THE SCAM
The car dealership that isn't real.
You find a car dealership's website. It looks completely normal: the real dealer's logo, real-looking inventory, photos of cars, a phone number, maybe a deal on a hard-to-find model. You call, and the 'salesman' is friendly — walks you through the buying process, reassures you about the return policy. To hold the car, they ask for an upfront payment: a deposit or the full price, sent by wire transfer.
You pay. Then you drive to the actual dealership, and there is no record of you, your money, or your car. The site you bought from was a clone. Scammers copied the real dealer's website in detail — logos, vehicle listings, photos, even customer testimonials, sometimes with AI — and collected payments for cars that don't exist. The FTC flagged this as a growing scam in a September 1 consumer alert.
THE RED FLAG
The biggest red flag: you are asked to pay by wire transfer before you've seen the car or set foot in the dealership. Wire transfers can't be reversed — that's exactly why scammers insist on them.
Real dealerships want you on the lot; fakes keep everything online and pressure you to act now before 'someone else grabs it.' And cloned sites often dangle rare or hard-to-find vehicles at tempting prices — the bait that makes you skip the checks you'd normally do.
THE RULE
Never buy a car from a website alone. Search the dealer's name plus 'scam,' 'review,' or 'complaint' on a site you type in yourself. See the car and the dealership in person before you pay a cent. And never pay by wire transfer — the moment they demand one, walk away, because a real dealer will take your card or a cashier's check.
(Source: FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection consumer alert, September 1, 2026)
SIGN-OFF
That's today's red flag. One scam, one red flag, one rule — pass it to someone who clicks first and asks questions later.
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