Car Buying Scam

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   I would like to make everyone aware of  a recent scam someone tried to pull on my husband and I when we were trying to sell our 2019 Toyota Tacoma.  My husband had his truck advertised on several car selling websites.  He received a call from an interested buyer at 8 o'clock one evening.  The man seemed very motivated and asked if he could come see the car that night.  My husband thought that was an odd time to be shopping for a car but agreed when the guy said he was leaving town the next day and really wanted to see it. 

   Two young men arrived about an hour later.  My husband and I had taken some safety precautions but the men seemed non threatening.  They took it for a short test drive around the block.  When they came back, they asked to look under the hood.  My husband popped open the hood and just then, one of the guys asked him to come to the back of the truck so he could show him something he had a question about. I admit that I was not paying close attention at that time.

   A short time later, the guy who was at the front inspecting the engine called to my husband and pointed out that the truck was leaking a great deal of oil.  There was oil all over the engine and under the hood.  Oil was also pouring down my driveway.  "See this?" he said, "You have a blown engine."

We were completely confused and blindsided since we had recently had the 50,000 mile service done and the truck had never leaked a drop of oil.  Never mind how embarrassed we felt at seemingly trying to sell someone a truck with a blown engine.  My husband apologized profusely.  The guy began to show us all the signs of a blown engine including oil in the coolant reservoir.  He then went on to say he was a mechanic and could fix it so offered to just take it off our hands for $11,000 instead of paying the $26,000 we were asking.  He also brought out an impressive roll of cash.

   We politely declined saying we wanted our mechanic to look at it since he had recently serviced it.  He told us all the reasons this would not be a good idea and how we would be wise to just let go of this now "worthless" truck. The men became more persistent and pushy but we stood our ground in the face of a very stressful situation.  They finally left.

   Somewhat shaken, we began to recount the evening's events and wonder if in fact we had been the target of a scam.  Things started to add up and we began to search YouTube for videos addressing this very scenario.  Sure enough, several popped up.  People who distract the seller and spew oil all over the engine and/or in the coolant reservoir to get a cheaper price.  The videos were from people who had fallen for the scam.

   Since we had no idea what these guys had actually done to the truck, we had it towed to the mechanic the next day. The dispatcher at AAA told us that this was becoming more of a problem in our area and they had heard of this happening before.  The mechanic checked our vehicle out for us and flushed the coolant system.  The total cost came to $59.00.  We just want to make others aware, encourage us all to stay vigilant in these situations, pay attention and avoid hasty knee jerk reactions.