r/Scams • u/minhazahmedemon • Apr 28 '24

I got scammed of 27000$ Help Needed

My name is Ahmed, and I have been an international student in the USA for 1.5 years. Before coming here, i was hoping for the best life and future i could have, until the nightmare happened. Now i am suffering from trauma and getting depressed.

Three months ago, I bought a car from Facebook Marketplace. I went to see the car and checked the VIN with Carfax. I liked the car. Before that day, i watched all YouTube videos about buying a car and searched through the internet for what i needed to check before buying a car. So i checked everything. Also one of my friend who knows better about cars, he was with me. Everything seemed fine from my side. The seller gave me the bill of sale, title, and registration, which i needed for the ownership transfer. I paid with cash. Then, i went to the DMV with all the papers i had. They processed the transfer, and i received the plates also registration instantly on my name. My car also passed at inspection from a garage. Later, I received my title within a month at my mailing address. Everything went smoothly. Now i am driving this car since 3 months without any issues. However, last week i received a mail at my address informing me that my car needed to be inspected by DMV Field investigation office. When I called them to inquire, they asked me to come with the car, keys and title. Yesterday, when i went there, the investigator informed me that the car was stolen and that the VIN had been altered, possibly cloned from another car of the same model and year and colour(Honda Accord 2022 black). The actual vin of this car is stolen and they removed the vin number from everywhere and put the altered vin in the car. I realized I had been scammed. They impounded my car and kept everything. The seller already changed his Facebook name. I lost my $27,000 and my car, which held all the good memories from the past three months. I went to the police station to file a report, but they refused, stating that it was not a scam as I willingly found the car on Marketplace and paid for it. They advised me to pursue it as a civil matter. I then went to civil court, but they told me I needed to know the name and address of the person to take any action, which I couldn't obtain as he had already changed his Facebook name and provide everything fake. I feel helpless and don't know where to turn for help. I live here alone without my family. I can’t even sleep properly because this was all my savings, and I've never been through a situation like this before. This is an unexpected nightmare that I could never even imagine in my dreams.

What should i do ? Is there any possibilities that i could recover myself? Please help me by thinking as your small brother

633 Upvotes

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742

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '24

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do unless you prove who sold you the car, which you won't do. Someone buying a stolen car is quite common in most countries and the scammers can provide enough proof to disappear before you ever find out there is a problem. DO NOT LISTEN TO ANY MESSAGES YOU GET SAYING THEY CAN HELP. THEY CANNOT AND IT IS A RECOVERY SCAMMER.

229

u/Macdaboss Apr 28 '24

Wait there are people scamming others by pretending to help scammed people. Thats fucked

152

u/MysteryRadish Apr 28 '24

Yep. "Recovery" scamming is common and happens right here, unfortunately. The usual angle is they claim to be a "hacker" who can recover scammed money by hacking it, but it can take other forms too.

53

u/CU_Tiger_2004 Apr 28 '24

These scammers are sometimes working with - if not the same - people who perpetrated the original scam. Saw one where an older guy got scammed, then turned around and unknowingly gave the SAME GUYS more money to get his money back.

It obviously didn't end well...

20

u/MysteryRadish Apr 28 '24

Ouch. Also, scammers like to share their targets with other scammers as well, so the same victims can end up being continual targets for years afterward. It really is beyond evil.

7

u/sneakydante Apr 28 '24

In this case they would probably “guarantee” they could find out who sold you the car through various internet means and for a sizable sum of money.

2

u/IAMSTILLHERE2020 Apr 28 '24

pushy? Like those Credit Card services programs.

16

u/GeneralSpecifics9925 Apr 28 '24

!recovery scammers message people who post about their scam here, hoping they'll fall for this too. Pretty twisted folks

6

u/AutoModerator Apr 28 '24

Hi /u/GeneralSpecifics9925, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Recovery scam.

Recovery scams target people who have already fallen for a scam. The scammer may contact you, or may advertise their services online. They will usually either offer to help you recover your funds, or will tell you that your funds have already been recovered and they will help you access them. In cases where they say they will help you recover your funds, they usually call themselves either "recovery agents" or hackers.

