2:23 pm, October 7, 2022
At a very quick glance Miller Car Sales Limited looks genuine.
Sure the revolving gallery of images at the top of the website’s homepage are stock library images, but the selection of featured listings looks real enough.
Look past this though and the signs of this being a fake website are plain to see.
Not only is the ‘inventory’ large, but the images attached to each car listing bear no similarity to each other, implying that the cars haven’t been photographed in one location.
Moreover, the prices for the cars are too cheap and all around the same price. No real car dealer would do that.
Further proof that the website is not what it purports to be involves a bit of research. Firstly, type the dealer’s address into Google Maps and there’s a just a housing estate and no premises.
In full: How criminals have set up yet another con car dealer website
Secondly, and most damning of all, the ‘our team’ section on the ‘About Us’ page is completely artificial.
Arnaud Ferland, who appears to be Miller Car Sales Limited’s sales manager, is in fact a photograph of Francois Diederich, a famous Luxembourgian chemist who died in 2020. The photo has even been stolen from Wikipedia.
I enquired about a 2017 Kia Picanto listed at the hugely cheap price of £3,390.
The man who answered the phone seemed a little unsure of which car I was asking about and then just gave basic details about the car.
It soon became clear it was exactly the same person my colleague called on a different number for a different fake dealer two weeks ago.
On asking why the car was so cheap and exampling a a Kia main dealer has a similar car currently for sale for £10,250, I was told there was no VAT to be paid by myself should I purchase the car because the previous owner – a disabled lady, apparently – bought the car through a disability scheme.
When I asked why I could not see the company’s premises on Google Maps, but only a residential flat, I was told that was the company’s business address. And if I arrived at that address I would be taken to ‘the compound’ to see the Picanto.
Unlike a previous scam revealed by Car Dealer, no money was asked to ‘secure’ the car for a viewing. But with a small amount of research and by keeping your wits about you, it’s easy to see the scammers from the real dealers.
Advice on how to spot a fake car dealer can be found here.
