Selling car - am I being scammed?

GW65 · 6 November 2006 at 9:06PM

I'm currently selling my car through the Autotrader web site. Had a call from someone that's ringing scam alarm bells....

Has anyone come across any recent scams involving an Irish bloke who has "a driver" in the UK who'll pay cash for the car and drive it away?

(I'm aware of the sensible things to do to make sure the cash is not counterfeit - i.e. pay it into a bank before handing over keys - I just need to know if anyone has been bitten by a similar-sounding scam in ways I'm not anticipating!).

Thanks in advance!
Gary

saintjanet · 6 November 2006 at 9:19PM

Sorry i thanked you while trying to reply!!

I dont think this will be a scam,more likely it will be a dealer,trying to buy stock ,cheap.He would probably offer you a low price for your car and hope you would be tempted if you had not had any other offers.

balsingh · 6 November 2006 at 9:27PM

All I seem to get when advertisiing in Autotrader is canvassers/agencies who "have buyers interested"

Anyway, my advice to you is to not do anything you arent happy with. Dont let anyone bully you into selling the car the the way they want. Also, if someones coming to look and possibly buy the car, ask someone who has already done it to be there so they can make sure it all seems above board.

If anyone calls you telling you that they have buyers interested, its probably an agency who will charge you to advertise and then the buyers will never materialise. Think about it ... a genuine buyer will call you themselves. Why would they want someone else to call you on their behalf??

DealDrivers_company_representative · 7 November 2006 at 3:00PM

Gary...run for the hills!

there's a couple of companies who call people who've had their cars just expire on the AutoTrader website, asking if it is still for sale, then tell you they've got interested customers for it.....just tell them to go away. It is a scam, will cost you money and a load of grief. There's quite a bit on the internet about the folks that run these companies (none of it good). One of the guys in our own office here almost fell for it a year ago when selling a private car and ended up getting into a row with them about the fees they wanted to provide him with non existent customers. What Car? also ran an article on them at some point this year....It was in their Sep 06 edition 'telesales scams', p128..we have the article here if you need anything from it!

GW65 · 8 November 2006 at 8:34PM

Well, the car is sold and it wasn't a scam!

It sounded too good to be true because the Irish dealer was willing to offer our asking price less £50 without having seen the car - just send a transporter driver with cash. Since most UK dealers will only offer you the auction value I smelled a rat....until I looked at second-hand car prices in the Republic of Ireland!

The car was a 9 year old Honda, worth about £1750 as a private sale in the UK. The same car in Ireland via a dealer sells for ...... over 4,500 Euros (about £3,000)!!! So basically, this guy can fill a transporter with UK cars, import them to Ireland and make a killing.

He did try to pull the "I've only got £1500 on me" so we told him to go to the cashpoint and he paid the original amount, in genuine UK banknotes (paid into our bank before handing over the keys).

adrienneadrienne · 14 November 2006 at 8:28PM

Did you get the guy's number? That is a great deal. Restores my faith after contact with some real sharks selling cars on eBay.

arnie&caseysma! · 14 November 2006 at 9:44PM

It is very common now that many second hand car dealers come from Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland and purchase cars through Autotrader/Ebay/various car auctions. They can make money on even the worst rust bucket that they can lay their hands on, even if it is only a couple of hundred quid it is worth their while.
Traders are back and forward from Ireland 2 or 3 times a week filling transporters with cars and making a pound on them. If they contact you just make sure you do get the money you want and dont just fall for the scenario above (well done GW65!) and do send them to the bank for the cash. If they really want it they will be willing to pay!

tomstickland · 14 November 2006 at 9:46PM

Cash is great.

Selling car - am I being scammed?

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