Beware the VIN report scam

mudduc

mudduc

Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
248
Age
60
Location
Minnesota
Bike
2005 Honda ST1300
I'm sure we are all sophisticated users and know enough to avoid this scam but just in case...

I've been trying to sell my 2018 FJR1300A for a few months now and noticed that each time I renewed my craig's list add...
FJR1300 on CraigsList
...I would get a text or two almost immediately. Most can be ignored as obvious scammers but the scum who contacted me this morning was really good and almost had me bite the bait.

We exchanged like 20 texts talking over the bike and going back and forth on price until we worked out a deal. He was ready to meet at the bank to verify funds in a few days but just wanted me to send him the VIN report first. I actually thought "maybe I should get a VIN report. It would be nice to have on hand to show potential buyers."

Then I woke up. He/She/Them/Scum didn't want "a" VIN report they wanted the report from trustywheel.com--a specific scammer site provided by the dirtbag. If you go to their scam site, you provide payment information and get ripped off. Best case is paying just the $39 for something useless. Worst case is having your bank or cc info stolen for a deeper fleecing.

So don't provide a VIN report to buyers. If they are nervous, meet up, let them have the VIN if they are a true buyer and have them run the report from CarFAX or somewhere else legitimate by themselves. If I'm buying something and I'm nervous, I'd want to run my own report anyway instead of trust whatever paperwork someone seller provides for me.

Later,
Kent Larson in Minnesota.
 
mudduc said:
I'm sure we are all sophisticated users and know enough to avoid this scam but just in case...

I've been trying to sell my 2018 FJR1300A for a few months now and noticed that each time I renewed my craig's list add...
FJR1300 on CraigsList
...I would get a text or two almost immediately. Most can be ignored as obvious scammers but the scum who contacted me this morning was really good and almost had me bite the bait.

We exchanged like 20 texts talking over the bike and going back and forth on price until we worked out a deal. He was ready to meet at the bank to verify funds in a few days but just wanted me to send him the VIN report first. I actually thought "maybe I should get a VIN report. It would be nice to have on hand to show potential buyers."

Then I woke up. He/She/Them/Scum didn't want "a" VIN report they wanted the report from trustywheel.com--a specific scammer site provided by the dirtbag. If you go to their scam site, you provide payment information and get ripped off. Best case is paying just the $39 for something useless. Worst case is having your bank or cc info stolen for a deeper fleecing.

So don't provide a VIN report to buyers. If they are nervous, meet up, let them have the VIN if they are a true buyer and have them run the report from CarFAX or somewhere else legitimate by themselves. If I'm buying something and I'm nervous, I'd want to run my own report anyway instead of trust whatever paperwork someone seller provides for me.

Later,
Kent Larson in Minnesota.
Click to expand...
Had a very authentic sounding scammer call about my Medicare. They discussed some recent additions to Medicare that I was already familiar with. Then as an afterthought, asked me to verify my personal information, including my phone number, which they had just called. So, I 'called' them on it. 'Don't you have my number? You just called' and refused to give them anything else. I was met with a hangup which told me everything I suspected. American sounding, not Indian, Pakastani, or Mexican accented which is what we in Texas usually get. Has me wondering if it's the same scammers either hiring American 'voice actors' or developing an AI talent to hide the accent. Seems most corporations sell at least some of our information...which they should not be doing....lying about complicity in the transactions, and our government is ignoring it. Far more fun to play the Trump and Biden fans against one another, I suppose.
They are targeting the partially senile, much as vehicle scammers are targeting those who don't understand the system. Just think twice before you hand out any information.
 
I ran unto the VIN report scam on Craigslist as well. They were always VERY interested in the bike, but insisted on a VIN report and always provided the link they wanted me to use. I figured they were just trying to sell VIN reports. I didn't think about the info theft piece of the equation.
 
Had something similar a few months back. Had a car listed on kijiji. Immediately got several calls, every one of them insisting I pay for and send them a vin report. I already had a carfax in hand that I was willing to send them, but each one insisted that I buy their report and send it to them. Each one of them had a different link with a different name. Prices varied from $35-50. Finally I caught on and told them I’d be happy to send them my carfax, and if that wasn’t good enuf then they could buy their own vin search, to which they were very insulted about.
 