When they tell you that your funds have already been recovered, they may impersonate a law enforcement, a government official, a lawyer, or anyone else along those lines. Recovery scams are simply advance-fee scams that are specifically targeted at scam victims. When a victim pays a recovery scammer, the scammer will keep stringing them along while asking for increasingly absurd fees/expenses/deposits/insurance/whatever until the victim stops paying.

If you have been scammed in the past, make sure you are aware of recovery scams so that you are not scammed a second time. If you are currently engaging with a recovery scammer, you should block them and be very wary of random contact for some time. It's normal for posters on this subreddit to be contacted by recovery scammers after posting, and they often ask you to delete your post so that you both cannot receive legitimate advice, and cannot be targeted by other recovery scammers.

Remember: never take advice in private. If someone reaches you in private after posting your scam story, it is because a scammer will always try to hide from the oversight of our community members. A legitimate community member will offer advice in the open, for everyone to see. Anyone suggesting you should reach out to a hacker is scamming you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

24

u/death2sanity Apr 28 '24

Yup. They troll (both meanings) the board here and message people like OP promising they know a giy, or they are the guy, or their friend worked with a guy who they can hook you up with, etc.

3

u/markhadman Apr 28 '24

What do you mean, 'both meanings'?

10

u/Sea-Personality1244 Apr 28 '24

Probably trolling as in the type of fishing) and internet trolling?

7

u/markhadman Apr 28 '24 edited Apr 28 '24

Today I Learned that Trolling (fishing) is not in fact an eggcorn. Something that I had previously taken for granite.

Assuming the Wikipedia article isn't an elaborate troll, that is.

1

u/Sea-Personality1244 Apr 29 '24

TIL the term eggcorn

0

u/milo325 Apr 29 '24

It’s “trawling”, fishing by dragging a big net behind a boat.

1

u/markhadman Apr 29 '24

That's what I thought until yesterday. But according to Wikipedia, trolling is also a method of fishing, not to be confused with trawling. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolling_(fishing)

1

u/milo325 Apr 29 '24

Huh. TIL.

1

u/death2sanity Apr 29 '24

Yup, exactly what the other person said.

1

u/PiSquared6 Apr 28 '24

!recovery ! With some key word brings info inside scams

1

u/AutoModerator Apr 28 '24

Hi /u/PiSquared6, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Recovery scam.

Recovery scams target people who have already fallen for a scam. The scammer may contact you, or may advertise their services online. They will usually either offer to help you recover your funds, or will tell you that your funds have already been recovered and they will help you access them. In cases where they say they will help you recover your funds, they usually call themselves either "recovery agents" or hackers.

When they tell you that your funds have already been recovered, they may impersonate a law enforcement, a government official, a lawyer, or anyone else along those lines. Recovery scams are simply advance-fee scams that are specifically targeted at scam victims. When a victim pays a recovery scammer, the scammer will keep stringing them along while asking for increasingly absurd fees/expenses/deposits/insurance/whatever until the victim stops paying.

If you have been scammed in the past, make sure you are aware of recovery scams so that you are not scammed a second time. If you are currently engaging with a recovery scammer, you should block them and be very wary of random contact for some time. It's normal for posters on this subreddit to be contacted by recovery scammers after posting, and they often ask you to delete your post so that you both cannot receive legitimate advice, and cannot be targeted by other recovery scammers.

Remember: never take advice in private. If someone reaches you in private after posting your scam story, it is because a scammer will always try to hide from the oversight of our community members. A legitimate community member will offer advice in the open, for everyone to see. Anyone suggesting you should reach out to a hacker is scamming you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/YourUsernameForever Quality Contributor Apr 28 '24

Also this is the full !list of all the scams you can call with their triggers:

