![](\"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/facebook-truck-scam.jpg\")
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A Texas woman went viral on TikTok after revealing how she and her husband lost $30,000 to a scammer on Facebook Marketplace while trying to replace a totaled truck.<\/p>\n
Brittany Patton (@brittany.patton) said her husband was in a car accident on November 3, 2023. With his old truck wrecked and insurance money still pending, the couple decided to use their own savings to quickly find a replacement. They turned to Facebook Marketplace\u2014and that\u2019s where things unraveled.<\/p>\n
They found a truck they loved. But in the end, they handed over $30,000 to a scammer who lied about the vehicle\u2019s identity and ownership.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost that money, never to be seen again,\u201d Patton said in one of her now-viral videos. \u201cIt could happen to you, too. We\u2019re not idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of this writing, her video detailing how the scam went down\u2014and all the red flags they missed\u2014had racked up more than 143,500 views.<\/p>\n
Patton admitted Facebook Marketplace probably wasn\u2019t the smartest place to search for a car, but they were desperate. Looking back, though, she said there were \u201clots of red flags that we should\u2019ve paid attention to.\u201d<\/p>\n
For starters, the truck\u2014she didn\u2019t name the make or model\u2014was listed at $35,000. A \u201creally good deal,\u201d she said. Still, she tried to verify it. On the drive to meet the seller, she called the local police department to run the license plate on the truck. It checked out. So did the VIN\u2014or so she thought.<\/p>\n
But the moment they met the seller, things got weird.<\/p>\n
The man didn\u2019t speak English, so they communicated via Google Translate. (Red flag.) He claimed the truck belonged to his uncle, who was conveniently not there. Patton had to call the \u201cuncle\u201d to negotiate the price.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked him down another $5,000, and he immediately took my offer, which was another red flag,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The entire deal was done in cash. First, they handed over $500 to hold the truck. The next day, they brought the rest, roughly $30,000, and completed the sale.<\/p>\n
The seller didn\u2019t have a valid US driver\u2019s license, just a Venezuelan ID card. Patton took a photo of it and made plans to meet him again the next morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought in the worst case scenario, we would lose $500,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
They were wrong.<\/p>\n
At first, everything seemed fine. But after bringing the truck home, Patton and her husband discovered an AirTag inside. They said they feared the scammers were planning to track and steal the vehicle.<\/p>\n
They called the local sheriff\u2019s department\u2014but, as Patton put it, \u201ca crime hadn\u2019t been committed yet.\u201d Then came more red flags. The horn had been disconnected, which Patton assumed was to prevent them from hitting the panic button during a potential theft attempt.<\/p>\n
Still, they moved forward, got insurance, paid taxes, and registered the truck.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when things truly fell apart.<\/p>\n
They realized the plates were paper. Worse, the truck had been VIN swapped\u2014it was posing as a completely different vehicle. The real truck, they learned, had been stolen in San Antonio the day before her husband\u2019s accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in possession of a car that had been stolen over two weeks ago,\u201d Patton said.<\/p>\n
Fearing her husband could be arrested, Patton voluntarily turned him and the truck in. She called it a harrowing experience but said it was a cautionary tale<\/a> for anyone looking to buy a car online.<\/p>\n Buying a car off Facebook Marketplace can work, but only if you take your time<\/a> and stay cautious. Scammers know how to prey on urgency, especially when someone needs a car fast.<\/p>\n Yahoo! Finance<\/a> reported a list of tips and tricks for buyers, including checking the seller\u2019s profile. If it looks new or empty, that\u2019s a red flag. Make sure they actually own the car\u2014ask to see their ID (ideally, a valid US one), the title, and the registration. And if any names don\u2019t match, be comfortable walking away.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t just eyeball the car. Inspect it carefully, inside and out. Look for rust, leaks, or signs of tampering. Always take it for a test drive and check everything. If possible, bring a mechanic<\/a> to catch anything you might miss.<\/p>\n Run the VIN through a database to check for wrecks, recalls, or theft. And confirm that the title is clean, not salvaged or rebuilt.<\/p>\n On the money side, it said to never pay anything upfront before seeing the car. Avoid cash if you can. Safer options include bank transfers, PayPal, or escrow services\u2014never gift cards. And always get a written bill of sale with the final price and terms.<\/p>\n And when meeting, pick a busy, public spot. If the seller is pressuring you to move fast or making the deal sound too good to pass up, that\u2019s probably because it is.<\/p>\n After Patton\u2019s story went viral, other viewers chimed in with their own horror stories about buying cars online\u2014and paying in cash.<\/p>\n \u201cMy son-in-law bought a truck from Texas and paid cash,\u201d one person wrote, \u201cwent to license the truck and it was stolen. He lost $45,000. Learned the hard way he won\u2019t be buying anything from a person, only a dealership.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHappened to me with a 9K Jeep,\u201d another said. \u201cCaught on fire on the way home, guy blocked up, and it was a total scam. Hard lesson learned for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSame exact thing! Every single thing checked out perfectly! Lost $19k. It definitely sucks that law enforcement can\u2019t really do anything about this,\u201d a third commenter added.<\/p>\n Others zeroed in on what they saw as glaring red flags in Patton\u2019s story.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst red flag was talking him down $5k on a truck you said was already a really good deal,\u201d one person said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t give a deposit and don\u2019t carry that much cash,\u201d another advised.<\/p>\n \u201c35K in a private sale would be a huge no,\u201d added a third viewer.<\/p>\n \u201cYou lost me at cash and Venezuela ID card,\u201d someone else quipped.<\/p>\n Motor1<\/em> has reached out to Patton via TikTok direct message.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Texas woman went viral on TikTok after revealing how she and her husband lost $30,000 to a ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-coverage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3515,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions\/3515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bruntonwolf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Is It Safe to Use Facebook to Buy a Car?\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Viewers Warn Against Cash Deals<\/h2>\n
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