One variety of an auto shipping scam is when a company steals your car outright. Since essentially anyone can make a website, it is difficult to weed out legitimate companies from illegitimate ones. So an unscrupulous individual with a truck and an Internet connection can easily set himself up as an auto shipping expert. When your car never arrives, you find that the phone number goes unanswered and the website has been taken down.
To avoid this, ask auto shipment companies if you can speak to past clients. You should also ask to see copies of any certifications and/or special licenses they have. If they say they don't have these, just find someone who does.
There are also scams that take advantage of auto buyers. These scams will offer you a car at substantially less than market value. When you take the deal, they'll tell you that the car is in a shipping facility, but you just need to put the money in an escrow account before you can take it.
The scam is that there is no escrow account. Rather, there is just a convincing-looking website put up by the auto "seller" himself. It goes without saying that there is also no car.
On the other hand, some scammers will contact auto sellers. For this scam, they will offer to pay for the car (usually above the asking price) plus an extra amount for shipping costs, which the buyer offers to take care of.
A cashier's check arrives in the mail and the seller cashes it. Within a couple days, the "buyer" contacts the seller and tells him that something urgent has come up and the shipping company needs to be paid as soon as possible. The seller pays the "shipping company" the amount over the selling price, and never hears from the "buyer" again.
After ten days, the seller gets word that the check never cleared. The amount over the asking price has come out of his own pocket.
