Selling Car Scam

iseethestrals

I have advertised my car in Autotrader and received a call from another company who said they will search for buyers for me for free. That sounds good I think to myself. THis morning I then received a call from them (not Autotrader) saying they had someone that wanted to come see the car and that there was a lot of interest in it and would I be home. I said I would be.
The guy then went into some spiel about not charging commision and receiving the full amount etc. There would be a small admin fee to release my details to buyers. Quickly moving on he asked for further contact details.
At this stage I stopped him and asked him did he really expect me to hand him some bank details as it was him who phoned me. I said I would not give him the details. The usual sales pitch then about losing sales I stuck to my guns, never give your details out. He then nastily said goodbye. Called 1471 and caller withheld number. Anyone else have experience or think that this could of been genuine?

xmaslolly76

I had a similar thing on my mobile the other day the guy cliamed to be from my network and started asking all sorts of questions about contract length and weather i had received the free upgrade they had sent then he wanted personal details at which point i asked him directly if he worked for 3 he said yes i then pointed out that if he did he would have all this informaton already and i wasnt going to answer any more of his questions unless he gave me his full name and department details and i would call him back via three customer service number funnily enough he hung up.

iseethestrals

it wasnt till i hung up that i thought i should of asked him for more company details. it was def a call centre or sounded like one as ther was lot of baclground noise. like they couldnt take the fee from the final sellin price

Astaroth

A friend tried to sell their car through Autotrader and was getting 4-5 calls a day from people saying they had buyers for their car but they had to pay £50 to be put in contact - wouldnt say that their was any guarantee that the people would buy

trisontana

The internet is awash with stories about this type of company that charge between £50 and £100 to "sell" your car. They always say that there are two or three buyers queuing up and anxious to buy your vehicle . You pay the money over then don't hear a thing. When you try and get your money back on their "no sale, no fee" terms the words "blood and stone" come to mind.

One well-known car magazine caught out one of these firms once. They put an advert in "Autotrader" for a clapped out Lada and asked over £2000 for it. Sure enough one of these firms got in touch and said that they had three people who were clamouring to buy the car. Of course no sale ever took place and there were no buyers. My advice, don't deal with them.

I am sure "Watchdog" and other consumer programmes have featured these companies in the past.

wobbley

Another thread on the same topic-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=201534

Backbiter

I'm sure there are lots of people who can't get hold of a copy of Autotrader or use a phone, but who queue up to pay commission to someone who will buy Autotrader and make calls on their behalf. Obvious really.

Astaroth

Well.... whilst it does sound silly, there is the possibility that some may be genuine (though I doubt many if any are) given that you can register with places like Audi garages saying you are looking for a certain second hand Audi and they then say they will look for one for you... not sure that all of these will be from part exchanges.

tmcgregg

it is def a scam, i was the person who posted the other thread see above, and finally today got my money back, but only after sending them 100's of emails to jam their system. i kept phoning them saying i wanted to sell my car, kept them talking for over 20 mins, giving false details of everything right down to made up credit card number, just to say at the end you do sell stolen cars dont you as i stole this one last night!!!!! needless to say they got very peed off and have finally offered me a refund.

iseethestrals

as posted in ur message. vehicle link have called today assuring me there would be no charges. hmmmm might make up some credit card details and see if my address is passed on within the promised 20mins

Davidboy

Yes this all sounds very simular to my experiences with selling on autotrader. I was jusy soooo fed up of these companies ringing offering to sell my car for me etc etc. my comments to them, "do you think I am going to give you another £70 to sell my car when I have just paid autotrader?" In the end I was just plain rude to them just to get them off the phone.

I had one guy in Sweden email me who wanted me to give him more details so that he could arrange to have it shipped over there cos he could not get one over there and he really really wanted it... it was a flippen Fiat Sientento!!!

It has been a nightmare....I don't think I will be selling that way again. Be careful guys, so many con artists out there, you have to keep your wits about you ALL the time!!

I did sell the car eventually to a nice guy from Wales via Autotrader.

D