Online Scams Targeting North Dakotans - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and on the website wieserautos.com, their photos of cars made visitors of the website believe they were real. "An unknown entity made sure to set up a website that looked real and used it to fraud somebody," says Dan Hendrickson, spokesperson with the Better Business Bureau.

The Better Business Bureau says wieserautos.com listed their location as Fargo, North Dakota, under the same name as a legitimate company in Wahpeton. But anything dealing with the website was a scam. "They use our geographical location because of the trust people have here and think that this business must be legitimate," says Hendrickson. The website wieserautos.com has now been shut down but that wasn't before the company scammed people out of thousands of dollars, one guy lost $20,000.

The BBB says anyone can learn a lesson from this. "It's easy to make a legitimate website. But you have to look out for geographical inconsistencies. Wieserautos.com had pictures of palm trees on it so you new they didn't know much about the area," says Hendrickson. You can also take a look at your local Better Business Bureau's website. "Really, do your best to verify the company is a real thing," says Hendrickson. Because these days anyone can make something look real, that turns up to be fake. "North Dakota is being used and that's ashame," says Hendrickson.