Advertised my Z4 on Autotrader - within an hour I received a call (which in itself I thought slightly odd). The gentleman, who had an Eastern European accent called himself Tim and wanted to view the car that day - which I agreed to. Shortly afterwards, I received a text from Autotrader advising the number I received the call from was associated with scams and to cease all further communication with them. I rang Autotrader to check their text was genuine and it was. Apparently 3 or 4 of then turn up to inspect your car and look under the bonnet. Whilst you doing that one of them squirts old oil up your exhaust. then the "buyer" asks to see in the boot and whilst you do that one of them then squirts oil into the coolant and water into the oil. This then makes the exhaust smoke/smell when you take them for a test drive and they claim car is only worth scrap and offer you a fraction of what it's worth !
Selling a car ? Watch out for this scam....
- Thread starter Robster
- Start date
Porthcawl
Devon
Liverpool
It's been a well-known scam for about 20 years as far as I can tell.
The other one doing the rounds is where an 'interested party' will ask all the right questions to get your juices flowing and then demand you use a specific vehicle check service to get a report to send to them. You may think this is just to get you to pay for a vehicle check that the buyer should be paying for, but as they run that website/service you're also giving them all your credit/debit card details that they can now use for further fraudulent purposes. It should be obvious that anyone asking for you to pay for a vehicle check as the seller is a scam, so please just tell the to FECK OFF and report the phone number to Action Fraud / Autotrader.
More info here...
The other one doing the rounds is where an 'interested party' will ask all the right questions to get your juices flowing and then demand you use a specific vehicle check service to get a report to send to them. You may think this is just to get you to pay for a vehicle check that the buyer should be paying for, but as they run that website/service you're also giving them all your credit/debit card details that they can now use for further fraudulent purposes. It should be obvious that anyone asking for you to pay for a vehicle check as the seller is a scam, so please just tell the to FECK OFF and report the phone number to Action Fraud / Autotrader.
More info here...
South Lanarkshire
I had one clown try that one with me when I was selling my daughters last car. He was politely told to foxtrot oscar.
That one happened to me and my response was as suggested. I can't stand people who try and benefit at the expense of others - it winds me up, not how I was brought up and consequently my opinion of them is that they are the scum of the earth.
..........and relax.
I'd guessevery autotrader listing gets that one.
I didnt tell mine to FO, I simply told him that I don't speak English and please could he send his message in Spanish. Then French. Then Italian. We went through a good few languages until he started to get frustrated.
Days of fun.
Good luck with that!
I rang them back and told them if they turn up I would call police. Never showed....
Police can't really do anything unless they are caught in the act causing criminal damage.
Okay, have your mates waiting with baseball bats.
abar121
Active member
Yeah, an old one but probably more common today than ever.
An elderly friend had two idiots turn up, one distracted the owner and the other dumped oil in the intake and over the engine bay.
The owner got rid of them pretty quickly and called the police, who as usual failed to follow up in any meaningful way.
An elderly friend had two idiots turn up, one distracted the owner and the other dumped oil in the intake and over the engine bay.
The owner got rid of them pretty quickly and called the police, who as usual failed to follow up in any meaningful way.