‘They were running a game on me’: Woman hands over $4,500 for a car from someone she trusted, and you can guess what happened next

A woman from North Carolina named Shy is getting a lot of attention on TikTok. She shared a three-part video series explaining how she lost $4,500 after trusting someone to buy her a car from an auction. Shy, who goes by @shynotchy_ on TikTok, said she missed several warning signs during the whole thing. She’s now sharing what happened so other people don’t fall for the same trick.

According to Motor1, Shy needed a car she could pay for in cash. She didn’t want monthly payments and realized she had no one to help her buy a car. She posted on Facebook asking for help, and a woman she knew through a mutual friend replied. This woman said she just started a “buy-here, pay-here” business and could help Shy find a good car at an auction.

On her TikTok video, Shy said she knows nothing about cars, so this seemed perfect. The plan was simple: Shy would pay the money first, and the woman and her business partner would bid on a car for her. They told Shy she’d get a car that would normally cost twice as much at a dealership.

The sketchy business partner raised immediate concerns

Shy had $4,500 ready. She even got pictures of nice cars in her price range. But things got weird when she met the supposed business partner, a man named Sean. Sean asked for all the money upfront, which made Shy nervous. She decided to send the $4,500 to the woman she knew instead of Sean directly.

Even after getting the money, more problems showed up. Sean tried to get Shy to pay more for a Dodge Charger. Shy said no – she just wanted a reliable Honda Accord. After that, Sean barely responded to her messages. When Shy asked for updates, Sean said she was “trying to rush the process.”

Shy started to understand what was happening. “They were running a game on me,” she said. Sean sent her a photo of an Accord he claimed to bid on, then disappeared. Shy says he was out “partying with my money.” Every question took days to get answered. When she asked for the car’s VIN, he eventually sent one that seemed real at first. Car-buying scams like this are becoming more common, and some buyers even face shocking responses from dealership employees when things go wrong.

But Shy learned something important: Sean and the woman who connected them were dating. Three weeks passed with no car. When Shy pushed for a pickup time, Sean ignored her. She took a train from Raleigh to Charlotte to get the car herself. Sean told her it wouldn’t be ready until later and again accused her of rushing.

Shy had had enough. She did a reverse Google search of the Honda photo Sean sent. She found out the car had been sold before Sean claimed to bid on it. The VIN he gave her wasn’t even for that car. “At that moment, that’s when I knew, I got scammed,” Shy said. 

When she confronted Sean, he gave a confusing story about using her money to buy a car for someone named Kendra. None of it made sense since Shy paid $4,500 for her own car. Social media has made it easier for scammers to target victims, with some viral car-related incidents catching widespread attention online.