There’s a lot of good and bad that comes along with social media, but I think this is the good stuff!

Because we should all participate when people with expertise in certain areas are willing to share their wisdom to protect us from scammers.

A mechanic posted a video to TikTok and talked to viewers about a car-buying scam they need to be aware of: scammers setting up websites that give the appearance of online car dealerships.

He explained,  “You don’t even have to go to the car lot. Everything. It seems like it’s all great, which is a normal thing nowadays. Normal thing for people to just buy everything online, right?”

He said the online “dealer” makes people fill out credit applications that ask for all personal information, including social security numbers.

The next step is that the fake dealers tell people how much credit they’ve been approved for, they ask for a deposit, and they tell the customers they’ll deliver the vehicle after they get the initial payment.

You can probably guess what happens next…no car ever arrives…

He said, “So now they’ve got your money, they’ve got all your information. Who knows what they’re gonna do with that?”

And there’s another aspect to this scam: a lot of the scam dealers are using the information of legitimate car dealerships, so those companies are suffering too because of bad reviews and bad press.

The mechanic said, “Be careful. When you think you’re buying from somebody, you need to pick up the phone, call them, or better yet, go to the car lot. You should be going to the car lot anyway and looking at the car, driving the car.”

He ended his video by saying, “Makes me madder than can be to share this video, everyone.”

Take a look at his video.

@royaltyautoservice

Share to protect others from falling for this! #cartok #buyingacar #dealership #carsoftiktok #advice #tips #mechaniclife #mechanicsoftiktok #usedcar #usedcardealer #fyp #foryou #viral #automotive #duet #stitch

♬ Pop beat BGM / long version(1283324) – nightbird_bgm

Check out what folks had to say on TikTok.

This viewer shared their thoughts.

Another person ain’t having it!

And this person shared how they do it.

Beware of scammers!

If you liked that story, check out this one about a Costco customer who got their cart stolen… so she hatched a plan to get it back!