Scams when selling your car online

I put my car up for sale online(cars.com) and deleted it shortly after. Not really serious about selling it, just wanted to see what the ad would look like. It had zero page views but the next day I got a text message. Area code 801, near Salt Lake City, on the other side of the country from my location. They wanted my email address to ask more questions. Seems strange, given the distance. I've never sold a car using an online ad, are scam calls and emails common?

There are many scam adds on Craigslist for example.
Very CHEAP price for a newer vehicle with a pic in VERY good condition for say $2,000.
Always a scam asking you for your email when you respond because they are fishing to capture emails.

Any time you sell anything of greater value you may attract scammers. But you also attract all kinds of confused people. So you never know. People may live in Utah and be looking for a car for their son in college where you live.
But you can't expect to sell a car without answering some questions. I have a couple of junk email addresses that I give to almost anyone who asks. Why not?

Hondaman_MI said:

I put my car up for sale online(cars.com) and deleted it shortly after. Not really serious about selling it, just wanted to see what the ad would look like. It had zero page views but the next day I got a text message. Area code 801, near Salt Lake City, on the other side of the country from my location. They wanted my email address to ask more questions. Seems strange, given the distance. I've never sold a car using an online ad, are scam calls and emails common?

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I've sold 3 cars on eBay Motors, no issues. One was a Lexus RX350 for $32K, site unseen!

Hondaman_MI said:

I put my car up for sale online(cars.com) and deleted it shortly after. Not really serious about selling it, just wanted to see what the ad would look like. It had zero page views but the next day I got a text message. Area code 801, near Salt Lake City, on the other side of the country from my location. They wanted my email address to ask more questions. Seems strange, given the distance. I've never sold a car using an online ad, are scam calls and emails common?

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I sold a Subaru over the summer using Carvana and had a great experience. Did comparison shopping with Vroom, CarMax, and some local services, and Carvana gave me the best offer, and an easy transaction. I'd use it again.

Hondaman_MI said:

I put my car up for sale online(cars.com) and deleted it shortly after. Not really serious about selling it, just wanted to see what the ad would look like. It had zero page views but the next day I got a text message. Area code 801, near Salt Lake City, on the other side of the country from my location. They wanted my email address to ask more questions. Seems strange, given the distance. I've never sold a car using an online ad, are scam calls and emails common?

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Hondaman, I recently sold a $20k SUV on cars.com. Some comments:
- They had some kind of pricing graphic that showed other vehicles just like mine, and the main data points were mileage and price. I knew I would have to sell it lower than what the dealers were charging, but this chart showed me that I was way too low. I bumped the price up $2K, and I was still close to the lowest price and mileage. It was still way more than what I would have gotten if I traded it for my Civic.
- I would answer all of the e-mails if they sounded like real people. Some automobile broker people kept leaving me phone calls and e-mails, but I just didn't call them back. If someone was local, and wasn't an obvious scammer, I would answer their questions, and recommend that they stop over and check it out in person. This was done mostly by e-mail. A real person who is truly interested in the vehicle will take me up on this offer. The scammers and dreamers just stop asking questions, and go away. I thought this worked good.
- I had a serious buyer, but he wanted it for a lower price. I told him that I would consider that price in 3-4 weeks, and that I had several interested parties. He came back in 2 days, and bought the car. His wife liked it.
- I didn't remove the ad immediately, and I noticed that the number of e-mails dropped way down. I would recommend reposting or changing the post after a few weeks to refresh the ad. They have many ads, so people tend to look at the fresh ads.
Take care, JP

There's a reason why many of these online sell it sites conceal your email for starters and alias mask any email correspondence through an alias, to prevent scammers from getting hold of your email.