Auto trader scam in the UK and I am sure in other countries too.

Strange thing had happened. A friend of mine had listed his car for sale in the UK Autotrader magazine starting this morning  using my phone number, because of his lack of the Enlish language.

This morning I had gotten a text message on my phone from someone called  stout.barbara@rocketmail.com barbara stout

Asking if the car in the Auto trader magazine was still available and if yes, email her at the above email address.

I didn’t, but I text her back to say yes it was still available. In the afternoon a woman had called me, saying “we had talked earlier today” I said we did not and than she said “through email” about the car in the Auto trader magazine. Ok I said I remember a text message. She said that was her.

She is asking me again about the car and she says she is from Auto trader and that whoever placed the ad had registered as a personal seller and also as a business trader like a dealer and had paid the selling fee twice.

She said she will refund the money for the second payment. She had asked for my house number and postal code (zip code in the USA) -in the UK every street has it’s own post code, so, one only have to produce the house number and post code to get the right address-.

She also said it was against the law to list a car for sale as a dealer when the person is not.

She sounded very authentic. She than asked me if I can give the money to my friend if she refunds it to me. This was weird, because how would she refund it to me when he had used his card to pay for it online.

When I asked her, she just asked the house number and post code again and than my name and than quickly asked for my card number. I said I don’t want to get involved in my friends financial details I’ve only let him use my phone number.

On this, she had asked me if I have his mobile number, (cell number in the USA) and I said he is at work and can’t be reached.

On this, she said, if she can’t talk to him before 3 pm, than he have to pay a £79 pound dealer seller fee and also the total fee for selling will be £179.50 pounds. (Only cost £9.99 pound to list a car for sale for two weeks).

Aaaaand to top it off, she also said if she can’t reach him, than she have to let the police know that he is selling the car as a dealer and there will be a charge filed against him.

She had all sounded pretty authentic and polite, but when she said she can refund the money to my card instead of back to his, from that on I knew something was wrong.

She had also said, she is gonna be in the office until 8 pm and for my friend to call her. She had given me a phone number which was an old Auto trader’s phone number. Her’s was ending in 45 and the auto trader’s is 50. Her original text message was from country code 0046, which is Sweden.

As soon as I hung up with her, I’ve dialed the Auto trader magazine and asked them about this and they have said, it’s a scam call.

Watch out for auto trader scam near you.