Seen At 11: Scam Artists Selling Rented Cars, Clothes To Unsuspecting Victims

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)-- From expensive cars and watches, to designer dresses and handbags, you can rent just about anything today.

But now, scam artists are taking advantage of the rental market and you could unknowingly end up a victim, CBS2's Maurice DuBois reports.

It took Brent Dillon more than a year to save up $13,000 to buy a Toyota Camry.

"I've worked two jobs trying to get this," he said.

But he didn't get to keep it for very long because the car he purchased was actually a rental from Enterprise. Scam artists rented the vehicle fraudulently, then sold it to Dillon through Craigslist, complete with a bogus car title.

"The documents look real," criminologist Joe Giacalone explained.

It's not the first time this has happened.

"The internet has opened up a whole new area for thieves to rip people off," he said.

Renting items and then turning around and selling them online is a growing business.

"I'm not surprised," Jason Weinger of Paradise Pawn Brokers said.

Weinger said strict regulations prevent someone from selling a rented item to a pawn shop.

"We ask for ID, we ask questions about ownership," he said.

That is simply not the case online.

"It's like the Wild West, you can get away with almost anything," Weinger said.

Jennifer Rosen's company Lending Luxury rents designer dresses. She said her business takes precautions to try to prevent the theft and resale of their expensive duds, but they've also discussed taking an additional measure of sewing a "property of lending luxury" label into each dress.

"It will help prevent people from doing that sort of thing," she said.

Weinger, whose shop specializes in musical instruments, said before you buy anything examine the item for markings.

"Department of Education puts 'Department of Ed' on their musical instruments, they actually carve it in," he said. "If there is any opportunity where you can actually research what you're buying."

Giacalone said by running the vehicle identification number (VIN), Dillon would have known who the real owner was.

"Any time you are doing one of these transactions, do it at the local precinct and this might scare off some of these people too if this is going to be a fraud," he suggested.

Hundreds of police precincts across the country have created designated safe spaces for residents to buy and sell goods from Internet transactions.