Likely a Scam/Beware
If you’re selling a vehicle to another private party be cautious of a request to use Autoonlinedna.com. This company is supposedly registered in AZ under PrivacyGuardian.Org LLC. Searching Arizona Corporation Commission yields no results despite trying multiple variations of both the LLC and autoonlinedna. The mailing address listed belongs to FreeHostingNoAds.Net. The website autoonlinedna does not list a phone number or address. This is not definitive proof of anything, but it is a serious red flag.
The "scam" is "buyers" with zero intention of buying your vehicle string you along during the sales process. Once you’ve finalized a meet time, the next move is they ask for a VHR (vehicle history report). The “buyer” demands a report from this specific service only and won’t accept a CarFAX. The vehicle data from the site is correct, but the buyer disappears.
On ScamDetector, this particular site is rated as a highly probable scam. My guess is they’re able to buy into the same centralized reporting system (do a quick google search and you can see how easy it is) as CarFAX to gain access to vehicle data. Then autoonlinedna “employ” people to troll used car listings and make inquiries with the goal of getting a seller to pay for an autoonlinedna report. Then the "buyer" vanishes.
Easy things to do:
- Use only CarFAX or other reputable companies (I have no affiliation with any VHR company or automobiles sales industry).
- If you’re skeptical of the buyer and you have access to their profile or picture, do a reverse lookup. The profiles and pictures are likely fake.
- listen to your instincts. The people contacting me used odd words and spelled “cheque” versus check. This was one of many red flags.
- Do not confuse autoonlinedna with AutoDNA. I have no comment on AutoDNA, but it does appear to be legitimate and autoonlinedna MIGHT be deliberately trying to confuse consumers with a similar name.
I had three people in less than 24 hours approach me with the same and very specific request. Each exchange was exactly the same.... ie....working from a script. A simple reverse Google search showed the profile pics were indeed stock photos meaning the profiles were fake.
It’s very hard to prove the intent of the prospective "buyer" making it even more difficult to pursue any recourse directly with autoonlinedna.
Bottom line, be very, very cautious of people asking to use this site specifically.
