Craigslist Scam Leads Teen Mom to Purchasing a Stolen Car

[Zacha341]

Yeah, I was recently looking for a good used car and found it VERY difficult to find legitimate private sellers as I was in the past.

What initially passed for private owners selling their cars were sellers buying cars out of state from auctions etc. and 're-selling' them from their driveways without a dealer or broker liscence. You could tell as the same phone numbers where listing cars repeatedly and no individual sells cars from their home they 'own' all year long! They flip the title from the original seller to you without ever taking ownership themselves. There are many selling cars in this manner in Dearborn and Detroit per what I found using autotrader.com

In a way I could live with that if the cars are free and clear and not stolen. But sometimes the is fraud and theft. Sometimes they have rebuilt and salvage titles. Or from flood prone states you'd not want to purchase a car from! I'd run the vins and see problems, mostly undisclosed accidents.

Many people who have quality used cars are now uncomfortable about selling the car from their home for fear of being ganked for the car on the spot. So more people are just turing their cars into dealerships or brokers - of course receiving less money for them, but avoiding the drama and potential danger of selling a car privately.

Who can blame them with crime as it is? So ultimately, I ended up purchasing my car from a used car dealership - something I loathed to do as the mark-up is appreciable. But I did and at least felt/ fell good that my money went towards a local Detroit business, instead of the suburbs for a change. Of course I ran the vin and discovered a minor accident I was able to negotiate the price downwards accordingly.