one we're talking about stolen vehicle tracking scams this sounds dangerous and illegal scammers will offer to help recover stolen cars for a fee praying on Desperate car owners who are eager to get their car back kicking you when you're already down what a bunch of terrible people say your car has been stolen you you posted on Facebook Marketplace or your Instagram and they hit you up and they go hey I can help you get your car back uh you just got to send me $300 that's right so you're in a very vulnerable state you just had something that you love your Miata has been jacked the world is running a million miles a minute in your head and someone reaches out to you in this very vulnerable state offering false hope end up screwing you over even more that would suck some person is like oh dude if you give me 500 bucks I can find it for you I have a crew of people we recover 98% of people's cars back don't worry I'll find it and You're vulnerable You're like okay I want the car back I want the car back I'll pay 500 bucks right now you're out of car and whatever money you gave them yeah that's horrible how do you avoid getting screwed like this Jimmy well avoid paying anyone who offers unsolicited help especially through social media stick to the official channels and trusted sources for the best chance of recovering your car this would just be just heartbreaking but the thing is is here's what scammers do they pray on vulnerable people who are a little naive and I think if you got your car stolen someone's going to say oh that was a naive individual let me see if I can exploit their naive even further and so those are messed up people if you're that kind of person watching this video don't do that don't be a scumbag be a better person okay Jimmy you're up this is undoubtedly the oldest trick in the book but it still happens counterfeit cash W just do a transaction at a bank where the money can be verified immediately learn how to read bills too sure you know get one of those pens yeah it's hard to counterfeit new bills for sure especially the one with the little blue stripe yep so they got the old Benjamins maybe be a little weary but hold it up to the light see if there's a watermark in it there are a bunch of ways that you can look at make sure your money is right also do this you count the cash don't let people count for you CU there guys SL a hand who can like make acks look like 5,000 bucks by just like flipping bills multiple times I've given an envelope to a person they're like oh I trust you I'm like well you should still count it a lot of people will get screwed over because they want to be polite yeah this is a business transaction you are doing business things this a business anytime it's over a set amount of money in my brain I'm going let's just do it at the bank one I don't want to be walking around with a bunch of cash that's another thing too that's a liability yeah you have to be careful especially if you're doing high dollar amounts because the person might seem really nice but say they hire someone to rob you immediately there's another person involved in this you don't know you don't know that and so there are plenty of ways that you can get screwed over meet at a bank a next Jimmy is a scam called title floating and this is when you buy a car off somebody who hasn't owned the car long enough to be on the title so you sell a car without transferring the title to avoid taxes or hide leans on the car so the seller skips the title transfer process which can lead to legal issues for the buyer this has happened a few times to some of my friends a guy finds a Miata or Lexus it's a good deal and he's just like oh well I'm not going to have the previous owner sign it I'm going to keep it for like 2 months work on it sell it but I'm not the seller and then you go to the DMV or tripa and they're like hey what's up with this I mean it could be stolen you could be avoiding paying old fees the title could have leans on it all of that is things that you will now be responsible for if you hold that title you can get screwed really quick now title floating isn't necessarily nefarious all the time I've had some friends who buy and sell a lot of cars and they buy a car for a good deal they know they're not going to keep it they don't title it in their name and then when they sell it it still has the previous owner's title now that comes with a couple things but I think the main thing to watch out for is when you buy a car and there's a lean on it or there's fees on it right other things attached to that title if you would to register it in your name it would show up you don't want that you don't want all those things you don't want the smoke you don't want the smoke so then you just pass it off to the next person make sure you're buying the car from the person who's on the title do your due diligence this happened to me actually next up is fake online listings for cards or parts that don't exist designed to steal your money I am a victim of this you know me I love you know dabbling in rare parts Exquisite Parts exotic I bought a set of Tom's Gundam seats uh they're very rare Toyota Racing company from Japan they made a seat that was this awesome seat in the'80s it looked like a Gundam fighter pilot like seat yeah and this guy in Thailand was selling it he was like legit they're clean and I was all in it I was like I've got to have these for col they look sick it was a pair of them which you never see you always just see one which should have already been a red flag I sent