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How would you report an online scam?

4 replies

Whoknewitcouldbeso · 19/10/2015 13:49

We have been looking to buy a new(ish) car. Found an advert on Autotrader that looked a good price and local, only had a telephone number to ring. When we rung the number (my partner tried from his phone and I tried once with mine) the number was apparently discontinued. However a day later we both received texts asking us to email an address if we were interested in the car.

We both looked at each other and said scam, but DP said he'd email as he wanted to know what the scan was. So he emailed and got into a dialogue with 'Lucy' who said that the car was located in Scotland (advert said a village in the Home Counties) and that if he Paypaled the money over they would ship the car to us. So this person is expecting £6800 to be put in their account and then obviously they would disappear.

We do now have the guys bank, account number, sort code and name, so potentially we could report him as a suspected scammer BUT would anyone be interested do you think? I tried to report him to Autotrader but the 'report window' didn't pop up. I suspect that might be our antivirus preventing that so I will try and do that again. My worry is some vulnerable person could fall for the scam and lose a huge chunk of money before Christmas and I'd love to prevent that if I could.

OP posts:
wowfudge · 19/10/2015 14:15

This is a common scam - the rule with any online advert for a car is that you only pay on collection. The same thing happens on eBay and the advice is to see the vehicle in the flesh, take a test drive and see the documents before handing over any money. Tell the police and give them the info you have.

Be aware that an online payment to a bank account only needs the correct sort code and account number to go through - the scammer may have given you a false name for the account. You can tell which bank it is from the sort code - I'd tell the person's bank too.

lornathewizzard · 19/10/2015 14:19

I filled out an online form for the police when we realised someone had hijacked a holiday cottage owners email (before we sent any money thankfully). Didn't hear anything back but I assume it went somewhere.

aginghippy · 19/10/2015 14:24

You can make an online report to the police via www.actionfraud.police.uk. They will give you a crime reference number and the information will be passed on to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.

Whoknewitcouldbeso · 19/10/2015 14:36

aginghippy you are a superstar. That's just the link I was imaging might exist. We have told PayPal, Barclays and we will inform that ActionFraud link too.

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