“I got scammed for $5,300 for the same reason.”
A North Carolina woman is going viral on TikTok after laying out, in a three-part series, how she lost $4,500 to someone she thought she could trust. Shy (@shynotchy_) says she ignored more than a few red flags, but she’s sharing the story so others don’t repeat her mistake. It started when she decided she needed a cash car and wanted to avoid a monthly payment.
“I know nothing about cars,” she said, explaining that she didn’t have anyone in her life who could help her navigate the process. So she posted on Facebook, asking friends if anyone knew someone reputable.
A woman she recognized through a mutual friend reached out, telling Shy she’d just launched a “buy-here, pay-here” setup and could help her find something solid at auction.
“I knew the girl from one of my friends,” Shy said. The pitch sounded simple enough: Shy would pay upfront, the woman and her business partner would go to auction, and she’d walk away with a car that would have cost “double the price at the dealership.”
“This worked out perfectly in my eyes,” Shy said. She had $4,500 ready to go, and the woman even sent her “nice [expletive] cars” in that range. But once Shy was introduced to the business partner, Sean, things took a turn. As of this writing, her video detailing what followed has drawn more than 22,700 views.
Shy says Sean laid out how he’d get her a car, but immediately asked for all the money upfront, which she admits set off alarms. After checking with her dad, she decided to send the money to the woman she knew rather than to Sean directly.
“I’m thinking that if something happens to my money, baby, I’m coming for you,” she joked, already knowing how the story ends.
Sean began sending her options within her budget, but more red flags popped up. He pushed her to pay a down payment for something nicer, like a Charger. Shy says she told him she wasn’t trying to impress anyone; she just wanted a Honda Accord until she could afford the car she really wanted. Communication then slowed to a crawl. When she pushed for updates, Sean accused her of “trying to rush the process.”
“They were running a game on me,” Shy says.
He eventually sent her a photo of an Accord he claimed to have bid on, but then disappeared. In Shy’s words, he was out “partying with my money.”
In part two of her series, Shy explained that every question she asked took Sean days to answer—sometimes even something as basic as asking for the VIN.
When he finally sent one, it checked out, which briefly eased her nerves. But then she learned another detail: Sean and the woman who introduced them were dating.
“Something is fishy,” Shy said, realizing she was two weeks in with no car in sight.
When she pressed for a pickup time, he ghosted her again. Shy kept pushing and eventually took a train from Raleigh to Charlotte to get the car herself. Sean told her the car wouldn’t be ready until later that night and again accused her of rushing.
“I’ve never not had a car before, so this is an uncomfortable situation,” Shy said. Still, she tried to stay polite to avoid being ghosted altogether, but three weeks had passed with nothing to show for it. That’s when she decided she’d had enough.
No. Instead, Shy said, “something told me to do a reverse Google search of the [initial] picture he sent me of the Honda.” That’s when she discovered the car had been sold before Sean ever claimed to bid on it.
“I knew he didn’t have the car,” she said. The VIN he sent her wasn’t for the same vehicle either.
“At that moment, that’s when I knew, I got scammed,” Shy said. She confronted him with screenshots, and Sean called her, offering a convoluted story about how he and his girlfriend supposedly tried to use Shy’s money to buy a car for an acquaintance, Kendra. None of it added up, especially since Shy had given him $4,500 specifically for her own auction purchase.
Then came another revelation. The woman who introduced Shy to Sean had also given him money, and still didn’t have a car. Shy realized the duo had been scamming people and pocketing the cash.
In a third video, she shared screenshots Sean sent her explaining that Kendra had given him $5,000 after selling her Honda, and that the plan collapsed when she took the Honda back. Shy didn’t buy it. She contacted Kendra directly and quickly learned Sean had lied to both of them.
Shy eventually got in touch with Sean’s mother, who told her they didn’t communicate with him, that he didn’t have a dealer’s license, and that he’d been drifting between Airbnbs—not exactly the picture of a used-car professional.
A few days later, Shy says she was on a call with everyone involved, and Sean admitted the woman who funneled him $9,500 hadn’t passed along all the money. Shy recorded the call. Sean’s mother offered to help get the women their cars, but he ghosted her, too. She encouraged Shy to press charges, which she did.
According to Shy, the detective on her case gave Sean a choice: give her the money or the car. He did neither, and charges were filed immediately.
Buy-here, pay-here car dealerships are well known—and they operate differently from traditional dealerships because the seller also serves as the lender.
As a result, they tend to work exclusively with buyers who have bad or no credit, according to Experian.
If you want to buy a car this way, it typically means purchasing and financing your chosen vehicle at the same place. While payment schedules can vary, they are made directly to the dealership from which you purchased your car, rather than a bank.
The setup has many pros, such as “buyers being finished with the entire buying and financing process when you drive off the lot,” Experian reports. But there are trade-offs, too, including higher interest rates.
Because the dealer makes money on both the sale and the loan, buyers need to slow down and read every part of the agreement. Be sure to ask about warranties, obtain a history report on the car you’re purchasing, and understand the loan terms.
Indeed, safety largely depends on being thorough. So take your time, ask questions, and negotiate what you can. And if you can bring a co-signer with strong credit, it may help you land better terms.
Judging by the view count, not everyone made it through all three parts of Sky’s saga with the fake car dealer. But plenty of people who watched the first installment chimed in with sympathy—and their own horror stories.
“Oh, babyyy got me out of $3,500,” one woman shared.
“Omggggg me tooo when I first [moved] here,” another said.
“I got scammed out of $5,300 for the same reason,” a third person added.
Others jumped in with warnings and hard-earned advice about buying cars from strangers online.
“As a woman, we need to start educating ourselves about the things we don’t know,” one commenter wrote. “We cannot rely on a man, and we cannot try anyone when they’re selling cars or anything like that.”
“Facebook is full of scammers,” someone else wrote. “If they aren’t someone you know personally, DON’T TRUST THEM!!”
“Buy here, pay here have cars on their lot,” another person added. “If they’re buying cars from the auction and need your money first, it’s definitely a scam.”
Some pushed Sky to call out not just Sean but the other people involved.
“Expose her a$$,” one woman wrote. “Times TOO HARD.”
“Yeah, definitely drop those names, sis,” another added.
Motor1 has contacted Shy via email.
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