him the money he was like okay I'm going to send it out next week he kept stringing me along and stringing me along he sent me photos of it in a crate you know and I was like I had a buddy in Oregon he also was interested in these seats oh so you got your friends involved too great and he got the seat first and it was just the one seat it was just one seat and he was like it's fake oh the seats are fake how much you get scammed for 1,500 bucks so I'm out 1,500 bucks and I don't have rare seats in my collection but you know what it's all good well I will say say that if you're in this position of buying parts best thing you can do is if you can figure out if this is a reputable seller if this person has sold stuff to your friends or if you're 1,500 bucks is a lot of money and I've done this before where like a guy is selling a bunch of different things there's one part that might be a little bit cheaper I'll just buy that one first see how the process is to work with them if I get burned by them at least it's not a lot of money and then I can come back to the table and like hey I'm actually interested in this do you want to work out something like that start small work big don't go $1,500 Gundam seat in a guy's living room it looks legit he's got carpet in that house well it was funny because he posted them in this group and other people in the group got real stuff so I was like we're all good last but definitely not least is odometer roll back rolling back the odometer to show lower mileage and inflate the car's value do you remember the movie Matilda with Danny DeVito I do remember the movie that's the one thing I remember about that is I think think the car was like I remember he like super glued a bumper on super super Glu it put it on and then he like jacked the car up and ran it in reverse yeah with the the drill you run it backwards the numbers go down cool to roll back an odometer it's super easy especially on older cars and when you do that it makes the vehicle appear less used making it more valuable than it actually is I mean yeah and you can also just swap out a cluster too that's how easy it can be it can be as easy as jacking the car putting the car in Reverse running it backwards or like you saying changing the cluster out so that that physical odometer that's in there is now a different unit yeah and I think sometimes the cluster swap is not meant in a bad light because you know for cars like a GTR there's like a Nismo cluster that you want or you know and you swap that in and you're like oh that's adding value but actually you are indicating a wrong mileage I think just make sure you're doing your research on what you're buying look at that Carfax make sure all the numbers are lining up I know for example there's a certain ailia motorcycle the internal battery would go bad and it would reset wa yeah so if like your battery dies on the motorcycle it resets back to zero like that's a great hack for a guy who's got 20,000 miles on a th000 cc motorcycle been ripping it you know like he can just like oh no it's actually 400 miles but the thing is is with that particular model it's a very known thing so people are going to do their research so do your research how about we check out an example J of a odometer roll back let's do it scammer 2003 Land Cruiser four-wheel drive I checked out this car and was given a fake Carfax it has an odometer roll back buy or beware oh that's funny too I didn't think about that but that's another it could totally fake the Carfax someone could Photoshop a fake Carfax in 2 seconds we just found a scam in the middle of this video that I didn't even think about you buy your own Carfax do not let the owner of your future car potentially give you a Carfax also one of the things I do when I go check out a vehicle I talked about kind of the things like going with your gut I always ask like hey do you mind if I take some pictures of it 99% of the time if they're legit and in my experience people are like oh yeah sure go for it when I sell stuff people want to take photos out I got nothing I go for it take as many phos you want run the VIN do whatever you want I do not care and some things you can do is inspect the car for signs of odometer tampering unusual wear and tear that doesn't match the reported mileage one thing always check the accelerator pedal car has 30,000 Mi but the pedal is worn out or the carpet the bolsters in the seats there are things that are like little signs that'll let you know that there's some inconsistencies with the quality and the state of the vehicle and what the odometer is telling you I went and looked at a Miata once and I saw that the cluster Hood was missing and you could just see the cluster and I was like probably a swapped cluster yeah nobody ever got rich being honest after everything we've taught you today just use these points to help you so you don't get scammed in the future but at the end of the day just do as much research as you can and do your due diligence it's only going to help you the more time you spend figuring out whether or not someone's trying to screw you over it's all about research research is knowledge thank you guys so much for watching this video and everything else here at donut if you guys think we missed any scams let us know in the comments below share it so the whole Community can be a little bit wiser to these guys cuz no one likes to get scammed thank you guys so much for watching this video give Jimmy a follow follow me follow donut bye don't get scammed don't get scammed