Springtime is car buying season. With used car prices still stubbornly high, a low price on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist can seem like a great deal, but it is not.

Shawneca Colvin was hunting for a used car and found a great deal on a selling app. It was a Nissan Maxima a few hundred miles away for $1,500. The seller said she was in the military and was about to be deployed.

“She said she was going into training with her medical team for a year. She said she didn’t want to store the car,” Colvin said.

So she told Colvin to send a $500 deposit on eBay gift cards.

“I put $200 on one, $200 on another one, and $100 on another. That’s $500,” Colvin said.

But that is the last she heard from the seller: It was all a scam.

Heather Wolfe almost fell for a similar scam, this time it was for a Volkswagon convertible on the Facebook Marketplace.

“It looked like an amazing deal, $800 for a VW bug,” Wolfe said. “She was like my son just passed away from a bike accident, he was 26, and we just want to get rid of the car.”

But the woman wanted to send her a deposit with gift cards.

With used car prices still high in 2024. Expect to see scams like this popping up all Spring on social media. In almost every case, the photos were stolen from a legit car dealer’s website, then the ad was reposted at a much lower price.

To protect yourself:

• Never buy a car sight unseen: You want to make sure the seller has it.
• Be suspicious of sad stories, like a son who just deployed or a spouse who just died.
• Never send a deposit via gift card, Zelle, or Venmo. You cannot get your money back if its a scam.

Remember: Online scammers are good at gaining trust.

Never trust someone you met on the marketplace or elsewhere online, until you meet them in person. That way you don’t waste your money.