Plus the language errors in that text snapshot...I know, some texting errors aren't uncommon, but those seem more language related than typing ability. I don't reply to texts from ppl I don't know and use Google to screen unk incoming calls. If ppl don't want to talk to that system and tell me what they're calling about, I have no need to answer. Haven't tried selling any vehicles though, so now I know to beware of the VIN scam.
 
Thank you for the info. 1st I have heard about this one. Getting ready to sell a bike and only knew of the one where they send you a check and you give the guy what is left. We told him to pick up check at police station. Waddaya know, nobody showed. This one is showing a bit- not a lot- of imagination.
 
Most - not all - offshore scammers make it VERY apparent that English is not their first language.
Use of conjunctions, adverbs... don't mean to go all high school English teacher on ya, but I can spot these arseholes a mile away.
(Still don't understand how they hack my farcebook account every couple of years.) I'm mainly on fb only as admin of a local German Shepherd private group.
 
Dr. Phil has commented that scammers intentionally do not correct spelling and grammatical errors, because people who are willing to overlook them tend to be easy marks.
 
Medicare updates, COVID test kits, auto accident recently?, free back/knee/whatever braces, etc. etc. . . .. yep, I get these calls daily at our house. Mostly with east indian accents but Phillipino seems to be on the rise. Irritating for sure. Recorded messages trying to sound like a real person are easy to determine since they start with a couple of seconds of blank air followed by a computer tone before the message kicks in. I just hang up.

However, if it's a real person, accent obvious or not, I try not to be rude and if I have time, I'll listen and decline everything for a minute or two and wish them luck in finding a better job. These people have these jobs to support themselves and their families and I assume this is what's available to them. So . . . I don't get mad at the caller.

FWIW,
Shuey
 
No. insulting and denigrating the caller isn't productive. but I have actually been through three different levels before they finally hung up on me, I am kind of proud of that, it was fun making up ways to get them to continue.
 
motornut said:
No. insulting and denigrating the caller isn't productive. but I have actually been through three different levels before they finally hung up on me, I am kind of proud of that, it was fun making up ways to get them to continue.
Click to expand...
Yes, wasting their time is quite satisfying.
 
I had the identical thing happen to me a few weeks ago. I was selling my Jeep and I made a deal with someone(I thought) who was a few hours away and made arrangements to meet him at a CHP station near where I live to inspect the vehicle. After agreeing on a price he then asked me for a VIN verification and report. I offered him a Carfax report but he insisted on using a different company. Something seem off with this so I looked up this VIN report and found out that is is a major scam to get your credit info and also get a false charge on your account. I refused to do the report and the buyer hung up on me. Up to that point he seemed very legitimate and believable.
 
A few years back on CL was common to get this, “I’ll have my shipper contact you”. A sure sign of a CL scam is when you get a text message minutes after placing the ad, sometimes seconds. I always love when they ask “do you still have your item”. When selling a bike I’ll place in the ad to tell me a specific thing about the bike, gas tank or seat color, etc
 
Yeah, same story here. Last year I was selling one of my Mazda Miatas, I wrote out a very long description of all recent repairs, all known issue and pretty much my location within a mile. About 10 hours after I posted someone asked if I had it, where was I located and what the last repair was. Although all of this was in the description, I assumed someone may have tried to view on their phone and didn't read it. So I answered, they almost immediately replied and told me they had cash, would arrive the follwing evening, and they needed the "TVR" papers and provided a link. I declined and told them the VIN was in the ad and go get their own report, to which they got defense and said "I have been screwed in the past, you need to provide this, now!". I just informed them they were blocked.

As everyone mentioned, very believable because of text messaging/email, but at some point you realize they have not looked at the ad and they are fixated with you going to a certain website and entering your info.

One interesting conversation I had was a somewhat "scripted" text message chain, with what I assumed at the time to be a scammer. It got so detailed that eventually they were asking the DOT numbers on the tires. At this point I am thinking "how can this possibly make this scammer any money, what is the end game?". Turns out they were a 3rd party that would make money on referring cars to Carmax for purchase. They went so far as to setup an appointment at the local Carmax for me, which I declined.

Just remember. If it is too good to be true, run. That goes for both buying and selling on local markets. ;)
 
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