Just been looking on Autotrader and saw a 2007 VolvoXC90 D5 Auto with all the toys for £7,000. Yes just £7,000.
Contact with private seller was via e-mail or mobile phone. I e-mailed in a very general manner (not referring to the make or model of the car) and got a message back that the car is in Spain. It was taken there buy the owner due to the economic crisis - she returned home she says, but cannot sell it there as it is RHD. Assured me that the car is A1. All fine so far.
But, firstly how can inspect the car without committing to buy it. How are they going to get it to the UK? It feels fishy and I know what you will all say. Also, the advert has disappeared from Auto Trader. Is that coincidence or .....? I think the car should be priced at closer to £20,000.
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It feels fishy and I know what you will all say. >>
But since you asked, you will find that the same reply will have been posted when asked the same question in scores of other threads if you do a forum search for "autotrader scam".
Also, the advert has disappeared from Auto Trader. Is that coincidence or .....? I think the car should be priced at closer to £20,000. >>
The threads found by the above search will explain why it has been removed. Here is one
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=64619&...f
more at:
www.autotrader.co.uk/safety_and_security/fraudulen...p
www.autotrader.co.uk/safety_and_security/contact_a...d
Edited by jbif on 23/11/2009 at 08:06
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Last night I was searching for diesel 5dr cars up to £8k within 60mls on Autotrader and three such scam cars came up... all cars that should have been £10k plus listed for £4k or so. Last week on a similar search several similar scam cars appeared. They are very common.
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I have reported a few to AT through their website.
2 weeks ago a 2008 Lexus GS 450H, 8,000 mls @ £10K
Surely AT could run a script / query on their database 2/3 times a day to highlight the really obvious ones. Then get a clerk to eyeball / delete them.
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Or they could add a button to 'report suspicious adverts' as the process for reporting them isn't straightforward.
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>but cannot sell it there as it is RHD
Complete twaddle. Spain has sufficient uk ex pats to be able to sell a 20k RHD drive car for 10k let alone 7k.
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Remember, it's a scam. The story doesn't have to make sense, it just has to hook the gullible.
Edited by Lou_O on 23/11/2009 at 09:50
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Yes but make it believabe!
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It's a Scam I know someone that purchased a Merc RHD in Italy. Did the car show up, No. He didn't even check it out properly. Regards Peter
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I've also got a mate in Nigeria who has £35 million stuck in a bank account and all he needs is the help of somebody in the UK to extract it (for a percentage). If interested, please email.
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Thanks for all your advice. I will steer well clear. It all sounds too pat doesn't it especially as the follow up e-mail was very technical about money transfer etc.
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I'd have been put off as soon as I read the word 'Volvo'.
[I've been hearing recently about the price of Volvo spares ;-) ]
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Why on earth would somebody sell a £20000 car for £7000? They wouldn't. Period. Things like that just do not happen.
I'll be frank and say that I have no sympathy whatsoever with people who fall for these rediculous scams. The prices advertised are so bizarre that no sensible person would consider them genuine.
Ask yourself why nobody has bunged ?100 worth of diesel in it and driven it back to the UK if they really could only get £7k for it in Spain.
We had a Mercedes we sold a couple of years back. Perfectly nice car sold to nice people in Scotland for £14000. About 3 months later we get a call from the Met Police. Somebody had bought the exact same car (using our adverts pictures) for £7000 and amazingly the seller has been impossible to contact once the money had been received.....why would anyone sell a £14k car for £7k? They wouldn't and the only reason people fall for it is pure greed thinking you can get something genuine for half its market value.
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Without wanting to sound rude, I can't believe there are still people who fall for this! The amount of publicity these scams get and it still doesn't sink in. I've seen so called 'financial experts' lose thousands chasing up one of the Nigerian get rich quick schemes.
Mind boggling!
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As we are actively looking at the moment today I've done another Autotrader search on our criteria. Mixed in with the Focus/Astra/C4 models there are two more scam cars. A 2008 Galaxy Ghia at £4k and a 2007 BMW x3 at £5K.
Can't believe they are unable to detect these with some software.
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