- People get scammed every single day
by fake Craigslist ads and literal highway robbery.
Are you at risk?
Hell yeah you are.
Has this ever happened to you?
You're driving along
and the car in front of you slams on the brake.
You spill hot soup all over your lap,
all over your legs and lap.
Now you're stuck with the bill.
It's a scam.
I will protect you.
I'm gonna give you a crash course on how not to get scammed
and if you stick around to the end,
I'll show you the worst scam of all.
(strumming)
I wanna thank Omaze for partnering with us
to bring you this episode.
If you don't know already, Omaze is this really cool company
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all to support amazing causes
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the same center that helped saved James' life.
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I think I'm gonna head over to omaze.com/garage right now
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Support the companies that help support the show.
Thank you Omaze for sponsoring this episode.
Buying a car from a dealership isn't fun.
I've never heard anyone say, "Wow, I had such a great time.
"Let's do that again."
Dealerships employ many hidden tricks
to trap their customers,
trying to extract every last penny they can.
But what happens when a dealer pretends
to be a private seller?
Let's say you come across an ad
for an early model MINI Cooper S.
This one looks good.
It has a clean title and lowish mileage.
You contact the owner
and make an appointment to look at the car.
They give you their address and everything checks out.
You agree on a price
and you're ready to hand them your hard-earned cash,
but the owner pulls out the pink slip
and it has a different name on it.
Uh, "What the heck, dude."
They give you and excuse, "Oh, I'm selling this car
"for an old friend."
But that's all BS.
They're just trying to get rid of a car
with hidden problems, far away from the dealership.
This is known as curbstoning.
It's a way that dealers sell cars
that aren't fit to sell on the lot.
But why is that?
In 2013, California passed a law
that all, "Buy here, pay here dealerships
"must provide a warranty with every car sold,
for 30 days or a thousand miles, whichever comes first."
The owner is protected from major mechanical
and electronic failures.
But, that's only if you buy the car through a dealership.
Some dealers will come across a car
that has a mechanical issue
or something else wrong with a car
that is too expensive to fix,
or too much of a liability for them.
They can't risk losing their license
and they don't wanna spend money to fix the car.
So, they sell it quickly by curbstoning.
Unethical dealerships will utilize the curbstoning scam
to avoid liability.
I'm not saying this is a common scam
and that you should be skeptic of every dealership,
but it does happen.
Although mind games aren't really scams,
and more like manipulation, here's a dealership scam
that you should be aware of.
Ever heard of something called title washing?
All cars come with a legal document called a title.
And in terms of buying and selling, most people only care
if it's clean or a salvaged car.
Title washing is when someone takes a salvage-status
and re-registers it in a different state.
The new state might not recognize it at salvaged,
which basically washes that salvaged title away.
We go into way more detail on this scam
on another Wheelhouse episode.
If you wanna learn more, check out that one (clears throat),
and if you like this video,
consider hitting that subscribe button.
When dealing with online private sellers
a scammer might try to sell you a fake car.
Has this ever happened to you?
You go to buy a car and the seller only takes gift cards.
It's a scam.
I'll protect you, ah!
(laughter)
- (mumbling) No more. - They will post ads
of really low asking prices
and good sob stories to match.
If you ask to see the car,
the scammer will give a runaround excuse
and tell you, "Oh, someone else
"is really interested in buying the car."
This is done to entice you, the buyer,
to quickly make a deposit or purchase the car
before anyone else does.
But when it comes times to pay,
they only accept money through specific escrow,
or gift cards.
The Federal Trade Commission website says,
"Gift cards are for gifts, not payments."
Anyone who demands payment by gift card,
is always a scammer.
Dealing with a scammer that wants to work through an escrow,
is a little different, but it can still be a scam.
If you don't know what an escrow is,
it's a service used to ensure a secure transaction
between two parties that don't trust each other.
Once the scammer can find someone to prey on,
the escrow reinsures the victim
that they have received everything.
But in reality, there's nothing.
After the victim sends the escrow their hard-earned cash,
the thief then closes everything down
and dips, leaving without a trace
and your money in their pocket.
This scam is a little less common
but something to be aware of.
Scammers disguised as buyers work the opposite end
of this transaction.
Having a similar approach,
but utilizing a fake payment method such as a bogus check.
The typical scammer might express great interest
in your for sale ad, begging you to take the ad down,
claiming they're in love with your car
and dead set on buying it.
But they're conveniently located somewhere far, far away
and do not need to come inspect your car before purchase.
Hmm, that's kinda strange.
Sometimes they'll even offer to cover the shipping cost
'cause they want your 350Z that bad.
The scammer might message you saying
they sent, "Too much money," and ask for the difference.
They'll send you fake money.
and have their friends come and take car.
Either way, don't fall for it.
Get them to come hand you real cash, in person.
'Cause guess what, cash is king, my king.
One way crooks scam drivers is through staged accidents.
Now we've all seen those dash cam compilations
of people throwing themselves at slow moving,
or sometimes, even stopped cars,
but there are more elaborate
and dangerous schemes out there,
some even used by organized crime groups.
One of these scams is so infamous, it even has its own name.
Known as the swoop and squat.
It comes in many forms, ultimately ending up
with you rear-ending the car in front of you
after they slam on the brakes.
This scam usually requires the use of multiple cars
to make it more believable.
The squat car, the car you rear-end,
is usually loaded up with passengers
to maximize injury claims.
The swoop car cuts off the squat car
and causes the accident, driving away unaffected,
as you and their accomplices pull over.
Sometimes multiple swoop cars will box you in,
ensuring you can't swerve to avoid the squat car.
This puts all the blame on you,
because you weren't paying attention to the road
and everyone in the squat car told the cop that.
Big yikes!
Another staged accident scam you should look out for
is done through exploitation of the road law, itself.
Picture this.
It's a Friday night and you're finally free
after a long day at work.
You come to an intersection, about to take a left turn.
Oncoming traffic speeds by you
as you patiently wait for your opening.
But then, out of nowhere, you see a flick of high beams
and the driver waving at you, ever so softly, hello.
Their vehicle begins to slow down
and you think, "Gee, that's a kind human being.
"They're letting me go.
"There's nothing suspicious about that."
You pull out into their lane
and out of nowhere, bam, it hits ya.
When you talk to the person,
they just straight-up deny that they flashed you
and that you're at fault
because they had the right o' way.
Guess what?
They're right.
If it's just between you and the person,
you might be screwed.
So how do you protect yourself?
If there are any witnesses around, call the cops
and get a statement from the witness, or witnesses.
This holds substantial weight
for your argument against the scammers.
Sometimes they might even admit fault after an accident,
but once you get their report,
they're trying to pin the blame on you.
That's shady.
If you're watching right now, don't do that.
I'll protect you.
(gavel slamming)
No matter how nice the other person may seem,
make sure you document everything you can,
after an accident.
Don't let the other person sway you
into thinking everything is fine and handled,
even if they admit to being at fault.
Also, if you're in an accident,
don't admit to being at fault.
If you don't document everything,
they can always flip the story around
so be sure to get statements from everybody involved,
take a billion pictures of both cars,
and the layout of the accident.
An easy way not to get scammed is to know your own car.
And to learn how to do that,
check out our new show Money Pit; it's build-along series.
We have a new project car.
The beautiful blue-eyed devil himself, Zach Jobs,
is gonna show you how to do everything on your car,
top to bottom.
Also, if you haven't listened to our podcast, Past Gas,
listen to that on Spotify, Apple Podcast,
wherever you get your podcasts,
or watch us do it in our second channel, Donut Podcasts.
Look, scammers suck,
but there are a lotta things we can do to prevent ourselves
from becoming a victim.
But if you ask me, the biggest scam in the world
is this garbage.
I can't figure this out.
I mean, look at this, maybe someone can help.
Gentlemen, gentlemen, when can I park here?
- Don't try on a holiday.
You have a seven permit, do you have a seven permit?
- I do not have a seven permit.
- Maybe park here on the week--
- I'd just say, don't park here.
- [Nolan] What was that sir?
- I wouldn't park here.
We're late. - Oh, I'm sorry.
- Well, that settles it.
Never park in Los Angeles.
(blowing air)
- It's hot soup (hooting).
(laughs)
Thank you for watching, be kind, I'll see you next time.