INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A west side car dealership says it is the victim of an elaborate scam that started on Facebook.
The phone has been ringing off the hook at AMS Cars near West 10th street and Raceway Road all week. The people on the other end — hoping to get a cheap deal on a shiny new car.
A potential customer, David Leek said, “The price was almost too good to be true, so I was curious, so I got here and it doesn’t exist.”
Leek and his wife drove from Veedersburg, about 50 northwest of Indianapolis, to AMS Cars after they saw an ad on Facebook Marketplace advertising a 2001 Ford Excursion sport utility vehicle for $2,800.
That’s nearly $3,000 below market value.
Leek said, “I should have known better to start with. No fault to the dealer, it’s just that somebody has hijacked their name.”
Leek isn’t the only person to stop by to check out the Facebook Marketplace deals.
Robert Seymour came from Beech Grove looking for a cheap deal he saw on Facebook on a vehicle that wasn’t on the lot either. “I’m disappointed and sorry for this dealership that they get scammed this way.”
The scammers are impersonating the dealership on Facebook Marketplace. They are advertising deals on vehicles, and the prices are well below average.
News 8 tried calling the number listed, which is different than the company’s actual number, and it was out of order.
Managers at AMS Cars say people showing up to the dealership are the lucky ones, as they believe some of the victims out of state have lost out on thousands of dollars after sending the scammers money to put a hold on vehicles that don’t exist.
Sam Sodhi, a manager at AMS Cars, said, “A lady drove from Nashville, another gentleman from Chicago. A person from Terre Haute was here. We do not have those cars. Looking at those cars, they were somewhere on the East Coast. They were random cars.”
The number of people falling for the Facebook scam is so high, AMS Cars had to change their phone message to warn customers.
In the meantime, managers say, the dealership hopes to get the word out so no one else falls victim.
Sodhi said the scammers “know that people want a deal, and the ‘deal’ (is) people are going to lose their hard-earned income.”
Managers say they have reached out to multiple law enforcement agencies including Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI. But, the managers say, no detectives have been assigned the case yet.
In the meantime, they ask everyone to report the ads on Facebook and the only website to trust is theirs.
(Photo by WISH-TV.)
