How scammers clone dealership websites to steal car payments

According to the Federal Trade Commission, scammers are building fake car dealership websites that copy real ones almost exactly. The goal is to get a buyer to pay for a car that does not exist, before that buyer ever leaves home.

The FTC describes how the clone is built. Scammers copy a real dealer's brand logos, vehicle listings, and photos down to the last detail, often using AI to do it. Some add fake customer testimonials. Some advertise rare muscle cars or hard-to-find classics, the kind of listing that makes a buyer move fast before someone else grabs it.

The step the scam depends on

Nothing in this scam requires hacking or stealing information. It requires a buyer to send money before seeing the car. The website looks convincing because it is a copy of a real one, right down to the return policy language that is meant to sound reassuring. But a website, however polished, cannot show a buyer a car that is actually sitting on a lot.

That is the gap the scam lives in. A buyer searches for the dealer's name, finds nothing bad, maybe finds glowing reviews, and feels safe. Those reviews may belong to the real dealership being impersonated, not to the scam site. The FTC notes that a clean search result is not proof the seller on the other end of the page is real.

The buyer pays, often by wire transfer at the scammer's insistence. Then the buyer shows up at the dealership, or the address listed, and finds no order, no payment on record, and no car.

The tell

The tell is not in the website. It is in what the seller will and will not let a buyer do before paying. The FTC's advice centers on this: ask to see the car and the dealership in person. If the seller refuses, that refusal is the signal, not the design of the site. If the car is too far away, a buyer can ask to hire a mobile inspection service to check it out first. A seller who blocks that request, too, is worth walking away from.

Payment method is the other tell. A dealer who will only accept a wire transfer, with no other option, is asking for a payment that cannot be reversed once it is sent.

Anyone who encounters one of these sites, or has already sent money to one, can report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.