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Canvassing scam: advertisement in Auto Trader led to calls from a company claiming they had buyers who wanted my car and would introduce them if I paid them £89.99...
I recently advertised my car in the Auto Trader and was called by a company who told me they had buyers for my car. They actually stated that someone had offered £5,300 and someone else £5,500 and eventually persuaded me to part with a deposit of £89.99. It it turned out there were no buyers at all. They were simply advertising my car on their web site. I found this out when I contacted the Office of Fair Trading who said I should write to the company (recorded delivery) and request they return my deposit as this was verbal misrepresentation. I did so on Friday the 29th Feb. I have a paper trail and I have proof that they phoned me that week as I have their number on my mobile still. Do I have a case for getting my deposit back? as essentially I lost money on the sale also because I put off my private buyers for a week due to my commitment to the company. I also wrote to Honest John at the Daily Telegraph about this and he said he did not understand why no one is interested in stopping these scammers.
These companies sail very close to illegality and usually cross the line, but because consumers almost never have an accurate recording of the call they tend to blame everything on their staff or on the poor scammed purchaser of their "services" for not fully understanding their irresistible offer. Our view is if this were the case then why would we receive so many complaints about them. Trading Standards doubtless get as many as we do but rarely do anything about it.
The method is invariably the same - they claim to have a list of buyers eager to buy the sellers car but will not introduce them to you unless a fee which is just short of £100. This figure is important as above it the credit card company may well be more likely to support a charge-back.
Once the money is paid and the buyers fail to appear and a complaint is made then the vehicle seller is told to examine their terms and conditions - which they probably have not received in the first place. Rather than paying for the introduction to the buyers interested in their specific car, they find that they have only bought an advertisement on a website which often has very little traffic. After that it's thank you and good bye.
We and others are very keen to jump on this practice and we would very much look forward to receiving details of the company concerned.
I would recommend that rather than make a complaint to your own Trading Standards you make one to the Trading Standards in the area where the company operates (in this case Waltham Forest) as they are more likely to be able to stack up the complaints and bring these crooks to book.
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