A UK man is reeling after the BMW 335i he listed on Facebook Marketplace was stolen. He believes the person who took it was acting like an interested buyer.
Scammers are impersonating car leasing companies on social media.
This is a slight twist on other online car sales fraud situations. Instead of a supposed buyer showing up to look at a vehicle, then pulling a gun to carjack the owner or just never returning from the test drive, this man had his ride stolen from the driveway overnight.
According to ITV, the victim was contacted by a potential buyer. Rather than arrange for a meetup at a public place, the seller gave the supposedly interested party his home address. We know some people do this because then if the person doesn’t show they’re not inconvenienced, but doing this comes at huge risk.
The seller waited for the buyer to show up, but the guy said he would come by the next day instead. Then the next morning the BMW, which had been parked in the driveway, was just gone. All that was left was some broken glass on the driveway.
In the report, the victim seems confused about how the thieves even took his car since it requires the blade key for the push-button ignition. What he doesn’t realize is there are ways around that. Thieves often specialize in certain models and they know how to exploit their security weaknesses.
This is why we tell everyone to never give a car shopper your home address. Not only could someone hold you at gunpoint in your own house, they could come and just steal the car later. After all, they the location of the exact kind of vehicle they specialize in stealing, making online car listings a type of menu for thieves.
Image via Nick Martins/Facebook Marketplace
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