8:07 am, February 17, 2023
We’ve wrapped up everything we’ve discovered so far about the rise of fake car dealers in a special podcast.
Following a series of fake car dealerships popping up and scamming consumers out of cash, we’ve produced a Car Dealer Investigations series podcast on the topic.
In the 23-min podcast, Car Dealer editors James Baggott and Rebecca Chaplin chat about how the criminals operate and explain what used car buyers can do to protect themselves.
Car Dealer has investigated eight fake car dealerships since we were first alerted to the scam in September 2022.
Since that first case was revealed, the BBC has featured our investigations on its Morning Live programme.
Car Dealer has also caught the con men on video TWICE as they actively tried to scam customers with fake details of cars that never existed.
In the podcast, our team explains the tell tale giveaways that consumers can use to help spot one of the fake car dealer websites. The majority of those investigated so far use a pattern of mistakes that genuine car dealers simply wouldn’t do.
The names of all the fake car dealers we have investigated and are wary of have also been published in a recent feature that details everything we know about the scams.
Chaplin said: ‘In the podcast we discuss how we first became aware of these scams thanks to reports from the public.
‘Since our investigations we’ve had dozens of messages from consumers who have been saved from handing over their money to these conmen thanks to our stories and we think it’s vital we continue to shine a light on these shady criminals that are conning people out of their hard earned money and seemingly getting away with it.’
In the episode titled ‘how to spot a fake car dealer’ – our team look in detail at the cases uncovered so far and explain the steps consumers can take to protect themselves.
Advice on what to do if anyone thinks they have spotted a fake car dealership is also discussed.
Baggott added: ‘These fake car dealers are giving the motor trade a very bad name because they’re pretending to be real and using recent trends towards online car buying as a way of convincing people to part with their cash.
‘They offer to deliver the cars nationwide for a nominal fee and by pretending they’re based at the far ends of the country where they know used car byers are unlikely to travel before buying, they’re conning people out of thousands of pounds.
‘Genuine car dealers need to shout about these scams far and wide because by doing so they show the importance of buying from a reputable dealer with good reviews.’
The podcast is available by searching Car Dealer Investigations on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or other platforms now. Or you can listen to it in full via the embedded player above.
In detail: Everything we know about fake car dealers so far
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