Car buyers frequently turn to online listings in the hopes of spending less, but their chances of being fraud victims substantially increase, according to a CNBC report.
More than 17,000 auto fraud complaints were made last year, and people who bought cars online lost more than $64 million, according to the National White Collar Crime Center.
Seven members of an international crime unit that sold mostly fake vehicles to American shoppers through auto websites have been named on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
Romanian fugitive Nicolae Popescu and six co-conspirators were allegedly part of the organized auto scam unit, which brought in more than $3 million.
"Using forged documents and phony websites, for years Popescu and his criminal syndicate reached across the ocean to pick the pockets of hard-working Americans looking to purchase cars," United States Attorney Lynch said in a statement.
Popescu and his co-conspirators were "masters of illusion," described FBI Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos.
"They siphoned funds from victims to fuel their greedy desires and created false identities, fake websites and counterfeit certificates of title in order to make the scheme more convincing," Venizelos said in a statement.
A few websites like eBay offer buyers' protection to cover a shopper's losses, but most do not. Experts recommend looking at several cars in person before making a purchase.
Jeff Allen, a car dealership owner who appears on CNBC's "The Car Chasers," looks at as many as 10 cars before buying due to owners who lie in vehicle listings.
"Back when people had to pay for ads and there wasn't all these free listing sites," Allen said, "I had a ratio of one for every four cars I went out to look at. Meaning, I'd go look at four cars and I'd end up buying one.
"With all these free listing sites, it's like people don't care what they write," he said. "Half the time if they say, 'It runs good but hasn't been driven in a while.' It does not run at all."
Allen's No. 1 rule for buying a car online is to purchase a car that is close enough to inspect in person.
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