Long Island man scammed by fake website months after real business reported imposters to feds

NEW YORK — A Long Island man thought he was buying a rare classic car online, but he says he ended up sending $25,000 to a scammer impersonating a real business.

The real business owner says he reported the imposter website to federal law enforcement weeks ago, so why is the listing still up? CBS News New York investigative reporter Tim McNicholas went searching for answers.

Retired Long Island man scammed out of $25,000

Joe Bua’s garage in Nassau County is decorated with the license plates from classic cars and motorcycles he’s owned.

“I buy ’em, I ride ’em, I trade it in, I sell it, I buy another old one,” Bua said.

Over the summer, he thought he’d found a new one. He says someone running a website – MikesClassic-Cars.com – offered to ship him a 1971 Oldsmobile for $25,000. Bua says he wired the money, but the car never showed and the so-called dealer stopped responding.

“At that point, I knew I was scammed,” he said. “I’m retired. I’m on disability. I can’t make up that money … I won’t be able to recoup that money for years.”

One reason he thought it was legit? The website listed an address in Nebraska where, according to Google, there really is a business named Mike’s Classic Cars.

McNicholas called the number on the sign in front of that business and asked about MikesClassic-Cars.com.

“Does that have anything to do with your business at all?” McNicholas asked.

“Not at all,” said business owner Mike Patak.

The real website for that business is MikesClassicCars.net. Patak says his team reported the fake site to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) more than a month ago, but it’s still up.

“That’s the part I don’t like. There must be so much of this going on, I don’t know if the government entities can keep up with it,” Patak said.

FTC recommends reporting fraud to website hosts, search engines

The FTC tells CBS News New York it can’t comment on specific cases. The agency says sometimes, if the FTC gets a lot of complaints about sites, it seeks court orders to remove them, but that can take months.

If you ask the FTC, customers are better off sending evidence of the fraud to website hosts and search engines.

“And in many many cases, once you provide that information, those companies have departments that can do it often much faster than we can do it and without court order,” said Dotan Weinman, assistant director of the FTC Division of Marketing Practices.

“Does the FTC ever reach out on a customer’s behalf if you get a complaint? I feel like it would carry a lot of weight coming from you guys,” McNicholas said.

“I cannot comment on any action that we take that are non-public,” Weinman said.

CBS News Confirmed team analyzes red flags on fake site

CBS News New York reached out to the number Bua contacted, asked about a listing for a 1980 Porsche 911, and requested some proof of legitimacy.

They sent a picture of a man standing in front of what appears to be the vehicle and holding a piece of paper that says “Hey Tim this is your car 8/13/24.” The CBS News Confirmed team, which analyzes and authenticates information and pictures, believes the photo was likely digitally altered. Details of the vehicle in the photo are slightly different than photos of the vehicle attached to the listing, and the writing on the piece of paper looks like it was made on a computer.

McNicholas then explained that he’s an investigative reporter, and his calls stopped going through to the number.

The CBS News Confirmed team also found that a picture on the fake site of someone who supposedly works in sales was also used on a number of other sites.

Additionally, one part of the site says they’re in South Dakota, and another says Nebraska.

Bua wanted to share his story as a warning to others.

“I don’t want anybody else to go through this. This is a terrible thing to go through,” he said.

Tim McNicholas

Tim McNicholas is a reporter for CBS News New York. He joined the team in September 2022 after working in Chicago, Indianapolis, Toledo and Hastings, Nebraska.