Facebook Marketplace car scams: every trick, and the checks that catch them

A used car is the most expensive thing most people buy from a stranger online, and scammers plan around that. Every Marketplace car scam fakes one of three things: the car, its story, or the deal. Each one has a tell, and a check that catches it before you pay.

Why cars draw the worst scams

The price is high, the buyer is in a hurry, and anyone can post photos of a car. Meta’s own safety page says requests to move a conversation off Facebook are most common in three categories: vehicles, rentals and home goods. Its help centre tells buyers not to send deposits for high-value items such as cars without first confirming they’re real, and to confirm that the item exists and who owns it before paying.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre lists motor vehicles among the goods fraudsters advertise on classified sites. In the UK, Lloyds Banking Group found that 68% of the purchase-fraud reports from its customers between March 2025 and March 2026 started on Meta’s platforms, about £66 million lost, with vehicles among the categories named.

Scams where the car doesn’t exist

These cost the scammer nothing but photos, and they end the same way: you pay before you’ve stood next to the car.

The deposit to hold it

The car is priced to sell, “lots of people are asking”, and if you send $500 now they’ll hold it until Saturday. Sometimes the deposit goes through a link to a page dressed up as a payment form. Once it’s paid, the seller goes quiet or needs more. Kijiji’s rule for vehicles works on Marketplace too: never send a deposit before you’ve inspected the car. A real seller with plenty of interest sells to whoever turns up first with the money, and says so. Our guide to deposit scams covers the variations and what to say back.

Fake escrow, shipping and “vehicle protection”

The seller agrees to your price and offers to ship the car. To keep you safe, the money will sit with eBay, Amazon, Facebook or a transport company until you’ve had the car a few days. Then an invoice arrives that looks like it came from one of them. The Better Business Bureau has warned about this exact script, with fake eBay and Amazon escrow invoices, and says to avoid any deal that involves shipping or escrow services.

No such protection exists for a private car sale. Facebook’s Purchase Protection covers only orders paid through Facebook checkout; local pickups, Messenger deals and payments made outside Facebook don’t qualify, which describes every private car sale. Kijiji says it doesn’t partner with any shipping, inspection or escrow company, and that you should never send money to a third party that claims it will hold your funds until delivery. If a car can only reach you on a truck, treat it as a shipping scam.

The seller who can’t be there

Deployed with the military. Working on a rig. Just moved overseas, so the car is in storage. The story explains why you can’t see the car, why it’s cheap and why it has to ship. Kijiji names sellers who are overseas, deployed or unable to show the vehicle as a warning sign on its own. An owner who really has left the country leaves the keys with someone, and you can still go and look.

Stolen photos and copied listings

Scammers lift photos from dealer websites and old listings, then post the car in a new city at a lower price. Run two of the photos through a reverse image search (Google Lens on a phone, or right-click an image in Chrome). A dealer watermark, a car lot in the background, or the same pictures on a listing two provinces or states away settles it. Kijiji also suggests searching the VIN or the photos online to find duplicate listings. Then ask for one new photo: the odometer beside a note with your name and today’s date.

The price that’s half of market

The bait is usually the price: a tidy car at less than half of what similar ones are going for. Real cars do sell cheap, because they need work, carry a branded title or belong to someone who must sell this week, and a genuine listing says which. A clean, low-mileage car at half price with no reason given is there to pull you into a deposit or a chat off Facebook. Kijiji says to be cautious of anything priced well below market value; price the car against five or six similar local listings before you message anyone. Why some genuine cars come in cheap is covered in how to buy a used car on Marketplace.

Scams where the car is real but the story isn’t

These are harder, because you can drive the car and still lose money. What’s false is who is selling it, where it has been, how far it has gone, or who still has a claim on it.

Curbstoners

A curbstoner, or curbsider in Canada, is an unlicensed dealer posing as a private seller. They sell cars with problems a licensed dealer would have to disclose as “my aunt’s car”, and because it looks like a private sale, you lose a dealer’s protections. In Ontario, OMVIC notes that people who buy from a curbsider can’t claim from its compensation fund.

The tells are in the profile as much as the listing. Watch for several cars on one profile, at once or one after another; a title that isn’t in the seller’s name (“I’m selling it for a friend”); a meeting in a store parking lot instead of at home; and dealer phrases on a private ad, such as “financing available” or a stock number. Ask whose name is on the title and see the car at the registered address. If the name doesn’t match the person’s ID, walk away. Our curbsider guide has the provincial rules.

Title washing

When an insurer declares a car a total loss, the title should carry a brand such as salvage or flood. Title washing makes the brand disappear. NMVTIS, the US national title database, explains how: the car is retitled in a state that doesn’t check with the state that issued the earlier title, and the new one comes out clean.

NMVTIS keeps brands as a permanent part of a car’s record, so a report shows brands from any state that reported them, insurers’ total-loss decisions and the last odometer reading reported. Reporting gaps mean a clean result can still be wrong. You can’t get an NMVTIS report from Carfax, DMVDesk or Experian; approved consumer providers include Bumper, CarVertical, CheckThatVIN, VinAudit and VINData. Canadian brands vary by province, as our page on salvage and rebuilt titles explains.

VIN cloning

A stolen car is given a VIN copied from a legal car of the same model and colour, so a stolen check on that number comes back clean. Équité Association, which investigates insurance fraud in Canada, also describes a version that uses a VIN that was never made at all.

At the viewing, find the VIN in three places: the lower driver-side corner of the windshield, the sticker on the driver’s door jamb, and the title or registration. All three must match, character for character. Then look at how the dash plate is fixed (scratches, glue or rivets that don’t look factory), count the keys, and ask when the seller registered the car. A clone often comes with ownership that is days old. More signs are in our guide to VIN checks and stolen cars in Canada.

Rolled-back odometers

A lower reading adds thousands to the price, and digital odometers can be changed too. Check the reading against the history report, service records and oil-change stickers (in the UK, the free MOT history records the mileage at every test), then against the wear on the pedals, seat and steering wheel. Our odometer rollback guide covers the report flags and a mechanic’s scan.

Flood cars

Flood damage is the brand most likely to be missing, because flooded cars can be cleaned up and sold far away. Bring a flashlight. Look for a musty smell or heavy air freshener, silt or a water line under the mats and in the spare-tire well, rust on seat rails and screws under the dash, fog inside the lights, and electrics that only work some of the time.

Liens

A loan secured against a car usually stays with the car, so the lender can take it back from you. In the US, a lienholder is normally printed on the title; ask for the lender’s lien release, or close the deal at the seller’s bank so the loan is paid off on the spot. In Ontario, the seller’s Used Vehicle Information Package lists liens, and ServiceOntario runs a lien enquiry on any VIN. In Australia, a PPSR search shows money owing.

Stolen cars

Not every stolen car wears a cloned VIN; some are sold days after the theft with a story about lost paperwork. In the US, NICB’s VINCheck is free and searches theft and salvage records from participating insurers. In Canada, the free CPIC vehicle search shows whether police have listed a car as stolen. Neither is complete, so the paperwork rule still decides it: no title or ownership in the seller’s name, no sale.

Scams at the meetup and the payment

Once the car is real and its story holds up, the risk moves to the day you pay.

Most fake-payment tricks target sellers: Kijiji warns about fake e-Transfer confirmations and counterfeit bank drafts. The version aimed at buyers is a seller who wants money you can’t get back, such as Zelle, a wire, Western Union, gift cards, crypto or PayPal Friends and Family, before the keys are in your hand. The cleanest way to pay is together at your bank, once the paperwork checks out. See how to pay for a car for each country.

