Excellent find! I would report it to the Chicago PD, but not alert AutoTrader because they must approve every single ad. I recently used AutoTrader to sell my car and they took about 24 hours to approve my ad, which means they should've caught and reported this themselves. It appears to me that they are complacent in such activities and need to be investigated themselves.
Excellent find! I would report it to the Chicago PD, but not alert AutoTrader because they must approve every single ad. I recently used AutoTrader to sell my car and they took about 24 hours to approve my ad, which means they should've caught and reported this themselves. It appears to me that they are complacent in such activities and need to be investigated themselves.
@Newfind OP you should be able to add this to your initial post, but alas you did a direct link. Too bad, and another reason to not do direct links - no ability to update. I think the fact that Auto Trader MUST approve every ad is extremely important.
Before you go impugning Auto Trader, you should probably find out what their protocol is for approving/rejecting ads. They might have a bot just looking for certain keywords in the ad. As far as the photo, it's easy to rename an image so it's consistent with the ad, but actually shows something very different. The key thing is, do they have a human look at each ad before it's approved, or is it just a bot? I'm not saying you're wrong, Auto Trader should be looked at, but with the volume of ads that pass through their system, I wouldn't be at all surprised if no human ever looks at them before they are approved. They might just automatically approve them based on a certain algorithm, then remove them if someone complains. But it is definitely something where more information is needed, because the scope and scale of this whole atrocity tells me that no one person or organization can be automatically ruled out.
Edit: I was looking at the advertising guidelines on Auto Trader, and it looks like it's possible to edit the ad after it's approved. That may be what happened - a legit looking ad, but then they changed the photo after it went live. If that's the case, these asshats may be using other classified ad sites to do the same thing - post an ad for something that sounds like a real ad with a real picture of the item, and then change things up after the ad is approved. Damn, this whole thing just makes me sick.
Looks like you got a good lead on the sales/trafficking in plain sight - the good powers that be are watching here so IMO they'll already be following up on it whether it was new to them or not.
ah, we all are learning here - I just did a bunch of housekeeping of comments in the wrong place. You could wait awhile and repost as a text submission with a link and your updated info - I'm sure no one would object to it being reposted with the descirption you put in the comments ("well maintained" and etc), blue book info and other updates and etc.
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organic1 ago
Excellent find! I would report it to the Chicago PD, but not alert AutoTrader because they must approve every single ad. I recently used AutoTrader to sell my car and they took about 24 hours to approve my ad, which means they should've caught and reported this themselves. It appears to me that they are complacent in such activities and need to be investigated themselves.
VieBleu ago
Excellent find! I would report it to the Chicago PD, but not alert AutoTrader because they must approve every single ad. I recently used AutoTrader to sell my car and they took about 24 hours to approve my ad, which means they should've caught and reported this themselves. It appears to me that they are complacent in such activities and need to be investigated themselves.
@Newfind OP you should be able to add this to your initial post, but alas you did a direct link. Too bad, and another reason to not do direct links - no ability to update. I think the fact that Auto Trader MUST approve every ad is extremely important.
kidavenger ago
Before you go impugning Auto Trader, you should probably find out what their protocol is for approving/rejecting ads. They might have a bot just looking for certain keywords in the ad. As far as the photo, it's easy to rename an image so it's consistent with the ad, but actually shows something very different. The key thing is, do they have a human look at each ad before it's approved, or is it just a bot? I'm not saying you're wrong, Auto Trader should be looked at, but with the volume of ads that pass through their system, I wouldn't be at all surprised if no human ever looks at them before they are approved. They might just automatically approve them based on a certain algorithm, then remove them if someone complains. But it is definitely something where more information is needed, because the scope and scale of this whole atrocity tells me that no one person or organization can be automatically ruled out. Edit: I was looking at the advertising guidelines on Auto Trader, and it looks like it's possible to edit the ad after it's approved. That may be what happened - a legit looking ad, but then they changed the photo after it went live. If that's the case, these asshats may be using other classified ad sites to do the same thing - post an ad for something that sounds like a real ad with a real picture of the item, and then change things up after the ad is approved. Damn, this whole thing just makes me sick.
organic1 ago
Thanks for the added importance and urgency. Much appreciated!
UnicornsAndSparkles ago
Yes exactly. Proof of this on website? Screenshot QUICK they are watching this.
Newfind ago
Ah, crap. I didn't know the difference.
ZunarJ5 ago
Looks like you got a good lead on the sales/trafficking in plain sight - the good powers that be are watching here so IMO they'll already be following up on it whether it was new to them or not.
Newfind ago
I hope you're right. I'm going to keep scouring ads.
VieBleu ago
above someone suggested you screenshot this from the website immediately in a way that proves it was online as well in case it disappears.
Newfind ago
Yeah, I've got some. I wonder if we should call the number and talk to them about the car? (Record it of course.)
VieBleu ago
ah, we all are learning here - I just did a bunch of housekeeping of comments in the wrong place. You could wait awhile and repost as a text submission with a link and your updated info - I'm sure no one would object to it being reposted with the descirption you put in the comments ("well maintained" and etc), blue book info and other updates and etc.
Good find.
Newfind ago
There might be a reason they've been around so long and are the biggest name in car sales...
organic1 ago
That's certainly a possibility! shudder