In the last two weeks, two buyers have been scammed out of $42,000 and $19,000 each.
SAN ANTONIO — The Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office is warning people to be cautious of buying cars on the internet due to an increase in scams.
Officials say they have seen a spike in residents being tricked into buying stolen vehicles or cars with fraudulent titles. The tax office understands that several people buy their vehicles from advertisements on social media but the office urges residents to be wary. And, many times the seller will even provide the buyer with a copy of an ID that looks legit but is actually fake.
In the last two weeks, two buyers have been scammed out of $42,000 and $19,000 each. Last year, buyers were also cheated out of thousands of dollars in cash, according to the tax assessor’s office.
“I’m asking our citizens to be careful and to be diligent when buying a vehicle from an individual you don’t know, especially if you find it on an internet site. The seller may not have a real title to the vehicle, or it may even be stolen. If the car is stolen, law enforcement will seize the vehicle. Buyers should follow this simple rule of thumb: If the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is, so proceed with caution,” Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector Albert Uresti said in a press release.
Last year and more recently in December, multiple people came into the tax assessor’s office to transfer the title into their name on a vehicle and discovered the vehicle was stolen or the title was fake. Some of the sellers also used fake forms of identification, officials say.
Uresti’s office encourages buyers to take advantage of “safe zones” which include the Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office or one of the 19 private title companies in Bexar County, to transfer a car title before a payment is made. The office also says there’s a link to the TxDMV where buyers can search for certain title information based on the vehicle identification number.
“These con men and women are professionals and skilled at swindling people,” Uresti said in the release. “I cannot tell you how much it breaks my heart to see a family’s hard-earned money be stolen from them by such unscrupulous individuals. We want the public to know that the Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office is a safe zone for them when purchasing a vehicle. Any person-to-person transactions especially with cash, should be done in our office with both the buyer and seller present. If the seller will not come with you to our office, do NOT buy the car until you have verified the title and vehicle information,” he added.