Autotrader should do more...

forgotmyname

How are they paying for these adverts?

DUTR

forgotmyname wrote: »

How are they paying for these adverts?

Probably with a dodgy credit card? As at £40 a go for the adverts, they must be willing to take a few losses assuming they gain somewhere along the line.

forgotmyname

With so many adverts though. I did wonder if they had access to a lot of cards?

I thought Autotrader wont let them keep using the same card will they?

May have to drop them an email to see if they can update us on these scammers and how they manage to attract so many scam adverts.

Seems Autotrader have made it harder to find the adverts also. Normally i can search and a whol rake of them popup.
Now i need to search for each make / model to find them.

victor2

It's not limited to Autotrader. Just do a Google image search on one of the dodgy pictures with the email address on and it will come up with other places the same ad appears. Plus the original without the email address in the case of the one I tried.

Hoof_Hearted

All of these scam ads are currently on Autotrader, They know they are scams because they are taken down when reported. They would rather take the money than deal with it.

Hoof_Hearted

I thought I would enquire about one of the bargain cars. This is the story from the email reply:


I am glad to hear that you are interested to buy my 2012 BMW Z4 23i SDrive Highline Edition 2dr Auto Roadster!
Although I am registered in the UK,i recently moved to Cadiz, Spain (where my family is from) and the car is being shipped from here.

I want to sell it in UK due to the fact that it's an UK version (right handed),it meets all UK standards.I bought this car from UK and It still has UK registration, so you won't have to pay any import and insurance fees.The car meets all United Kingdom guidelines so there will be no problem regarding UK Customs policy on receiving the car.The car is in perfect condition, the bodywork is immaculate,no scratches, dents or hidden defects as well as the interior in excellent non-smoking condition , never been implied in any accident and it is as advertised .The car comes with log book, HPI cleared, No finance. You will get from me the keys and all documents to register the car in you name.If the car is not how i described it, i will offer a full refund. It will be insured during transportation and will be delivered at your address in maximum 10 days.

Final price is GBP 6,120 (the price includes shipping and insurance fees). The price is low because the car is right hand drive in a country where all cars are left hand drive so in the Spain is very difficult to drive this type of vehicle and nobody wants to buy it here in Spain .
Instead of keeping it in garage (during this economical crisis), I decided to sell it to someone back in the UK for a really attractive price.

I want to take this opportunity to assure you that this deal is 100% legitimate,the deal will be manage by a well known company,in this way both buyer and seller are 100% covered during the steps of this transaction.Let me know if you need any further details or if you would like to buy my car.

Stoke

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

I thought I would enquire about one of the bargain cars. This is the story from the email reply:


I am glad to hear that you are interested to buy my 2012 BMW Z4 23i SDrive Highline Edition 2dr Auto Roadster!
Although I am registered in the UK,i recently moved to Cadiz, Spain (where my family is from) and the car is being shipped from here.

I want to sell it in UK due to the fact that it's an UK version (right handed),it meets all UK standards.I bought this car from UK and It still has UK registration, so you won't have to pay any import and insurance fees.The car meets all United Kingdom guidelines so there will be no problem regarding UK Customs policy on receiving the car.The car is in perfect condition, the bodywork is immaculate,no scratches, dents or hidden defects as well as the interior in excellent non-smoking condition , never been implied in any accident and it is as advertised .The car comes with log book, HPI cleared, No finance. You will get from me the keys and all documents to register the car in you name.If the car is not how i described it, i will offer a full refund. It will be insured during transportation and will be delivered at your address in maximum 10 days.

Final price is GBP 6,120 (the price includes shipping and insurance fees). The price is low because the car is right hand drive in a country where all cars are left hand drive so in the Spain is very difficult to drive this type of vehicle and nobody wants to buy it here in Spain .
Instead of keeping it in garage (during this economical crisis), I decided to sell it to someone back in the UK for a really attractive price.

I want to take this opportunity to assure you that this deal is 100% legitimate,the deal will be manage by a well known company,in this way both buyer and seller are 100% covered during the steps of this transaction.Let me know if you need any further details or if you would like to buy my car.

And people actually fall for this dogshit? For christ sake the guy is struggling to write an e-mail in English yet has only just moved to Spain? Surely it'd be the other way round. Surely the alarm bells would be ringing when you read "never been implied in any accident and it is as advertised".

It reminds me of one of those bloody Nigerian e-mails regarding a large sum of money that needs to be released from some recently deceased individual.

colino

There was an article in the press about the stilted, quaint writing in scams. They could easily have them proof read and anglofied, but it is part of the idiot scoring. If you fall for that garbage, they really have high expectations of taking you all the way.

Mobeer

My favourite bits:
"I am registered" < he is?
"GBP 6,120" < why not write £
"2012 BMW Z4 23i SDrive Highline Edition 2dr Auto Roadster!" <who actually says all of this, not just "Z4"?

victor2

colino wrote: »

There was an article in the press about the stilted, quaint writing in scams. They could easily have them proof read and anglofied, but it is part of the idiot scoring. If you fall for that garbage, they really have high expectations of taking you all the way.

Good point on the idiot scoring - hadn't considered that. It does put the message I found in my spam folder into a better context though:

Dear Valued Customer

As you informed by post before that barclays is not offering paper statments anymore ,
this means from now ownwards you not gonna recieve your monthly statment in mail

Go Paperless [link to scam site here]

you need to sign in on your paperless secure link so you get signed up for online statement

Kind Regards
Online Team

And I just assumed the composer of the message was an idiot!