Scam On Autotrader.co.uk

[vancemongo]

Hello all,

now i have a little story about a scam thats going around car website including eBay,

well,a few months ago i decided to buy a avensis,i never had one before but had heard good reports about them,so after doing some research on them,i decided to look for a estate,a diesel,and second hand,as i wouldnt be able to afford a new car,

now as i live in Dublin Ireland ,the toyota avensis,s dont come with as much spec as they do in the uk,so with a few euro,to play with,i decided it was a avensis i wanted,and it had to be a diesel,and a estate,so i done my research on there here,a good car,i went into garages to see them,done a few test drives and i was hooked,i even stopped and talked to people in the shopping center carparks and asked them what they thought of the avensis they drove.

now in Ireland our toyota avensis does,nt come with the top spec as standard,any extra that we get we pay for,cruise controp,parking aid,alloys,light and rain sensors,but in the uk,most of these car[well the tr or the t4]these,so it was the uk i was going to buy from,

so i checked out different car website,s [carzone,autotrader gumtree],i had about 7500 euro to play with so i would be looking for something in the price range or 5000 to 5500 sterling.rang a few,some of their prices were a little bit high,i think the garages were the worst,some just hung up on me when i asked their best price,so i decided to go private,no garages,and something with average milage,09or 2010 with ,give or take a few extra miles on the clock,

some i checked were only 3 or 4 years old and some very heavy milage,for instance,a 2011 avensis 2.2 d cat with 184,000 miles on the clock and he was looking 6800 pounds,..not for me,i would be looking for something around the 2010 with maybe 100,000 miles give or take,

anyway back to my story,i seen this avensis2.2 Dcat tourer in autotrader,67,000 miles on the clock,great condition and a automatic,all for 5,200 pound,so looked at the pictures of it on autotrader and it looked good and well looked after,so i picked up the phone and rand the uk number,now auto trader have their own policy and when you ring the number in autotrader they tranfare you to the owners number as their number is private,which you can understand,so i ring but no answer,and the answering service gives my a email address to get in touch with this person,which i thought was a bit odd,but i went along with it and i emailed the owner,it was,nt long till i got a reply,a women,told her i was living in Manchester and asked where she was or where the car was,she sent me a long email stating she was from London and she married a guy from Sweden and moved to sweden,but the car was in storage in Cambridge,which was 132 miles away from Manchester,i reason i told her Manchester was i have a very good friend there and he told me if and when i seen a car he would go and see it and bring along a friend of his who was a machanic,so i exchanges emails with this seller and i asked where when could i view the car,she kept telling me the car was in storage with a bi storage company and i would need a appointment to view it,she gave me the name of the storage company so i googled it and it seemed to be what she said,so i rang it and the phone just rang itself out,not even a recording,then i seen where it was registered to and low and behold it was registered to a place in knutsford just outside manchester not far from where my friend lives,then i got another email from the seller,saying she was in touch with the storage company and if i wanted to view the car i would have to lodge the amount which is called a escrow account, for the car into this account they had and then the car would be delivered to me to test it,acording to her,this company would hold my money for 10 days and if i was happy with the car my hard earned cash would be realeased to the seller,

in the mean time i had tried to ring this storage company about 20 times but no answer ands same as before it just rang itself out,so i rang my friend and gave him the name of this storage company and their address and ask him to check it out,and he drove up to the address i gave him and it turned out to be a two storey house and this address was a chartered accountant,when my friend went in he told these people that their address was being used as a scam,one of the owners told him that a few people often came there looking for their car they had bought from websites,..i was in shock,i couldnt believe it,some people had fallen to this scam and lost their hard earned money,i rang autotrader to report this,they asked me to sent all their details over to them and they would check it out,i asked them when placing a add,do you make payment by credid card for the add,i still havent got a reply from them,...i know i wouldnt part with my money till i could see what i was buying but their are people out there that think this was a good thing not to be missed,

i will try and get the storage companies name and the sellers name and email address and post it on here if i am allowed.

[Parts-King]

ANY person selling ANYTHING who wants the money to be transferred by Escrow, Moneygram etc is high on the list of scammers

Never ever ever part with money this way no matter what story is concocted. This is not the first time ive heard of similar scams via similar websites

[vancemongo]

Her name was Sarah T Helton

Her email address was grepoxe@gmail.com

i find if you have any doubt with email address...just google them and see what shows up

[vancemongo]

The storage company was called http://.TD-Distribution-Motors.uk

[alan333]

I'd probably have given up when I didn't get an answer on the phone, and 100% definitely given up after the long-winded story about the car being in storage etc. Stinks of a scam from point one.

[Cyker]

Yeah, it's an old scam but it's good for all to be reminded that such scumbags are out there, since not everyone is as cynical and jaded as we are

[vancemongo]

Yes i understand fully,but when you read something like this car for sale in great condition and low millage you think your on to a good thing,and as i said in a earlier post a lot have been scamed out of their good hard earned cash,i for one wouldnt hand over cash unless i had the car checked as well as the owner,

[avensisd4d786]

If its too good to be true it probably is, this is a known scam, I personally would not of emailed and I would of waited for a call back.

[vancemongo]

I understand fully Avensisd4d,but one good lesson to be learned from this scam...

Once bitten twice shy.

[Cyker]

Some other scams I've encountered:

People calling up trying to get your credit card details, pretending that they are verifying them; They quote you the first 4 numbers as 'proof' they are legit. (The first 4 digits are the same on most cards)

People calling up pretending they are from Microsoft or HP or some other large company, saying your ISP has detected viruses or something and referred them to you. They try to get you to go to and download software that lets them remotely access your PC.

People calling up pretending to be from the credit card/bank/gas/electricity company, saying they are investigating a fraud/data error/flying pigs, get you to call them back on the number on your card/bill to prove they are real, but they don't hang up so when you dial you aren't actually dialing but are just sending tones to them, and they reply pretending they are the company and say everything is okay.

Basic rule of thumb when being solicited/cold-called is as soon as personal details or money is involved, brain alarms should go off.

[vancemongo]

I often get spam emails from muppets telling me i am due a tax refund,280.80 pound,i used to read them as first and then delete them,now they are in the spam folder and are deleted as soon as they come in.

I once had a phone call from a unknown number telling me there was some fault in my credit card,and he wanted some details from me,i said sure just hold on there a minute and i get my credit card,and then put my phone beside my television and left it there,checked it about a hour later and the %$(er hung up.