7:12 am, March 30, 2023
Criminals pretending to be used car dealers are issuing fake invoices and asking customers to pay cash into an international bank account before stealing their money.
Scammers are suspected to be behind Perth Vehicles – a fictitious dealership purporting to be selling cars from a site in Scotland.
The fake forecourt is the latest to be uncovered by Car Dealer as part of our on-going investigations into these conmen.
Worried car buyers Dave and Fiona Anderson contacted Car Dealer after nearly losing thousands of pounds when they tried to purchase a Fiat 500L.
The Andersons became suspicious when they were asked to pay £55 to set up a bank transfer to the company – something Dave thought was odd and sparked him into investigating the firm further.
The couple shared with Car Dealer the fake invoice Perth Vehicles sent them which reveals for the first time the bank account being used by the scammers.
Car Dealer checked the account sort code and found it to be one held at the Wise Business bank.
Car Dealer alerted the bank to the scam which is now investigating our reports. It is hoped the firm will pass on the details of the account holder to the police.
A spokesperson for Wise said: ‘Whenever we detect activity violating our Acceptable Use Policy, we take the appropriate steps to stop this from happening.
‘While we’re unable to comment directly on the status of Wise accounts, we can confirm that all complaints are taken seriously and investigated by our specialist teams at Wise, including this one.’
The Andersons were drawn into the scam by a cheap used car advert on Facebook – a carbon copy of the cons we have previously uncovered.
The website looks professional, has fake testimonials from ‘customers’ and listings for a variety of cars.
However, Car Dealer found the pictures of the directors had been stolen from other websites and the used car adverts were too cheap.
On the fake website’s about us page the dealer lists itself as ‘Perth Vehicles (MDG Capital 3 Limited)’.
Car Dealer contacted MDG Capital 3 – a legitimate business – and broke the news their name was being used by the conmen. It said it was reporting the website to the police and the website hosting company.
A spokesperson for the firm said: ‘MDG Capital 3 have been shocked and appalled to hear of this, and on learning of it immediately referred the matter to the police to investigate potential fraudulent activity.
‘No people connected to MDG Capital 3 are involved with this website in any way, and we are angry and disappointed to have been wrongly associated with it.’
Dave Anderson told Car Dealer he was incredibly close to falling for the Perth Vehicles con.
He said: ‘We found the car on Facebook Marketplace and it was £3,000 cheaper than any others we had looked at.
‘I spoke to the dealer and he was very convincing. We agreed a deal and he sent me the invoice. But when they asked for £55 to set up the transfer I got suspicious and looked into them a bit more.
‘They said they were based in Perth but had a Glasgow phone number. When I called them and asked them why that was, they got shirty with me and I found that strange so I asked if my nephew could come and see the car, but he got funny about giving me the address.
‘We then Googled it more and found your article and more of the clues you mention to spot a fake became apparent. We were so close to sending them the money – I am so pleased I got suspicious and checked them out further.’
The scam is near-identical to those Car Dealer has investigated before. The conmen find a dormant company and clone its legitimate details to pass themselves off as real.
So far, Car Dealer has investigated 11 scams that follow the same pattern.
Usually, once the names have been revealed on the Car Dealer website, the fake dealers are shut down and started again with a different name.
If you spot what you suspect to be a fake car dealer, contact us using the mail button below (by the author profile) and report it for investigation.
