‘Devastating’ dealership scam robs Pennsylvania woman of $45K with CARFAX scheme
Buying a car isn’t quite like shopping for a toaster or a cellphone. Vehicles are often the second most-expensive purchases an American consumer will make, behind a home. That’s precisely why this Pennsylvania woman was hesitant to pay for a Lexus SUV on CARFAX. In the end, she made the purchase, and a scamming dealership made off with a crippling payday.
A Lexus SUV with a promising CARFAX posting ‘looked very legitimate,’ until it scammed a PA family out of $45K
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, resident Andrianna Parsons and her husband were understandably excited to have found a used luxury SUV online within their budget. Parsons’ husband found the Lexus on CARFAX, a staple for online shopping and vehicle history reports. Sounds good, right? Not quite.
The Lexus SUV was nearly 1,500 miles away, at a Lincoln, Nebraska, dealership called Specialty Auto. With an asking price of $46,000, Parsons was understandably concerned with wiring money halfway across the country. But her reservations were put at ease by a phone call with a man who claimed to be the dealership owner, Jim Woods.
Parsons’ husband did a little more internet sleuthing and found a man named Jim Woods who did, in fact, own a Lincoln, Nebraska, dealership called Specialty Auto. Finally, and prudently so, Parsons requested a video of the CARFAX find to prove that Specialty Auto had the vehicle. He complied and sent a “cold video” of their intended purchase. That was enough for Parsons, and the couple wired $45,000 after agreeing to reduce the price by $1,000.
Specialty Auto was to ship the SUV to Parsons in one week. The Lexus never arrived. “He played the role; he preyed on us,” Parsons told ABC Action News. “He knew that I was worried. My gut was telling me to stop. I didn’t listen to it well enough.”
So, how did this happen? For starters, Parsons never spoke to Woods. Well, not the real Woods, anyway. The Jim Woods who owns Specialty Auto is an 80-year-old proprietor with no internet presence. And that’s just what the scammers were after. “We came to find that criminals like this look for guys like him,” said Parsons.”
Scammers can find businesses like Woods’ and use the lack of internet presence to post “clone” versions of real vehicles from legitimate dealerships. Parsons said the couple felt better about the vehicle knowing that it was through CARFAX. She said the site looked “so legitimate. Every single car was on CARFAX.”
