Buying a car off Facebook Marketplace can feel like the Wild West. But Evette Blake thought she’d done everything right. Until the DMV visit turned into a crime scene—with her new Dodge as the suspect.

She found the Dodge on Facebook Marketplace. The seller claimed it had a clean title. Evette met the seller in person. She took a picture of the VIN and title, then went back home to double check.

Evette ran the VIN, checked the Carfax, and even called the local non-emergency police line. “It came back clean,” she said. No accidents, no theft reports. She thought she was in the clear. So she paid $16,000 in cash and drove off in her dream car.

Two weeks later, she went to the DMV to register her new Dodge Durango. That’s when everything unraveled. The clerk ran the VIN again and flagged the title as fake. Then the DMV called the police. Evette had bought a stolen car. “They right away called a tow truck to tow it back to Texas to its owner,” she said. She watched as her dream car was loaded up and driven away.

The seller? Gone. Blocked her on Facebook. Deleted his account. “I was speechless,” Evette said. “I mean, I still am as to why or how somebody could do that.”

How to avoid Facebook Marketplace car scams

Buying a vehicle on Facebook Marketplace carries real risks—but there are ways to stack the deck in your favor. Skyler McKinley from AAA says, “You want to go through vehiclehistory.gov instead of local law enforcement.”

There’s a fee, but it can reveal major red flags. “It’s going to give you the entire title history for that vehicle,” McKinley said. “It’s going to tell you if the title’s legit. It will pop up generally if the vehicle is stolen.”

McKinley also stresses not to rely on just one check. “You want to do that on top of the Carfax,” he said. “You want to go through both.”

Also key? Don’t skip the basics. Always meet in a public place, avoid paying in cash, and never take a seller’s word without verifying. “I thought I was in the clear, and it still wasn’t enough,” Evette said.

In the end, her $16K dream ride went straight back to Texas on a tow truck. The seller? Vanished. And Evette? She’s back on the bus—smarter, sadder, and warning the rest of us not to trust a too-good-to-be-true listing. You can see an interview with Evette in the video embedded below: