Today, the internet seems to be entwined in our lives on a daily basis. Everything from banking to shopping to staying in touch with our loved ones seems to be done over the internet these days. One area that you may not be that familiar with is buying a car or truck via the web. eBay just announced their Two Millionth passenger vehicle sale on their auction site eBay Motors and sites such as autotrader.com keep getting bigger each month.

Of course with anything popular, whether on the internet or not, the scam artist will come running. One of the more popular scams I've been able to witness firsthand is the wire transfer scam. The scammer tries to get you to wire funds to them for a car they don't own or a car they have no intention of selling or, in the case of what I witnessed, a car sold by someone else that the scammer then tried to represent themselves as the seller. Usually they come up with all sorts of reasons why you need to pay for the vehicle by wire instead of more traditional methods. I have a buddy of mine who recently found a GREAT deal on eBay Motors for a leased returned car. Within an hour of winning the auction, he got an email from someone claiming to be the seller of the car. My friend got a bit suspicious and emailed the seller, rather than replying back to the email he got. Sure enough, it was a scam. Seems someone has been targeting this seller and sending emails to every winning bidder of their auctions. Of course the legitimate seller accepted many forms of payment in addition to wire transfer. This particular seller even had a notice in Red on all their auctions listings, warning potential buyers to this scam. Seems someone was targeting the seller's auctions and emailing winning bidders as soon as the auctions completed.

The wire transfer scam has been around for awhile. Unfortunately, that must mean it still works on some people. Most sellers on online auctions do not require the high bidder to submit funds via wire transfer. And most web auction sites encourage their buyer's not to wire funds to anyone. Also, be careful if the seller offers to use an escrow service for wired transfers. They just may own the escrow service as well.

Here's a few more tips if you find yourself looking at online auctions in the future:

1. Do not wire funds to any seller unless you have personally been out to see them or, know who they are.

2. If the seller is located in another country or tells you the vehicle must be shipped from another country (and therefore must be paid for prior to shipping) BE CAREFUL. They may even offer to pay for the shipping to help "offset your costs". Phrases like these should make you very cautious about the seller and the deal.

2. If using eBay, each transaction allows the buyer and seller to give each other a "Positive", "Neutral" or "Negative" feedback rating along with a short comment. These feedbacks are key to doing your homework on the seller. Have they sold cars before? Have they sold 'anything' before or have they only been buyers? Certainly a "buyer-only" can be an excellent seller but you may want to be a bit more cautious with this a first time seller.

3. Be careful of the deal that looks too good to be true. You can certainly save a lot of money and time buying a car online but be careful to check out the seller, their feedback and everything you can about the car before putting any "money on the table" for the purchase.

4. Always get the Vehicle Identification number (VIN) and use on online service (carfax.com) to check the title history. These services will tell you if there were any problems with the vehicle such as fire or flood damage as well as any reported odometer rollbacks, etc. They are very reasonably priced and well worth the money and peace of mind.

5. Consider using an inspection service. For a fee they will go out to the car and check it out, test drive it and let you know what they find. Well worth the cost if you'd like more peace of mind. The service should be approximately $100 or so. Again, the seller should be cooperative in getting this setup.

6. Ask if you can come out to inspect the vehicle, even if you have no intentions of doing so. See what the seller's response is. If they refuse or have excuses why now's not a good time then why was now a good time to put the car up for sale or auction?

7. Make sure the seller includes photographs of the actual car and not stock photos from the manufacturer or any website. Some first-time sellers will use these type of photographs just so they can get the auction or listing posted quickly and then go back to take pictures of the car. Since photos are your primary means of checking out the car, there should be plenty of them and in sufficient detail.

Buying cars online is an excellent way to find good deals and save time... and it's kinda fun. Just use common sense and exercise caution when warranted and everything should turn out just fine.