A DRIVER lost all of his savings – and some of his mum’s – after buying a £4,000 car online that never turned up.
Pietro Pagliuca, from West Yorkshire, transferred thousands over to an online car dealership to buy a second-hand Nissan Qashqai.
Pietro and his mum pooled together their savings to buy the car, after his one broke down.
They both needed the car, as Pietro’s mum has mobility issues and needs to be driven around – but it never came.
He told the BBC: “I feel let down, annoyed and a bit embarrassed.
“I honestly didn’t have doubts about them. It all looked legit, and a lot of companies deliver stuff these days.”
The website looked convincing because the name of the car dealership – Auto-Promotions – was taken from a former legitimate company.
Crooks had taken the name to set up a fake website advertising hundreds of second-hand vehicles at lower prices than other dealerships.
Pietro spoke to someone pretending to be a sales director at the dealership, which was enough to convince him to hand over his cash.
He reported the scam to his bank, and got half of his cash back.
But Pietro said it will still take him a year to save up enough money for a new car, and he has to travel everywhere by bike – while his mum is largely confined to her house.
It comes as a BBC investigation revealed online vehicle theft had gone up by 21% in 2021 compared to 2019, costing drivers £9.5million.
