Cars.co.za currently has a thriving private car market, with many genuine private car sellers and buyers able to conduct their trade through the site. Unfortunately scam and fraudulent private car sellers are a reality of our times and it is important that potential buyers protect themselves and are vigilant when attempting to purchase a privately sold car.

What Cars.co.za is doing to protect you, the user.

We do have a system in place at Cars.co.za where any private car sellers that attempt to advertise their cars on our site must first go through a screening process, unfortunately some of these scam cars still slip through and make it into onto the database. We are also constantly monitoring our stock and looking for suspicious cars and removing them.

What can you do to notify Cars.co.za of a potential scam car?

If you come across a privately owned car on Cars.co.za that you believe to be from a scam seller, you can notify us in 2 different ways. Firstly you complete a ‘Contact submission’ message under the ‘Contact us’ section. Simply note the car that you believe is a scam car in your message and note the email address that the scam seller is using. Secondly you can contact us via phone on 011 614 5612 and mention the specifics of the car and the details of the seller and we will investigate further.

Things to look out for to identify a scam car

• Be suspicious of cars that seem too good to be true
• Be suspicious if too many features are listed (or all features are listed), i.e. sunroof, ABS etc
• Be suspicious of any car that is substantially cheaper than other cars in the same range.
• Make sure that the telephone contact number provided is genuine; many scam sellers provide a number which does not exist and insist on communicating via email.

Precautions to take to ensure you do not get scammed

Many scam sellers note that their vehicle is in some other part of the country and the vehicle will be shipped once the buyer has paid the deposit. Never deposit any money to anyone before first seeing the car and ensuring that everything about the deal is genuine. Scam sellers rely on buyers depositing money to them under a false pretense that the car will be shipped to them etc.

Another common avenue for scam sellers to try and earn the buyers trust is by mentioning that they are selling the car through E-Bay and providing pictures and awards noting how they are a trusted E-Bay seller. This is a sure sign of a scam and should be avoided at all cost.

Make sure you see the car you are potentially going to buy in person, if the buyer refuses to let you see the car, then there is already too much suspicion and the car should be avoided. Use common sense when looking to buy a private car and be sure to protect yourself against fraud or being scammed.

Conclusion

At Cars.co.za we are constantly working to ensure that the privately sold cars on our website are legit cars and that the buyers are viewing vehicles that exist. We aim to root out all scam cars and car sellers on our website so that your experience using the website is quality, user friendly and safe. If you have any questions or have seen what you believe to be scam cars on our website, please contact us via our “Contact us” from the Cars.co.za homepage.