OHIO — Cleveland’s Better Business Bureau issued a warning for people who go online to buy classic cars after seeing a rise in scams.
“It’s out of control,” said David Heinrichs, owner of Heinrichs Vintage Car Shop.
Heinrichs is yet another victim of a recent online scam targeting people who want to buy a classic car, SUV or even a camper through vehicle marketplaces.
But what makes his situation unique is scammers are impersonating his business, Heinrichs Vintage Car Shop.
“I let my website expire and then some scammers picked it up after the domain became available, and what they did is they used my home page with all my information, my phone number and my business address, and if you clicked on their sales, it went to a completely new website,” said Heinrichs.
Heinrichs reported the misinformation to Cleveland’s Better Business Bureau that his name and location had been falsely used to “sell” vintage cars online.
But Heinrichs says it didn’t stop the calls from coming in, and he found himself in the middle of a big mess.
“It’s kind of scary that people have been scammed, I figured over $200,000 have been scammed out of six people. That I know of, and it has slowed down,” said Heinrichs.
Since the pandemic, Cleveland’s Better Business Bureau Director of Operations Ericka Dilworth says they’ve been getting a lot of calls relating to cases like this one, where scammers pretend to be legitimate businesses and post pictures of cars on different marketplaces.
“We have had a few consumers that realized I initially that it was a scam, but we've had other consumers that have, you know, lost money, and we're not talking $5 we're talking thousands of dollars,” said Dilworth.
Dilworth says most of the vehicles people are searching for aren’t readily available at your average dealer, so when people think they’ve found a great price, they act on it, and scammers take advantage.
“They lure them into, hey, this car is going to sell fast, you know, if you want it, you better make an offer right now, and so people do that. They are buying things sight unseen,” said Dilworth.
If you find yourself saying a price is too good to be true, Dilworth says it likely is and recommends you avoid the transaction if you can’t meet face-to-face to see the car.
She also advises people to use caution if they’re being asked to wire money through services like Cash App for big-ticket items.