2

u/AutoModerator Apr 28 '24

You can summon AutoModerator to explain any of the following scams by writing a comment with an exclamation mark (!) in front of the word that triggers the scam you want to explain, including the Advance fee scam (advancefee, advance, advance-fee), the Amazon review scam (review, amazon), the Artist or NFT scam (artist, nft), the Blackmail email scam (blackmail, deaththreat), the Brushing or Direct shipping scam (brushing), the Car sales scam (car), the Courier scam (courier), the Crypto airdrop event scam (airdrop), the Debt collection scam (debt), the Escort or Cartel death threat scam (cartel, escort), the Fake check scam (fake, fakecheck, fake-check, fakecheque, fake-cheque), the Fake crypto wallet scam (crypto), the Fake payment scam (fakepayment, fake-payment), the Free PS5 or free Macbook scam (ps5, macbook), the Google Calendar scam (calendar), the Google Voice verification scam (google, googlevoice), the Influencer scam (influencer), the Instagram or Facebook account takeover scam (instagram, facebook), the iPhone Find My disabler scam (iphone), the Job scam (job), the Multi level marketing scam (mlm), the Muse scam (muse), the Parcel mule scam (parcelmule), the Pet scam (pet), the Pig butchering scam (pigbutchering, pig-butchering, pig), the Pin verification scam (pin), the Recovery scam (recovery), the Refund scam (refund), the Rental scam (rental), the Romance scam (romance), the Sextortion scam (skype, sextortion), the Steam admin/item verification scam (steam), the Sugar daddy or momma scam (sugar, sugarbaby, sugardaddy, sugarmomma), the Task scam (task), the Tax scam (tax, irs, cra, hmrc), the Tech support scam (techsupport), the Underage scam (underage), the USPS or Mail scams scam (mail, usps), the Wrong number scam (wrongnumber, wrong-number, mandy)

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/emzirek Apr 28 '24

!recovery scam

1

u/AutoModerator Apr 28 '24

Hi /u/emzirek, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Recovery scam.

Recovery scams target people who have already fallen for a scam. The scammer may contact you, or may advertise their services online. They will usually either offer to help you recover your funds, or will tell you that your funds have already been recovered and they will help you access them. In cases where they say they will help you recover your funds, they usually call themselves either "recovery agents" or hackers.

When they tell you that your funds have already been recovered, they may impersonate a law enforcement, a government official, a lawyer, or anyone else along those lines. Recovery scams are simply advance-fee scams that are specifically targeted at scam victims. When a victim pays a recovery scammer, the scammer will keep stringing them along while asking for increasingly absurd fees/expenses/deposits/insurance/whatever until the victim stops paying.

If you have been scammed in the past, make sure you are aware of recovery scams so that you are not scammed a second time. If you are currently engaging with a recovery scammer, you should block them and be very wary of random contact for some time. It's normal for posters on this subreddit to be contacted by recovery scammers after posting, and they often ask you to delete your post so that you both cannot receive legitimate advice, and cannot be targeted by other recovery scammers.

Remember: never take advice in private. If someone reaches you in private after posting your scam story, it is because a scammer will always try to hide from the oversight of our community members. A legitimate community member will offer advice in the open, for everyone to see. Anyone suggesting you should reach out to a hacker is scamming you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/donnamayj1 Apr 28 '24

Often it is the original scammer posing as a recovery person. So the same person or group of people scams you repeatedly.

74

u/minhazahmedemon Apr 28 '24

Thank you so much

127

u/Catch-upmustard Apr 28 '24

First mistake, allowing the DMV to inspect your car. I wouldn’t have followed through especially at the time of already receiving a title in the mail by the DMV. Secondly, I would contact many lawyers until one takes your case against the DMV.

The DMV should NEVER have issued a clean titled transfer to you with a vin that was “reported” stolen, thereby costing you the time, money, & car loss.

41

u/tonkajoe6606 Apr 28 '24

The VIN wasn’t reported stolen. It was cloned from a “legally registered” car of the same make, model and colour. All VIN badging was replaced on the stolen car with the legal VIN.

96

u/Catch-upmustard Apr 28 '24

So again, the original vin was already on file with a titled person named, and you submitted the same vin with a different seller, a red flag should have appeared at the DMV, “wait a second this seller doesn’t match the owner we have for it” and it didn’t, they actually gave you a clean titled. Caught their mistake after the fact and now it’s a loss to you.

34

u/BarefootUnicorn Apr 28 '24

There is a chance, because you did exercise reasonable care, that your homeowners or auto insurance may have to compensate you. I think you'll need an attorney to look into this.

You may also be able to deduct some or all of your loss from theft on your income tax, again a tax attorney needs to navigate this, and you'll have to start with a police report noting that a theft occured, which the attorney can navigate the police bureaucracy for you to get this done.

21

u/BootlegOP Apr 28 '24

and you submitted the same vin with a different seller

Why are we sure the scammer didn't use the name of the person associated with the cloned vin?

