What is a curbsider, and how to spot one on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji

One sign on its own can be innocent. People do sell a parent’s car or price low to move fast. Two or three together, and you are probably talking to a business.

What a curbsider is

OMVIC, Ontario’s dealer regulator, puts it plainly: “Illegal, unlicensed vehicle dealers are called curbsiders. They often pose as private sellers.” In Alberta, AMVIC calls them curbers: sellers who “sell vehicles for profit, like a business” without a licence. Quebec’s consumer protection office calls them false private vendors.

The business model is simple. Buy cheap cars, often write-offs, flood cars or high-km cars from auctions, fix them up as little as possible, and sell them as “my car” on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, where buyers expect private-sale prices and don’t expect a dealer’s obligations. AMVIC warns that curbers “frequently sell vehicles that have hidden damage, tampered odometers or mechanical issues”.

How common are they? OMVIC’s current guidance doesn’t put a number on it. Car Help Canada, a consumer group, reported in 2023 that OMVIC estimated at least a quarter of vehicles listed “for sale by owner” were curbsiders.

Why it matters to you

• No protection. OMVIC says private buyers who fall victim to a curbsider “are not protected by OMVIC, its compensation fund, or the MVDA.” BC’s Vehicle Sales Authority tells private buyers it “will not be able to assist you”: you would have to go to court.
• Hidden damage. A rebuilt, salvage or flood history that a dealer would have to disclose. See rebuilt and salvage cars.
• Odometer tampering. AMVIC names it directly. See how to check for odometer rollback.
• Liens and worse. A car with money owing, or a stolen car with a cloned VIN. See stolen car and VIN checks.

How to check a seller

1. Look at their other listings. On Facebook, open the seller’s profile from the listing to see what else they are selling. On Kijiji, open the seller’s profile for their other ads. Three cars in a month is a business.
2. Search the phone number. Paste it into Google and into the search on both sites. AMVIC lists multiple ads with the same phone number as a sign.
3. Search the photos. Run Google Lens on the main photo. The same driveway, garage or parking lot behind several different cars tells its own story, and so does the same car in an older ad at a different price.
4. Ask how long they have owned it. Then check. In Ontario the Used Vehicle Information Package lists every registered owner. A seller who registered the car last week, or never did, is reselling.
5. Ask for the ownership and photo ID at the viewing. The names must match. “It’s in my cousin’s name” ends the deal.
6. Ask for service records in their name. BC’s regulator notes that a curber won’t have them.
7. Insist on an independent inspection at a mechanic you choose, and run the history, lien and stolen checks. A seller who pushes back on either is on OMVIC’s list.
8. If they seem to be a business, check the licence. OMVIC and AMVIC have online lookups for registered dealers and salespeople. A licensed dealer selling from a personal profile is a different problem, but at least a regulated one.

What a curbsider listing looks like

Before you message, read for these:

• “Selling for a friend”, “my uncle’s car”, “just got it, not for me”.
• A different car from the same profile every week, or the same background in every photo.
• No mileage, vague history (“runs great, no issues”), and no VIN offered.
• A price that is low, but not so low it reads as a scam.
• “Cash only”, “first come first served”, “lots of interest, need to sell today”.
• Dealer wording on a private ad: “financing available”, “OAC”, “stock #”, “plus tax and licensing”. Curbsiders sometimes copy listing templates from the lots they buy from.

On Kijiji’s Cars & Trucks section you can set the For sale by filter to owners, but curbsiders choose “owner” too. Facebook has no reliable private-seller filter at all.

Province by province

Other provinces license dealers through a government office; your provincial consumer protection office can tell you where to report.

What to do if you think you met one

• Don’t buy. Even a good car from a curbsider comes with no recourse.
• Save the evidence. The listing link, screenshots of the ad and the seller’s profile, the phone number, and the messages.
• Report it to your provincial regulator, and report the listing on Facebook or Kijiji.
• Already bought? Get a full history report and an inspection now, keep every document, and contact the regulator. If the odometer or title was misrepresented, contact police as well.

Notice the patterns, with Sift

No tool can tell you who a seller really is. Sift, a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, makes the patterns easier to see on a computer:

• Dealer tag. Listings with dealer wording (“financing available”, “we finance”, “OAC”, “$500 down”, “bad credit OK”, “in stock”, “stock #”, “plus tax and licensing”) get a “Dealer” tag or disappear, your choice. On Kijiji it also uses Kijiji’s own dealer flag.
• Reposted badge. When the same car is relisted to look fresh, the badge shows when Sift first saw it and at what price.
• Check elsewhere. Google Lens on the listing photo and the same search on the other site, one click each.
• Good signs and “Check this” flags. Green chips for one owner and service records; red ones for deposits, e-transfer first and “text me at” numbers.

Start a hunt › Car sets this up as a preset: dealers hidden, branded titles hidden, year and km limits, and already-seen cars dimmed.

Sift does not decode or check VINs, pull Carfax reports, search liens, check stolen-vehicle databases, verify odometers or prove whether a seller is a curbsider. A curbsider who writes like a private seller gets past any filter; the ownership, the ID and the checks above are what catch them. Sift runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer.