A recent ad - I&#39;m not going to single it out, in case it&#39;s actually a legitimate seller whose vehicle is physically present in the Pittsburgh area - suggests the need to remind our mailing list of warning signs for a scam in online vehicle ads.<br>
<br>- Oddly written ads (text doesn&#39;t seem to match vehicle, or terms for common things are not what one would normally find)<br>- Vehicle not present locally. This is the big one! If the car is somewhere else, why is it not being advertised there instead? (The answer is normally that there is no actual car for sale.)<br>
- Seller not present locally. Mail me money, and I&#39;ll mail you a car...<br><br>To say it again: if the seller has a shaggy dog story about why neither he nor the vehicle is present in the Pittsburgh area, run, don&#39;t walk. He is trying to steal your money by convincing you to wire money to him, typically in a foreign country where he has been &quot;deployed&quot; or &quot;sent on work.&quot; Of course, soldiers on deployment could theoretically sell vehicles - but they would advertise them where the vehicles actually are, not in some random other locale.<br>
<br>Charles<br>