Unfortunately, the availability of many auto shipping companies online has made it difficult for customers to discover a reliable auto transportation company. Consequently, the struggle to discover a trustworthy transporter and the dramatic increase in internet fraud by online auto transport scammers has made the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to craft a standard technique to control the situation.
While you are being watchful of auto transport companies that make false promises, be very wary of those ones that speak negative about their competitors.
However, while there are several unsuspecting methods used by scammers to deceive potential clients online, have it in mind that there are unconventional ways of separating the tares from the wheat.
Here are 4 red-flags that show that auto shipping company is a scam.
1. Their price quote is too cheap to be true:
When it comes to shipping, one of the strategic methods used by auto shipping scammers over the years is that their prices quotes are significantly low compared to legitimate shipping companies. They use this method because they understand that human beings generally, love to go for cheaper things.
For example, you bought a car or you want to ship your car from another cross country. You went online and researched on shipping companies and discovered that X and Y will transport your Honda accord at $1500. You also discovered that company Z offers to transport same car at $600. Hello! What you see in front of you is a scam company and not a legitimate one.
Furthermore, several research and victim stories have proven that this method is one of the most effective strategies used by online scammers. So, in other not to be scammed, it is very advisable that you become very wary of shipping companies offering to transport your cars at an extremely low price.
2. They have too much scam reviews on forums:
While visiting forums to review customer comments on shipping companies is a strategic way of verifying the reliability of the vehicle moving companies, it is also an avenue to detect if a shipping company is a scam or not.
Always keep proper note of customer negative comments about the auto transporting companies especially the scam-like ones. If you discover that there are excess scams reviews about the car transport company, flee from them. It simply means that this company is very sneaky.
Note: There are also negative comments about legitimate car shipping companies, but when there are excess of it in a scam-like form, then it’s a sign that they might be scammers.
3. They are unable to provide sensitive prove like DOT and MC licensing numbers:
This is another sign that shows that a vehicle transporting agency is a scam. Whenever you request for their DOT and MC numbers and they either ignore the questions or send you an unverifiable DOT AND MC numbers, it simply shows that they are not just licensed to carry out transport services but also a scam auto company.
The DOT and MC numbers are authorized numbers issued by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to companies showing that they are authorized to transport federally – regulated commodities owned by others.
So, any online auto carrier company holding back from providing you with a verifiable DOT and MC numbers are not to be trusted.
Note: Before engaging on any transaction with any auto shipping company you discover online, always request and verify their DOT and MC numbers.
4. They have an appealing site with enough errors, and also reach out to you with suspicious emails:
This is another sign that shows an auto transporting company is a scam, and there is no doubt that one of the main factors that convince most victims is the nice looking website and attractive services packages.
However, any auto shipping company without the following on their company site shouldn’t be trusted.
- The site should have different phone number for different department like customer service, sales, support, etc.
- Their company email should end with their domain name. E.g. [email protected] and not [email protected] or [email protected].
- The company should be able to provide you with a detailed and prompt response to what so ever question you ask via company email.
- You must be able to get in contact with the dispatch department, support department and probably the main sales agent through the site.
- And the website must be grammatically error free. You be informed that most scammers speedily design professional sites without properly taking notes of some errors especially grammatical ones.
With the increasing rate of auto shipping companies online today, it’s very advisable that you carry out a thorough research on them before making use of any.
