With cars being a big ticket item there are many way for unsuspecting victims to be bilked by a fraudster and with the internet this has greatly expanded the ways.  Internet identity theft and fraud is now a global business.  Here are the latest in car scams.

• Check Scam—this scam includes all kinds of checks including personal, cashiers, money order and more.  It can take many forms such as a fraudster tells the seller that he accidentally made out the check for too much and wants the seller to deposit the check and just sent him the difference back.  Of course, once the seller has wired the person the difference back they learn the check is worthless and their money is gone.  It is advisable to wait for at least three weeks for a big check to clear.
• Sympathy Scam—this is one of the oldest scams around where the seller gives a potential buyer a sob story about why they need to sell the car quickly and why the price is so low which is putting pressure of the buyer to make a quick decision.  If the buyer falls for this scam they can land up with no car or a lemon.
• Shipping Scam—in this scam the seller asks for a deposit on a car and promises to ship the vehicle to the potential buyer so they can inspect the car with a certain number of days.  Usually a thief will tell they buyer that the third party shipping company will be in contact after the deposit is sent via wire service.  To appear legitimate the fraudster will copy or forge a website.  Usually this scam is carried out by criminal gangs and not just one person.
• Purchase Protection Plan Scam—the way this scam works is that the scammer will push a protection plan for the transaction and the buyer is asked to send a deposit for the full purchase price of the car.  What the protection plan does is that it says if the buyer does not receive the car they will be reimbursed for the total amount of the invoice.  The scammers commonly use fake websites that look just like the real websites such as Goggle Checkout, Cars.com and others.
• Photo Scam—this scam occurs when a vehicle is listed online with the wording giving a normal market rate but the photo that is with the ad shows a lower price.  The scammer will tell the potential buyer that the price of the vehicle has been reduced for some reason in order to elicit sympathy.  The potential buyer pays the reduced price but never gets the car.

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