11:07 am, October 25, 2022
Sophisticated criminals are targeting London used car buyers with adverts for cheap used cars.
The car dealers, purporting to be based in Scotland, are geo targeting social media adverts to London and Home Counties car buyers, knowing it’s unlikely they will travel to check the cars out.
The used cars for sale and the car dealer don’t actually exist, but the conmen try to convince car buyers to pay for the cars over the phone.
Using fake websites, sometimes cloning the names and details of legitimate car dealerships, the criminals use a confidence con to part unsuspecting buyers with their cash.
One buyer told Car Dealer Magazine that the criminals said they had to pay for the used car in full before they would deliver it to London.
‘I saw the advert on social media for a car that was incredibly cheap so I wanted to snap up the deal,’ said one buyer, who contacted Car Dealer after seeing our video.
‘They asked for a full payment and said they would deliver it to me. It wasn’t until I checked out the name online that I came across your story and video.
‘They are obviously targeting buyers in London as they know we won’t travel up there to see the car first. The salesman I spoke to said there was “no need to see it” as all the details were in the advert.
‘It was only because he was so pushy about me paying the money in advance that I got suspicious and googled their name.’
Many other London based used car customers have contacted us since our stories went live with similar concerns.
The car dealer in question was Miller Car Sales Limited and its website is still active today.
Car Dealer reported the firm to fraud investigators and the Police when reports of the con first surfaced at the start of October.
Fraud investigators told Car Dealer that it was clear the conmen were targeting ‘the other end of the country’ to avoid buyers turning up at the used car dealership that doesn’t actually exist.
Sandy Burgess, chief executive of the Scottish Motor Trade Association, said: ‘From what I understand, it’s clear these criminals are targeting London because they know it is unlikely for buyers to travel to see the car first.
‘We have hundreds of legitimate car dealers as members here in Scotland, many of whom offer remote sales all over the UK with tremendous outcomes for the buyers.
‘It is unfortunate that these con men are preying on the general public who are being lured by the cheap prices and then failing to make the basic checks on the dealers concerned which ultimately leads to financial losses.’
Miller Car Sales is the second scam car dealer to be set up in six weeks.
The first, AD Car Sales, was uncovered by Car Dealer and then shut down after investigations by the authorities.
Businesses near where the conmen claim both fake car dealers are based reported ‘hundreds’ of car buyers turning up from the south who had paid for cars that didn’t exist.
Michael Addison of MA Body Shop, based on Millie Road, Kirkcaldy – the same road sham dealer AD Car Sales was supposedly located on – said he was often dealing with London car buyers who had been caught out.
‘We’ve had dozens of people turn up at our body shop looking for the car dealership,’ he told Car Dealer.
‘Many have paid deposits and are coming to look at a car that doesn’t exist. Some come all the way from London to see cars that aren’t there.’
Other local firms told of families traveling to their remote Scottish towns to pick up cars with their children, only to find out when they got there the cars didn’t exist and they had been conned.
Consumer experts said car buyers should think very carefully before paying a deposit for a car they hadn’t seen.
Checking out a business on a variety of platforms and not just trusting their website was also crucial.
Legitimate car dealerships will have reviews on sites like Auto Trader and Google from previous customers and those without them should be treated with extra caution.
Used car pricing expert, Derren Martin, from CAP HPI, added: ‘From what we have seen on these criminals websites and the adverts they write, the cars are usually 60 per cent less than what they should be advertised at.
‘That should ring alarm bells with consumers as if a deal is too good to be true it usually is.’
