Scams
Facebook Marketplace car scams and how they work
Marketplace has real cars and real sellers. It also has a stable set of scams that repeat almost word for word — and nearly all of them need you to send money before you have the vehicle.
These are not clever. They work because they are run at enormous volume against people who are excited about a car and slightly rushed. Reading them once makes them obvious forever.
The car that is somewhere else
Priced well under market. The seller is deployed, relocating, going through a divorce, or handling a deceased relative's estate. The car is with a shipping company and will arrive with a five-day inspection period. You just need to send payment to release it. There is no car, and the photos are lifted from a real listing that sold months ago.
The tell: a reason you can never see the vehicle in person, paired with urgency about the payment specifically.
The escrow site the seller picked
You say you are not comfortable sending money directly. The seller agrees immediately and suggests an escrow service, with a link. The site looks professional and emails you an invoice with wire instructions. It was registered recently and it belongs to the seller. Some clone real escrow companies exactly, changing one character in the domain.
The tell: the seller chose the service and sent the link. Real escrow is something you select and navigate to independently.
The deposit to hold it
Several people are supposedly interested. The seller offers to take the listing down for a small deposit — $200, $500, something that feels proportionate against a $20,000 car. You send it and the account disappears. This one works because the amount is small enough that people take the risk consciously.
The tell: any request for money before you have seen the vehicle. The size does not matter.
The fake vehicle history report
You ask for a history report and the seller sends a link to a site you have not heard of, sometimes offering to reimburse the fee. The site harvests your card details, or it produces a clean report on any VIN you enter. Either way the report is worthless.
The tell: a report from a site the seller introduced you to. Buy your own from a provider you found yourself.
The overpayment reversal
This one targets sellers. A buyer sends more than the asking price — a shipper's error, an accounting mistake — and asks you to return the difference. Their original payment was fraudulent and reverses. Your refund does not. You are out the difference and often the car as well.
The tell: any overpayment followed by a request to send part of it back through a different channel.
The verification code
A buyer or seller asks you to prove you are real by sending them a code they are about to text you. The code is a password reset or an account verification for a service in your name. Handing it over hands over the account. This is often the setup for identity theft rather than vehicle fraud.
The tell: anyone asking for a code that arrives on your phone. There is no legitimate version of this request.
The title that is coming
A real car, a real meeting, a real person. You pay and drive away, and the signed title is in the mail because it is at the bank or with an ex-spouse or being replaced. It never comes. You now own a car you cannot register, insure properly, or legally resell.
The tell: any explanation for why the title is not physically present at the handover.
What actually separates a real listing from a fake one
Nothing on the listing itself is reliable. Photos are stolen, prices are set to attract, and descriptions are copied. The signal comes from what happens when you engage.
- Ask for a specific photo. Not more photos — a specific one: the VIN plate on the door jamb, the odometer with today's date written on a piece of paper next to it, the driver's side rear wheel. Someone with the car takes ninety seconds. Someone without it stalls, sends something else, or gets defensive.
- Ask a question the photos cannot answer. Is there a warning light on the dash at cold start? Does the AC blow cold? A real owner answers immediately and specifically, often with a caveat.
- Suggest meeting. The response to "can I come see it Saturday?" sorts real from fake faster than anything else.
- Look at the profile. Created recently, no history, no photos, listing several vehicles across distant cities — all meaningful. None is conclusive alone.
You do not send money before you have the vehicle, and you do not accept a payment method chosen by the other party because it cannot be reversed. Every scam above needs at least one of those two things.
If you have already sent money
- If you paid by card, call your issuer and dispute the charge. This is the best position to be in.
- If you wired, call your bank's wire department immediately and ask for a recall on the basis of fraud. Speed is everything — recalls succeed mainly while the funds are still in the receiving account.
- If you used a peer-to-peer app, report it in the app and to your bank. Recovery is unlikely but the report matters.
- File with IC3 at ic3.gov and with your local police.
- Screenshot everything before it disappears — the listing, the profile, the full message thread. Do not block the account; the thread is evidence.
Where DriveLink fits
DriveLink is a marketplace for private vehicle sales where every deal runs through escrow. We hold the buyer's funds, the handover happens, and the money is released to the seller afterward.
You can browse cars listed with us, or bring a deal you found on Marketplace and run just the payment through us. The listing does not have to be ours.