Trading Standards are warning consumers to think twice before paying deposits to hold vehicles they are interested in buying.
An increasing number of complaints have been reported from car buyers who paid ‘holding deposits’ for vehicles which were then either sold to someone else before they could view it, or the vehicle was markedly different to the advert.
In both cases they should have received their deposit back, but did not.
Buyers of second hand cars advertised on websites are also warned to beware of a new scam involving the use of false vehicle registration numbers.
Consumers can now find a lot about the car they are interested in buying by putting the vehicle’s registration number in to a free Government website, including information on a vehicle’s mileage and condition.
This has led some unscrupulous sellers of dodgy vehicles to remove or obscure the licence plate of the cars they are selling on photographs posted on the internet.
One Warwickshire resident expressed an interest in a vehicle that was being sold on a popular Internet classified advert website, but the vehicle was shown without the number plates visible, so the buyer contacted the seller to ask for the registration number.
The seller supplied him with a registration number and the buyer carried out a range of free and low cost checks on the vehicle.
Satisfied with the result he then paid for the vehicle online and went to collect the car. When he arrived it turned out the the seller had given him a registration number for another vehicle of the same make/model, but not the one he had purchased and the one he had paid for was in a very poor condition with a high mileage.
Trading Standards advise consumers to be wary of purchasing vehicles without seeing them first and be suspicious of any advert where the licence plate of the vehicle cannot be seen affixed to the vehicle.
The new ‘check before you buy’ free web tools are now an important weapon in a car buyer’s armoury to protect them against buying vehicles in a poor state that may be clocked or even unroadworthy.
Some additional low cost checks can also help ensure that the car is not stolen or on finance.
