ukautotrader - buying a second handcar from a stranger

boongywoongy

I've been looking for a car and come across a Toyota Prius at an almost 'too good a price' to be true on Gumtree. The seller has relocated to Ireland for work purposes and is prepared to take a few days off to drive the car to me near London. I know it all sounds to good to be true but he has said all the right things so far in terms of having all the documentation, service history. I am prepared to get the car checked out by the AA and do an HPI check too but coincidentally, I got an email from Gumtree to use ukautotrader.co.uk as an intermediate payment brokerage:

www.ukautotraders.co.uk/howitworks.php

Has anyone used them and can provide any comments? Also, do people have any tips when buying secondhand cars from complete strangers on the internet?

Cheers.

s_b

why pay commission for them to take your money?
man brings car
you have inspection done
you happy
you pay man
he go back ireland
nothing more/nothing less would do me

boongywoongy

Actually, the seller has agreed to pay the commision however, the point is, would you be comfortable handing over payment of 5k to a complete stranger with key's to a car and a some documentation? Clearly, I'm the nervous type but at least this way, if I do get ripped off with a duff car, I may be able to prevent them enjoying the proceeds.

s_b

but you are having an inspection and even a clown with a big red nose would spot a ringer if its his job to inspect just make sure you use a dekra approved inspector and remember to do a proper hpi
another little tip is if owner had the car a few years do a streetmap google of his house see if its up the drive etc

boongywoongy

Gotcha. I was planning to use the AA who provide the following checks:

https://www.theaa.com/vehicle-inspections/checklist.html

Is the list of checks decent? TBH I think checking caps, fluid levels, lights are of more minor concern than the automatic gearbox IMHO.

Happytohelp

Personally I would not be prepared to make payment to that ukautotraders company website. It was only set up a month ago and looks like it was built in a teenagers bedroom. For all you know it could be the sellers brother who built a website for the purpose of scamming people.

Like you say it all sounds a bit too convenient. Having just realised Gumtree is owned by Ebay (who also owns PayPal) it seems strange that they would be recommending a payment service.

IT IS A SCAM

The email suggesting you use ukautotraders obviously didn't come from Gumtree. Read this which is taken from the Gumtree website; Advice on Buying a Car:

Gumtree doesn’t offer any escrow or middle-man agent services. Some escrow services are not genuine, so if a seller tries to convince you to buy through a middle-man agent or escrow services please let us know

http://gumtree.force.com/Help/articles/General_Information/Advice-on-Buying-a-Car?retURL=%2Fapex%2FknowledgeSafe&popup=false

boongywoongy

I didn't check the period of existence for ukautotrader.co.uk but I have emailed Gumtree directly earlier this evening having read the same snippet that you posted. Let's see what Gumtree say and if it is a scam, I'm am, in an annoyed way impressed to the lengths that criminals are going to to scam people these days. Will reply back to this thread for people's future reference.

Happytohelp

You don't have to wait for Gumtree to reply to your email, it is without any shadow of a doubt a scam. Do not sign up to or send any money via that site.

Warnings:

1. It sounds too good to be true

2. "I got an email from Gumtree to use ukautotrader.co.uk as an intermediate payment brokerage" You now know that email did not come from Gumtree

3. The website is flawed. All the security features are faked, e.g. Verisign, McAfee etc.

4. The fake company name is too similar to the AutoTrader brand name.

The fakers have obviously got a similar scam company called Pay Point UK and they haven't even bothered to alter the links underneath the image of the smiling lady on the right-hand side of the site you were directed to.

Good that you chose to question it via this forum as you have probably just stopped yourself and others from being scammed. :T

RDG

Its a scam site for sure, theres lots of things pointing to it.

The verisign thing is bogus as it links to a page on the site set up to look like the real thing, if a poor imitation.

EDIT: Ive posted it up on an anti scam site to see if it can be taken down asap.

s_b

im not into this gumtree rubbish so assume car seller dodgy too then
if so i would be reporting it as attempted fraud to the relevant authorities

cb1979

Its a scam

Just tried the link to ukautotraders and my malwarebytes has blocked the site

Probably LagosAutotraders

When something sounds too good to be true it usually is