The scams that take money off private buyers here

Most private sales in West Bengal are between two ordinary people and go fine. The ones that do not tend to follow a small number of patterns.

The deposit for a vehicle you have not seen

"Somebody else is coming this evening, send something to hold it." Nobody needs money before you have stood in front of the vehicle. This is the commonest one and it works on urgency alone.

The seller who is not the owner

The RC names somebody else and there is an explanation — a brother, a friend, the owner is abroad. Sometimes true. But you cannot transfer a vehicle without the registered owner's signature, so if they are not there, nothing can be completed, and you are paying on a promise.

The loan that will be cleared afterwards

Pay the seller, they clear the finance, the bank releases the papers. In that order, you have no vehicle and no money and no leverage. The loan is settled first, or the sale waits.

The wound-back odometer

Cheap to do and still common. Cross-check the reading against the service book, the tyres, the pedal rubbers and the driver's seat bolster. A car showing 40,000 with a shiny new steering wheel cover hiding a worn rim has done more than it says.

The two-wheeler that was never transferred

Very common. The seller bought it second hand themselves and never did the RTO transfer, so the RC names somebody neither of you has met. Untangling that is months of work, and it is work you would be taking on.

The "duplicate" RC

A duplicate RC is a real document and there are honest reasons for one. It is also what you get when the original is with a lender. If you are handed a duplicate, ask why the original is not there, and check the hypothecation line.

The one habit that prevents most of it

Meet at the registered address, see the original papers, and do the money and the signatures at the same time. Everything above depends on one of those three being skipped.