Our cooperation partner Onlinewarnings.de warns: Be careful when buying used cars: Fraudsters sell stolen cars with stolen documents! For a consumer, buying a new used car has become quite a non-starter. In the end, he not only lost his money, but also the newly purchased car. Read here how you can protect yourself from such fraud.
In Baden-Württemberg, a man wanted to re-register his recently purchased used car. The bitter truth then came to light at the admissions office. Fraudsters had given the buyer a stolen car with fake license plates and stolen documents. the police , the registration papers were stolen as part of a break-in at the Duisburg registration office.
It turned out that the car had been reported stolen in Italy. The buyer, who contacted the sellers via the Internet, was hit twice. The fraudsters disappeared with the cash and he has no claim to the car he bought. Similar cases were reported to the police in Gießen and Recklinghausen.
How to protect yourself from this scam
Purchasing a vehicle via online portals such as mobile.de or autoscout24.de always involves a risk. Therefore, you should check the documents carefully to the best of your ability before agreeing to a purchase contract. So that you don't end up like the victim described above, mobile.de offers some tips. Here's what you should do to avoid falling victim to scammers when buying a used car:
- Make sure that the registered vehicle owner and the seller are the same. If these details differ, request the power of attorney from the actual owner, which authorizes the sale.
- Since car dealers do not have to be named in the vehicle documents, it is always advisable to get the name and address of the seller. Normally this data is noted in the purchase contract.
- If you are afraid of forged documents, it is best to go to the registration office with the seller to re-register the car. The admissions office checks the documents. If there are any problems, you will be informed there at the latest.
In general, you should be careful if sellers are very careful with personal data and want all payments to be made in cash.
The problem with stolen cars?
If a car was stolen and then sold, you have no claim to that car. The purchase is invalid. You will have to hand in the car and your money will most likely be lost as well. Insurance is unlikely to cover such damage.
Additional information for buying a car online
The mobile.de platform then knows that it does not certify the trustworthiness of private sellers because the platform lacks any information on this. If you receive such an email purchasing online
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )