carscams says:

We receive numerous complaints about similar scams to this. The modus operandi is always the same. They call people up about cars with the promise of buyers "or your money back" but they don't deliver and you don't get your money back either.

The way to spot the scam is that:

• they will usually call you after you have placed and advertisement in a legitimate publication or website such as Autotrader
• they will say they have buyers ready who imminently want to see your vehicle but you must pay a fee in advance before they send them along
  
• if you check their website they will list a reference number rather than a direct contact telephone number - any buyers thinking of buying your car must phone them rather than you
• the fee is usually £99.99 or less as above this they are open to credit card charge-backs
• if they can they will seek to have you pay by debit card. You should not do so as this payment method offers significantly less protection
  

But the reality is there will be few buyers. Compared to major sites such as Autotrader their traffic is tiny. What they are selling you is the expectation of buyers at a very high price.

Known users of these dubious methods are:

http://www.motornetwork.co.uk who will take £89.99 of your hands

http://www.autobuyer.co.uk who will take £89.99 off your hands plus an additional £10 for the picture

If you know of similar companies please file a scamchecker report so we can add them to our files.

best advice

Unfortunately the regulations you think might help probably won’t.

If they promise that buyers will contact you the very next day to arrange a viewing then this might amount to a deliberate misrepresentation. Under the Misrepresentation Act 1967, the effect of an actionable misrepresentation is to make the contract voidable, giving the innocent party the right to rescind the contract and/or claim damages but you will have to make a claim in the small claims court to do so

The problem is that in return for your “fee” they will argue they provide you with a “service” hence you won’t be entitled to your money back! (All of these companies work through the same loophole in the law).

Here’s what you do – Ask for a refund. They will refuse stating they have provided you with a service. So hit them on the grounds that their advert is incorrect (don’t tell them what is incorrect about it, only tell them it is incorrect). At this point they have not provided you with a service as your vehicle is advertised incorrectly, (this works particularly well if they have only copied the Autotrader/Exchange & Mart ad.) which is their usual procedure.

They will still refuse so at that point phone your credit card provider and ask for a transaction dispute form.

In the meantime fire off a dated letter detailing the phone conversation, explaining that you had not received any service from them and you would like your money back. You will get their standard response “Requested Denied”. Send this off to your card provider along with your filled out form and you should get your money charged back to your card.

carscams' comment

This is a well known scam using a well known ruse. Under no circumstances pay them anything and threaten them with the police and Trading Standards if any such companies ever call you.

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