Scam - Vehicle World Services

hayleyrose1984

Just had a call from these guys saying they are a finance company in London and have 3 viewers who are interest in my car. Could offer me £200 below asking price and a £99.99 fee which I pay upfront.

Selling my car I have had 4 different types of scams attempted on me but luckily I'm quite weary when someone offers me £5K for a £2k car.

Number 0800 012 2221 ext 269 for Tony

BE CAREFUL!!!!

richy_7

Hi

I have just had dealings with this company, called 'Vehicle Credit Services'. I placed an ad on autotrader at 12pm yesterday, and 2 hours later had a call from 'Geoff' explaining that he had 3 potential buyers for my car. All of them willing to pay the asking price, or within a couple of hundred quid of it. Sounded great, and they were all relatively local and prepared to come and view yesterday evening or today. He asked for a £99 payment, which would be refunded as a 'gesture of goodwill' if the buyer took the companies finance, else if the buyer paid cash I would have to pay the £99.

I didn't pay him then, instead asked him to email me some details about the company as I was a little suspicious. The email never came through, but he did try to call me a couple of more times as I was diving so I didn't answer....no message was left.

He called back this morning and immediately started talking about making arrangements for the viewers to come and see the car. I said I was still waiting for his email. He asked if I was at a computer so that he could give me the web site, so I took a look, and it looked very legit and so even though I was still a little suspicious I gave him my card details. He said I would get calls from the buyers shortly after.

When the call finished, I googled the company, which is what I should have done before giving out card details, and found this site and several more reporting the company as a scam. I then looked for the phone number for the bank to that I could try to cancel the transaction. As I was looking for the number, Geoff from VCS called back saying that the card transaction had been declined and did I know why. I said I would call the bank, and by some fluke or act of god, at that moment the land phone rang and it was the fraud squad at the bank informing me that they had been alerted that my card had been copied so that they cancelled it.

Whether VCS had copied the card or not I am not sure, the card was working a few minutes before my call with Geoff, and the bank cancelled it shortly after I gave the details to VCS. Seems a coincidence, but either way it luckily has prevented me from loosing £99.

When Geoff called back I told him what happened and that obviously I was not going to go through with the transaction, and suggested he googled his company to see the reports of scam.

Lesson learned, always trust gut instinct, and the old 'If things seem too good to be true...'.

maninthestreet

richy_7 wrote: »

Hi

I have just had dealings with this company, called 'Vehicle Credit Services'. I placed an ad on autotrader at 12pm yesterday, and 2 hours later had a call from 'Geoff' explaining that he had 3 potential buyers for my car. All of them willing to pay the asking price, or within a couple of hundred quid of it. Sounded great, and they were all relatively local and prepared to come and view yesterday evening or today. He asked for a £99 payment, which would be refunded as a 'gesture of goodwill' if the buyer took the companies finance, else if the buyer paid cash I would have to pay the £99.

I didn't pay him then, instead asked him to email me some details about the company as I was a little suspicious. The email never came through, but he did try to call me a couple of more times as I was diving so I didn't answer....no message was left.

He called back this morning and immediately started talking about making arrangements for the viewers to come and see the car. I said I was still waiting for his email. He asked if I was at a computer so that he could give me the web site, so I took a look, and it looked very legit and so even though I was still a little suspicious I gave him my card details. He said I would get calls from the buyers shortly after.

When the call finished, I googled the company, which is what I should have done before giving out card details, and found this site and several more reporting the company as a scam. I then looked for the phone number for the bank to that I could try to cancel the transaction. As I was looking for the number, Geoff from VCS called back saying that the card transaction had been declined and did I know why. I said I would call the bank, and by some fluke or act of god, at that moment the land phone rang and it was the fraud squad at the bank informing me that they had been alerted that my card had been copied so that they cancelled it.

Whether VCS had copied the card or not I am not sure, the card was working a few minutes before my call with Geoff, and the bank cancelled it shortly after I gave the details to VCS. Seems a coincidence, but either way it luckily has prevented me from loosing £99.

When Geoff called back I told him what happened and that obviously I was not going to go through with the transaction, and suggested he googled his company to see the reports of scam.

Lesson learned, always trust gut instinct, and the old 'If things seem too good to be true...'.

Sounds like you were very lucky - but surely it occurred to you if the potential 'buyers' the shysters claimed were interested in buying your car actually existed, they would be calling you directly??

EDIT: Their website lists a contact address in CYPRUS:

Griva Digeni & A. Sioukri Centre,
Pamelva Court,
2nd Floor,
No. 201, Limassol, 3105

richy_7

maninthestreet wrote: »

Sounds like you were very lucky - but surely it occurred to you if the potential 'buyers' the shysters claimed were interested in buying your car actually existed, they would be calling you directly??

Yep, its all very obvious now. But Geoff sounded very professional on the phone, friendly etc. Easy to get caught out. Never again though!