The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is reporting that Australians have already lost more than $288,000 to vehicle scams in the first quarter of this year — more than the total losses for 2019.
In a new development, scammers are now impersonating Defence personnel in order to con their victims, ACCC said.
Deputy Chair of the ACCC, Delia Rickard said scammers posted fake online listings offering to sell in-demand cars at well below market value to lure potential buyers looking for a second-hand vehicle.
“Scammers seek payment to secure the car for the buyer but never deliver the vehicle,” Ms Rickard said.
“Vehicle scams are commonly hosted on sites such as Facebook Marketplace, Autotrader, Car Sales, Cars Guide and Gumtree.”
She said a new technique the ACCC was seeing involved scammers pretending to be Defence personnel.
“In 97 per cent of reports received this year, the scammer claimed to be in the military (navy, army and air force), or to work for the Department of Defence, and said they wanted to sell their vehicle before deployment,” Ms Rickard said.
“This sought to create a sense of urgency with buyers and explained the unusually low listing price of the vehicles and why buyers could not inspect them prior to payment.”
She said email addresses that did not bear the legitimate Defence email format of @defence.gov.au might be an indication of a scam, but even the correct email format did not guarantee the car advertisement was not a scam, as scammers were able to spoof email addresses.
“Fortunately, over 80 per cent of people who reported vehicle scams to us managed to avoid losing money by identifying the scam early,” Ms Rickard said.
“We encourage consumers to trust their instincts. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is,” she said.
