BBB serving New Mexico and Southwestern Colorado is warning of a scammer offering bogus online auto sales under the name of a BBB Accredited Business® in New Mexico. The same scammer is reported to have stolen the identity of a BBB Accredited Business in the Denver area.

The scammer in question offers cars for sale online, in this case at the Web site Barrera-AutoSales.com. Visitors to the site will find the name and address of a legitimate BBB Accredited Business in Deming, New Mexico - Barrera Auto Sales - and a BBB logo that links to a fraudulent BBB report. The company contact information has been changed so the unwary buyer will be calling or emailing the scammer rather than a legitimate Barrera salesperson.

The scam works like this: the Web site offers used or repossessed vehicles for sale at exceptionally low prices, offering free shipping to anywhere in the country. Its “sales representatives” ask for customers to pay via wire transfer. Once that payment is sent, the scammers disappear and no car is ever delivered.

The BBB of the Southwest has the following advice in their consumer alert about the bogus Barrera Auto Sales: “Consumers need to be wary of wiring money to businesses, particularly to any that are Web-based. You might never receive the purchased item and have absolutely no recourse. In fact, the BBB implores consumers not to wire-transfer any payment to a business that you do not have an established relationship (with) because the wired funds cannot be traced.” It further advises consumers to only do business with companies that they have checked out thoroughly.
 
Before you contact someone listed on a Web site you aren’t familiar with, check the business out separately by looking it up at www.bbb.org. Be sure that all the contact information listed for the company at bbb.org matches what you see on the Web site you are checking out. If you still have doubts, use the “Find a BBB” feature at www.bbb.org to look up the BBB that serves the company’s geographical location, and call that BBB to see what they have to say about the company. You won’t be alone – the BBB of the Southwest received over 500 inquiries about Barrera Auto Sales in less than one week! To read its report, click here. To see the Denver BBB report on stars-automart.com, click here.
 
There’s no doubt that similar scams will appear online shortly, using different company names and new Web sites. Changing a name and a Web site require very little effort on the part of the scammer, for a potentially rich reward. Consumers should always remember to look for the red flags: “too-good-to-be-true” prices, promises of free service, and requests for payment by wire transfer. A little caution now can keep a lot of money in your bank account for later!