Scammer Rents Dodge Challenger Hellcat, Sells It on Craigslist, Gets Away With $26K
After handing over his cash, the buyer discovered the car was a rental redone with new paint, wheels, and a fake title.
Los Angeles native Don Le recently thought he found a killer deal on a 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat when he saw one for sale on Craigslist for $28,000. He messaged the seller, went to go see the car in person, made a deal for $26,000, and bought it. Little did Don Le know that the Hellcat actually wasn't the seller's to sell. Instead, the "seller" was a thief and rented the car from Driv3 Rentals in LA, "sold" it to Don Le, and ran.
Driv3 Rentals realized something fishy happened when the renter asked for the car's spare key, claiming to have lost the first. When Drive3 declined, the renter coincidentally found the original. After tracking the Hellcat, via a GPS tracker common on rental cars, Drive3 realized the car hadn't moved much. So when it came time to pick it up, they tracked it to where it was, and instead of their renter, they found Don Le.
When Driv3 found the car, it looked quite different from when they saw it last. The thief gave it a bit of a makeover, presumably to hide it from the owner. They rubber-dipped the wheels, painted the trunk lid and roof black, and added some SRT Hellcat decals to the rear fenders. They even made a fake title, which tricked Don Le into thinking the sale was legitimate.
However, there were a few red flags Don Le failed to pick up on, such as an incorrect VIN on the fake title, some misspellings, and a handwritten bill of sale. The thief gave Don Le a sob story about going through a divorce and needing cash, so he wasn't overly suspicious of the shockingly low price tag. He also claims to have checked the VIN and that everything seemed normal.
Unfortunately, the thief is in the wind with the $26,000 that Don Le took from his savings and borrowed from a friend. Driv3 started a GoFundMe to help recoup some of his lost money and it's currently at $6,180.
I can understand the excitement of finding what he thought was such a cheap Challenger SRT Hellcat for sale. It's hard to find a Hellcat with decent mileage for less than $50,000. It's cold comfort for now, but it's always worth noting that if the deal seems too good to be true, it's probably bogus.
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