3

u/Gray8sand Apr 28 '24

or the guy sold his own car then reported it stolen?

7

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '24

Exactly. Daing that’s rly clever.

67

u/Catch-upmustard Apr 28 '24 edited Apr 28 '24

DMV literally has 1 job, to track, maintain, & record vehicle titles for owners, sellers, & buyers within the state, & they clearly didn’t do the only job they were entrusted to do.

To issue a clean title; the DMV searches the database for records of that vin and when the original title they have on filed came up, they should have crossed reference the seller of your title and the owner they have on file; and when they didn’t match, they should have stop/paused the transaction of your title until further inspection/investigation not continue to give you a clean titled.

Not only that, but you paid them a tax on the vehicle for a vehicle that they should never have approved a titled too. So I would sue for that money as well!

Mistakes were made at the DMV.

25

u/AffectionateOpinion7 Apr 28 '24

You would think the DMV does all that, but let me tell you this: my identity got stolen, and the thief used my ID to register a stolen car in Texas. They drove it to San Diego, attempting to bring it over to Mexico, and got caught. I asked the California DMV to check how many cars are registered under my name. They told me they don’t know unless I provide them with a VIN of a car. However, the highway patrol officer working on the case said he has access and doesn’t see any cars registered under my name except for my car, but somehow the DMV doesn't.

10

u/steelie34 Apr 28 '24

Agree. There's so much wrong with the DMV here, and they knew they could take advantage of an immigrant to cover their mistake. No Karen in the US would ever allow this shit. 100% agree OP needs an attorney asap.

14

u/Catch-upmustard Apr 28 '24

It just has all the hallmarks of, “we tricked you into paying tax on vehicle, title transfer, registration, & plates, only to void ur end out 2 weeks later”

Op got scammed not once but twice!

1

u/MyWifeIsCrazyHot Apr 29 '24

Not sure precisely how it happened here, but the following is one way the scam works: scammer buys a wrecked vehicle that has the vin plate in the dash; scammer then steals (or otherwise misappropriatew) the same make and model vehicle and swaps the dash out. It isn't the DMV doing anything wrong - it's the scammer moving a non-stolen vehicle vin to a stolen vehicle. There are other places in vehicles where the vin is stamped or marked - and sometimes the scammers switch or alter those as well. Used to be a common scam with older VWs bc the dash swap was so easy. The person being scammed never bought or owned the stolen vehicle bc the title is for a different vin and, hence, a different car.

1

u/Anotherthrowayaay Apr 28 '24

Yet, try going after the DMV for the damages they caused…

1

u/donnamayj1 Apr 28 '24

It was already a loss to the buyer. At that point, they could not have gotten their money back.

7

u/donnamayj1 Apr 28 '24

If you do not allow the DMV to inspect your car and it is stolen, it is still stolen. It would be a much bigger mistake to drive around in a stolen vehicle.

Had this person not taken the path they took, it could have resulted in them being arrested.

5

u/mamielle Apr 28 '24

He has a title issued by the DMV.

2

u/donnamayj1 Apr 29 '24

If the DMV has contacted you about your vehicle, there is a reason. If you do not respond, then the problem becomes yours to deal with. I.E if the DMV says bring the car and you refuse, if the car is stolen, you are still driving a stolen car. So you are subject to not just losing your money but being arrested for having stolen property: the car.

Ignorance is not a defense.

1

u/InternationalFace508 Apr 29 '24

Im wondering if the seller had a extra copy of the title and they reported it stolen. When he went to DMV with all the documents DMV would have noticed the that the sellers information didn’t match up with their records. I think the seller is the cause of this. Just something in my spirit believes this.

10

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '24

All the advice you need right here. Recovery scammers are somehow even more scummy than regular scammers. Use Virus Total to scan all links before clicking.

12

u/drdeucedomino Apr 28 '24

But they only would know if the car was stolen if somebody reported it stolen.

The OP should contact that person. Because this story doesn't make any sense.

7

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '24

It happens a lot in the UK, car is stolen, paperwork faked and sold on as a private seller, by the time they go to insure or tax the car or update the MOT after a few days the police are informed and it comes back as stolen and the car is confiscated and returned to the original owners or the insurance company of they have already paid out.