Cash brings its own risk. In 2022, Vancouver police warned of three robberies of Marketplace sellers in four days, one involving a gun, even though the victims met in public. A buyer carrying $10,000 is just as obvious a target. Leave the money at home for the first viewing, bring a friend, and meet at a police safe exchange zone or the address on the registration, in daylight.

The last trick is a swap: the person showing the car isn’t the owner, or the title belongs to a different car. Before any money moves, read the VIN on the title against the car, and the name on the title against the seller’s photo ID. If either doesn’t match, stop.

The 10-minute check before you drive anywhere

Do this from home. Most fake cars fall out at step 4.

1. Price it. Compare the asking price with five or six similar cars nearby, in the same year range and mileage. Under half is a warning by itself.
2. Open the seller’s profile. A profile made last month, a home town far from the car, or several cars for sale at once points to a scammer or a curbstoner.
3. Reverse-search two photos. Look for the same pictures on a dealer site, an old listing or in another city.
4. Ask for the VIN and a photo of the title or ownership with the name visible. Owners send both. “I’ll show you when you get here” is a no.
5. Run the VIN. Use the free stolen check for your country, then a history report (see the table below). Make sure the year, model and colour match the listing.
6. Ask three questions only an owner can answer. When was it last serviced, and where? How old are the tires? Why are you selling? Vague answers tell you plenty.
7. Refuse any link, deposit, escrow or shipping. If the deal can’t happen without one, it isn’t a deal.
8. Book a daylight viewing where the car is registered. Say you’ll bring a mechanic or take it to one, and use the used car inspection checklist on the day.

Check tools by country

These checks describe a VIN, not the car in front of you, so they only count once the VIN on the dash, door jamb and paperwork match. A clean report doesn’t replace an inspection. Buying on Kijiji instead? The Kijiji used-car guide covers its tools, and used trucks on Marketplace covers pickups.

If you’ve already paid

Speed matters more than anything else now.

1. Call your bank or payment app today. Ask for the fraud team. Card payments can be disputed, and a transfer caught early can sometimes be stopped.
2. Report it on Facebook. On the listing, open the ••• menu and choose Report listing, then report the profile and the Messenger conversation.
3. Report it outside Facebook. In the US, file with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI’s IC3. In Canada, report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and your local police.
4. Keep everything. Screenshot the listing, the chat, any invoice and your payment receipt before they disappear.

What comes next depends on how you paid; our guide for anyone scammed on Marketplace covers each payment type.

How Sift helps on car searches

Sift is a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace. It works right in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer, with no account. It takes the obvious problem listings off the page, points at the scripts above when a seller writes them down, and checks the VIN in the ad for you.

One click sets Sift up for a car search. It asks for the model years and maximum mileage you want, in kilometres or miles, then:

• turns on the vehicle limits, so cars outside your years or over your mileage are hidden;
• hides salvage, rebuilt, flood, parts-only, as-is and other branded titles;
• hides dealer listings, including ads that read like a dealer wrote them;
• dims the listings you’ve already looked at.

Open a car listing and Sift points out the warning signs it finds, with a red chip that names each one.

Good signs get green chips: Clean history, Service records, One owner and Warranty. A Reposted badge marks a car that has been listed before, and price-drop badges show where the price has been.

When the ad shows a VIN, Sift’s VIN check reads it, checks it matches the year, make and model in the ad and shows recalls on record for that model. A VIN that belongs to a different car is exactly what a copied or cloned listing looks like. Your first VIN check each month is free, and Sift Pro checks every car.

Not sure about a deal? Press Is this a good deal? and Sift’s AI second opinion gives you a verdict (“Be careful with this one” when something is off), the reasons, a fair offer and a message ready to send the seller.

Being early on a fairly priced car beats chasing a too-cheap one. Open a car search and press Watch, and new-listing alerts let you know soon after a new car is posted, on your phone too with Sift Pro.

A deposit request that turns up only in Messenger gets the same answer: no money before you’ve seen the car.