I've put together a list of over 100 scammers in the car community here. Recently I've had a ton of fake accounts follow my page and also people sending me messages asking " Is this person is legit?" and the majority of the time the answer is no.
Here's what to look out for before sending money to a random person on the internet for a car part. Do NOT send money to somebody that you can't verify, ever!!! It's not worth it. If you do, you better use PayPal. Never use Zelle or other apps that don't have any protection on your money.
There's a group of these guys who keep creating new profiles that will contain the word "Spare parts" or "parts" of any sort. They will send you a DM on Instagram or the forums saying that they have what you need. This is assuming if you posted a WTB somewhere, or they will usually post a picture of a car saying "part out", and to message them for pricing on each part. You can see below an example on Instagram.
On Facebook they will usually post any car they can find that has been crashed or wrecked, then post saying "message me for pricing on each part". They will have a random photo that is either something like an army guy, or a family guy with his kids. Honestly, it can be anything at this point if they read this lol.
Here's what to do before you send money to anybody.
- Check to see when their Facebook profile or Instagram profile was created. Facebook usually shows this on their profile or when they joined a specific group. If they're new to the group or Facebook, it's right away sketchy.
- Instagram allows you to see more information about an account if you click their profile and click the three little dots on the top right. Click "About this account" and it will show when they created their Instagram profile. Sometimes they change their names after scamming enough people and keep the same profile, so they may have had an account for a bit.
I just put together a list of what comes up when you search "BMW Spare" on Instagram. Here's a ton of the fake accounts that were recently made as of April 1st, 2023.
- It's a dead giveaway if they don't do PayPal. PayPal offers a protection service with your money, so if they scam you you can get your $ back. With Zelle and other apps you can't, so if the seller is hesitant to use PayPal, that's a HUGE giveaway.
- Their username has a ton of underscores in it. Something like bmw_auto_spares_e36. Check their bio and I can promise you that they won't have anything legit there.
- They have no website and no official business name. No company is named "BMW_e36_spare_parts_USA" lol. There's a LEGIT COMPANY like StraightSixAutoParts who has a website and a eBay store and a legit Photo Booth. Always keep that in mind.
- Keep an eye out for what their bio says. If there bio says "spare parts, BMW parts, blah blah blah" and then it says something stupid like "LOCAL"... but NO location? Bro, what are you local to lol. They all do this for some reason.
- If there's no location or phone number, sketchy. If they have a WhatsApp, that's even more sketchy. You need to test them. I've tested them many times by saying "does it fit an E93 M4 with a DMX tune and a burble blaster" and they usually respond with "yes it does". Get stupid with them if they're going to waste your time.
- Download the photos that they posted or sent you and then put them in Google Image Search. If you go to Google there's a little camera to the right you can click and upload a photo. It will allow you to search the internet for that exact picture and usually it comes up with the original poster which is a legit business that parts out cars or has parts for sale.
- They like to use OLD photos from forums posts, so if you see a picture, always ask yourself if you've seen that before on the forums, or check the forums for similar posts. Reverse Google Image Search is your friend here for sure. Or just paste in what they're selling on Google and check images to see if they just pulled a random pic from online.
- The biggest tip that gives it away is that if they uploaded all the photos to their Instagram the SAME day. Go back and check all their posts to see when they were uploaded on the bottom left. If they're all uploaded the same day, with different locations, different backgrounds, different quality cameras etc - giveaway 100%.
Here's a handful of them that I've caught so far.
Please keep your eyes out for this kind of activity. You can send a screenshot or the profile to @M3List on Instagram and I will put it in our "Scammer" section on our Highlights along with our Discord.
Just be smart about it. Use PayPal or a safe way to send money. Verify the seller. Ask around. Don't let these guys make money every single day from people who don't know better. Please share this with your friends or on any social media to help others not get scammed!
Also, keep in mind that they are doing this with VW, Porsche, Honda parts etc. Not just BMW, so they're going after the entire car community.
Thanks for reading.
-Spencer Berke @M3List
If you want legit parts, you can click here to check out more.
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