Scam prevention tips when buying or selling a car

We buy stuff online every day. Buying or selling a car can be an exciting yet stressful transaction, mainly because we’re about to spend or receive a lot more money than with a pair of jeans. Aside from property, a car purchase or sale is the biggest single financial transaction most of us will make.

When you’re in the car market to either buy or sell, it can be tempting to rush or ignore any warning signs of a scam. It doesn’t help that scams are getting more realistic than ever. We have become so used to a quick scroll and click that it isn’t in our nature as much to stop and double check something is legit.

When paying for or accepting payment for something, especially when that something is expensive like a car, you should slow everything down and check that it is all legitimate. Luckily, carsales, Australia’s biggest car selling platform, has strong guard rails in place on its part of the internet highway to help keep you safe.

There’s an increase in elaborate scams where phishing links or QR codes are used that entice buyers and sellers to leave the carsales platform. If you click on one of these, you could be at risk of being defrauded. You’re often directed to a fake site where you’re asked for personal details with the result being you risk losing money to a scam.

These scams can look deceptively like the real thing. To be clear, carsales will not ever send you an SMS or email asking you to click a hyperlink to confirm your account or personal details.

The way you can confirm if it’s a phishing scam email or SMS is in the detail of the website address (URL) from the email sender and the link which they want you to click. The URL will be similar to but not the same as the real site.

For example, where you would visit https://www.carsales.com.au/ a scammer may include the word carsales in their URL, for example “?http://carsales.besaba.com/". They may also be using an address that starts with 'http:' rather than 'https:'. This 's' is an important indication that the site is secure.

First, pause before you click. Think it through, look at the information you have. Does it look suspicious? Check the sender’s email address. Do not click on hyperlinks provided in emails or text messages, even if they appear to be from ‘carsales’. Instead, use your ‘bookmarks’ to navigate to the website or type the website address directly into your browser.

Also, be cautious of any text messages claiming to be from carsales, but especially from overseas or automated mobile numbers. Double-check. Still not sure? Contact carsales customer care on 13 72 53 for confirmation before doing anything. The key is, don’t rush if you feel you might be getting scammed. Never click on any external links, stay in the carsales platform messaging system and pay through carsales to help avoid being scammed.

Scams may succeed when buyers and sellers move off the carsales platform to email, SMS, or WhatsApp. In those spaces, it’s harder for carsales to protect you or monitor suspicious activity. Red flags for a scam could include the buyer or seller avoiding speaking on the phone or meeting in person. They might try to move the chat to email, SMS, WhatsApp or another app.

Another red flag is if they ask you to pay money immediately for things such as freight, an inspection or holding fees. The car might seem too much of a bargain, or the other party accepts your offer unusually quickly. Alternatively, they may become pushy, use legal threats, or pressure you to act quickly if you were to hesitate.

The carsales messaging system, within the carsales website or app, is the safest, most controlled place to communicate. You can find your carsales messages in the drop down menu under your account on the carsales home page. Click on the initial on the menu bar representing your logged in account name and the drop-down menu choices will include ‘messages’. Click on this and you will be able to see your messages as either a buyer or seller.

If you have set alerts, you will receive an email to let you know a message has come in. Either way you will need to log in on the carsales app or website and then you’ll see, a red bubble with a number indicating how many new messages you have unread. You can also receive notifications (if you have notifications turned on) to let you know there’s a message waiting for you in your carsales account.

In short, the carsales messaging system keeps your details safe and helps block scams. It’s less confusing too, because if enquiries are numerous it keeps conversations in one place. You’re better able to keep track and stay in control. If it’s your first time buying or selling a car, carsales messages helps by keeping it simple.

Scammers are sending fake invoices branded as “carsales payments” to request bank transfers or deposits. Fake invoices are convincing and can look official, but carsales will never send you QR codes, email invoices, or direct transfer requests. Because of this, we encourage users to pay through carsales – it's free, users need to verify their ID and funds are protected until key handover.

Many scams occur because buyers and sellers rely on direct fund transfers, cash, or off-platform apps. With pay through carsales, you have a safer, more transparent way to transact. Also provided that, as the seller, you have already paid for an ad and verified your ID, this service is completely free. As a buyer, you pay nothing for this service but gain the security it offers.

The beauty of pay through carsales is that payments are protected — funds are only released once the car is handed over. There’s no need to deal with cash, risky transfers, or sharing personal banking details.

As carsales has already verified both buyer and seller IDs, then when a deal is made, secure fund transfers can be made upon mutual agreement. You can worry less about scammers and focus on the deal.

By using the pay through carsales service, you also bypass other issues that can affect the deal. For example, bank transfer limits or payment delays. While many banks offer instant fund transfers, it isn’t guaranteed to work instantly — sometimes delays of 24 hours or more can occur. With pay through carsales in place, you can access funds directly and get a payment confirmation, all done with your phone.

Scams are easy to fall for when buying or selling a car. But if you keep all messages and payment within the safety net of the carsales platform and don’t rush, don’t click on hyperlinks and, carefully check where all communications are coming from, then you can get to the fun part of buying or selling your car with some peace of mind that carsales has got your back.

Join the conversation at our Facebook page
Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au