How to Sell a Car Privately Without Getting Scammed

Almost every car selling scam tries to do one thing: get the car to leave before the money is real.

So two decisions protect you. Where you meet, and where the money changes hands.

What is the scam most likely to reach you?

A buyer shows up with a bank draft or certified cheque that looks real. You sign, the car leaves, and a few days later your bank tells you it was fake.

That's the scam we hear about most. Once the car is gone, it's a stolen vehicle report and an investigation, not something you can sort out with the buyer.

The fix costs nothing. Go to the bank with the buyer and have the draft issued or checked in front of you before the car moves. A buyer who won't do that is telling you something.

Two versions show up looking like good news:

1. 1. Overpayment.

   A draft for more than the agreed price, with a request to send back the difference. The refund you send is the only real money in the deal.

2. 2. A pending transfer.

   Money showing in your banking app isn't settled money. How bank drafts work explains when it's actually yours.

Want the number for your own car? Get a free offer. It takes about a minute.

Where should you meet a buyer?

Not at your house. A stranger from an ad doesn't need your address.

Edmonton has Buy and Sell Exchange Zones, built by the Edmonton Police Service and TELUS: marked parking stalls at police stations, covered by cameras around the clock. There are four:

1. 1.1351 Windermere Way SW, Southwest Division, the original, in the northwest public parking lot
2. 2.14203 50 Street NW
3. 3.104 Youville Drive East NW
4. 4.16505 100 Avenue NW

Nobody supervises the meeting. You get a lit, public spot on camera and an address to give out instead of your own. It protects the meeting, not the money, so the payment still happens at a bank.

Go on the test drive. If the car leaves without you in it, you're trusting a stranger to bring it back.

What about the buyer who never comes to see the car?

Watch for this pattern: they accept your price without haggling, can't come in person, offer to send certified funds and arrange their own shipping.

The money appears to arrive, the car gets picked up, and later the payment is reversed as fraud.

There's no safe version of this. Someone who won't look at a car before paying thousands for it isn't really buying it.

What goes wrong on Facebook Marketplace?

Mostly time wasters: people who don't show up, message for a week and were never buying, or haggle over a car they haven't seen.

For actual fraud, fake drafts come first. Second is a buyer offering to pay for a vehicle history report on your car. What they really want is your credit card number.

One seller recently turned down a higher offer because something about that buyer felt wrong, and took ours instead. The best offer is the one that actually goes through.

Is there a way to skip all of this?

Sell to a licensed buyer. No public listing, no strangers messaging you, one buyer at an agreed time, and the money settled at a bank the same day.

That's the one time a visit to your house makes sense, because you can check who's coming first. Samir is AMVIC licensed, number B2036941, and AMVIC's public register confirms it in about 30 seconds.

See what happens at the appointment and how bank drafts work.

You don't need to suspect everyone who messages you. Just decide where you'll meet and how you'll get paid before anyone shows up.