Buying A Used Vehicle From Far Away

dapperdan wrote:
My nephew just fell victim to a long distance fraud deal. He found a '15 RAM 1500 pick up on Detroit's CL (he lives the the Milwaukee WI area) for a "great" price. After texting AND talking to the "owner" they agreed to meet in Chicago and make the deal. My nephew came with cash, the "owner" had the title, and a receipt for the pay off from Chrysler Credit. My nephew asked to see the "owners" ID and he called Chrysler Credit to have the lean payoff verified. The "owners" ID checked out with the info on the title and after the confirmation my nephew test drove the vehicle. All was good at this point so he handed over the cash and was given the title.

My nephew drove back to Milwaukee and promptly titled the vehicle in Wisconsin. This deal took place in early December. Fast forward to about January 20th. He gets a knock on the door from the local law enforcement agency, his "new" truck has been reported stolen in Michigan and they have to impound it!! Of course he's SHOCKED and can't believe it! He's put in touch with the authorities in Michigan and is informed that the REAL owner of the 2015 RAM pick up had been "scammed" by a frauder with a phony bank check! The "real" owner doesn't find this out for a couple of weeks supposedly and alerts the authorities and his insurance company. Michigan tracks the truck back to my nephew and has it impounded, three or four days later it's transported back to Michigan, in the mean time my nephew contacts the local FBI here in Milwaukee and gets them going on the case. So far the authorities here and in Michigan haven't any answers for my nephew. He was told early on the chances of him recovering his 20k is slim to none!

The amazing thing to me is even though my nephew checked the guy's ID at the time of the deal and it matched the address and name on the title AND called and had verification that the loan was paid off he gets "stung" because the "real" owner accepted a phony bank check AND he's got his "stolen" RAM back!!! To top it all off the authorities said he "did everything right" checking the seller out but (they) can't do much to find this scammer. A VERY expensive lesson!!

Dan