A layman can hardly recognize a defective used car. Suspicious advertisements can also be easily uncovered without much specialist knowledge.
- When buying used cars, online portals are one of the first points of contact for many people.
- However, fake advertisements often appear there.
- However, these can be unmasked quite easily.
Where larger amounts of money change hands, criminals are often not far away. They also use fake advertisements, good-faith prospective buyers, to pull money out of their pockets or to get their private data passed on on used car portals on the Internet. Users should pay attention to certain warning signs.
Used car portals: You can often recognize fake advertisements by the photos
The most striking part of an internet advertisement are always the photos . Interested parties should exercise caution when the pictures of the car are too perfect * or when the selection of motifs is too sketchy. If in doubt, it can be worth comparing the images to the Internet using Google image search - they then often appear in completely different locations. A clear indication that the car * is not owned by the advertiser at all.
Recognize fakes on used car portals: How detailed is the car described?
After the photos, a careful check of the ad text is worthwhile . Does the seller report damage to the vehicle? Can these be compared with the photos? Is the total mileage for vehicles with a replacement engine named or only that with the new engine? In general, the more information and the more detailed it is, the better . Oral statements are often of little value in later disputes in court.
How to recognize dubious providers on used car portals
When you are finally ready to contact the seller, you should become suspicious of overly anonymous advertisers . For example, if you only provide an email address but not a phone number, you could try to disguise your identity. In addition, a simple search engine search of the provider name cannot hurt. If an address is specified, it can be checked for plausibility with an online card service. In this way, it can also be found out whether an alleged private seller is actually not a dealer. These occasionally pretend to be private individuals to circumvent the legal guarantee.
Read also: Seller unpacks: These tips you should consider when buying a car.
What you should consider before buying
If the pictures, text and seller have passed the check and can convince the vehicle during the indispensable inspection, a healthy distrust does not hurt the financial handling either. Everyone should be aware that handing over money at night in remote parking lots is not a good idea. But even if the seller suggests a seemingly particularly secure transaction through a trustee , the alarm bells should ring.
Even with reputable providers of cash transfers, criminals have the opportunity to illegally get the deposited money. In other cases, they are often fake companies or companies abroad - the money is then mostly irretrievably gone . You shouldn't even trust well-known names in this regard: Some fraudsters appear to have been commissioned by the respective online used car platform to do the business. However, none of the major Internet providers in Germany offer such services.
Also interesting: how you can best estimate your used car.
Holger Holzer / SP-X
How to buy new cars online
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* tz.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
