‘This the new scam now’: Man says Turo customer sold his car on Craigslist for $18k while renting it
A person who rents their car out via the carsharing company, Turo, reports that a customer sold his car on Craigslist in a remarkable story of attempted fraud.
The incident is laid out on TikTok via creator Marlon Walls (@deucewalls), who has gathered nearly 300,000 views as of Sunday. In the clip, Walls details an episode that "goes straight to the top of [his] list of craziest things that happened to [him] as a rental car owner."
"We had somebody who wanted to book our Chevy Suburban offline for two days," he explains. "We did our normal remote check-in process and they came to get the car on Wednesday morning. She was due back on Friday morning, but she called on Thursday night and she wanted two more days. So I sent her an extension request, but she never paid for the extension."
@deucewalls This is one of the top craziest stories we've had in the rental car business...Like for Part 2 of the story! #turo #turohost #turohostproblems #turorentals #turorental #powerhost #rentalcar #rentalcars #carrental #carrentals #rideshare #rentmycars #rentmyride ♬ original sound - Marlon Walls
From there, Walls says he got suspicious and shut the car down on Friday night after it was due. Through GPS tracking, he says he was able to locate his car — and found it with the tire off in somebody's driveway and with the tracker disconnected.
"It was an older lady who owned the house," he notes. "And she wasn't the one who rented from us, so I asked her does she know the person."
The woman in possession of the car was shocked — as Walls reveals, "She didn't know that car was a rental because she actually bought it from the lady who rented it from us!"
He says how the original "customer" had allegedly put the 2019 Chevy Suburban on Craigslist and sold it for $18,000.
In a follow-up video, Walls reveals the person who attempted to sell his rental car was arrested several weeks later when she attempted the same ruse with a different car. The elaborate scheme involved creating a fake title for the car that police believed to be the real thing. Walls used the story to extol the virtues of GPS trackers.
@deucewalls Y'all definitely asked for it so here's part 2 of the story!! Get yourself a GPS tracker and Leave your thoughts in the comments! #turo #turohost #turohostproblems #turorentals #turorental #powerhost #rentalcar #rentalcars #carrental #carrentals #rideshare #rentmycars #rentmyride ♬ original sound - Marlon Walls
Some were amazed that Craigslist is still active, adding that the selling price for that particular car was a too-good-to-be-true prospect.
"Wow, I feel for the lady," one person observed. "She loss all that money."
Another observed, "These ppl need to ask themselves: in this market why would somebody sell me a car at wayyy less than face value?"
"I hope that people are learning from this," another advised. "If it's too good to be true, it probably is."
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment and to Turo via email.
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