The BBC has produced a special report on the impact of scammers setting up fake car dealerships, with input from Car Dealer’s James Baggott.
Car Dealer’s editor-in-chief appeared on BBC One’s Morning Live yesterday to discuss how consumers can spot online cons.
His views were used as part of a feature that described how crooks managed to con one customer out of thousands of pounds.
It follows several stories by Car Dealer in recent months about similar schemes that have been set up online.
The likes of Winmex Car Sales Limited, JDM Cars and Millers Car Sales have all been found to be fake, following investigations by Car Dealer.
Other scams have included AD Car Sales and Auto-Promotions.
In another case – that of Mascot Automotive – scammers even taunted a used car dealer, claiming to have made £100,000 by cloning his business.
‘These are incredibly convincing. They’ve got contact details, they’ve got a map of where they say they’re based, there’s even reviews from customers. They look like a legitimate business,’ Car Dealer’s James Baggott told Morning Live presenter Rav Wilding.
‘Look for reviews on other websites like Auto Trader and Google. If they haven’t got those, you need to be worried,’ he advised viewers.
‘Any main dealer will be more than happy to take a credit card payment over the phone, so if they are asking you to send it via direct transfer to an account that you’ve never done business with, that is another thing that…
