Sell your car without getting burned

Almost every scam aimed at private-party sellers runs the same overpayment and fake-check script. Run any buyer through this list before you hand over the keys, sign the title, or send a dollar back. Print it, screenshot it, or keep it on your phone.

Walk away if any one of these is true

• The buyer offers to pay more than your asking price. A real buyer negotiates down, not up. Over-paying is the setup for the "refund the difference" scam, not generosity.
• They pay by check, cashier's check, or money order and ask you to send part of it back by wire, Zelle, Cash App, or gift card. The payment is fake; the money you send back is real and gone.
• They want to buy sight-unseen and have a "shipping company" or "agent" handle pickup and payment. The shipping company is in on it, and money routed through it never comes back.
• They pressure you to release the car, sign over the title, or ship it before your bank confirms the payment has fully cleared.
• They insist on a third-party "escrow" site they picked, or a "buyer protection" service. The escrow site is the scammer.

Know how fake checks actually work

• By law your bank makes deposited funds available in a day or two, but it can take weeks to discover a check is fake. "Funds available" is not "the check cleared." (FTC)
• When the fake check bounces, the bank takes the full amount back out of your account. Anything you already sent the buyer comes straight out of your own pocket. (FTC)
• Fake checks arrive as personal checks, business checks, cashier's checks, money orders, or "electronic" checks. A cashier's check is not automatically safe. (FTC)

Do this every single time

• Meet in person, in daylight, at a police-station safe-exchange zone. No shipping, no couriers, no "agents."
• Take payment that settles in real time: cash you verify, or a bank-to-bank transfer you both confirm in person at the bank.
• Wait for your own bank to confirm the money has fully and permanently cleared, not just "posted" or "available," before anything changes hands.
• Never wire, refund, or send money back to a buyer for any reason, including "overpayment," "taxes," or "the shipper."
• Never hand over the keys or sign the title until cleared payment is sitting in your account.
• Keep the whole deal on the marketplace. Be wary if they rush you to text, WhatsApp, or email right away.

Grounded in the Federal Trade Commission's guidance on fake-check and overpayment scams (consumer.ftc.gov). CarBluff scores known scam patterns in what a buyer sends you; it can't verify who a buyer really is, so always meet in person and confirm cleared payment before you hand over the car. © CarBluff, a Kowski Labs product. Questions? [email protected]