Autotrader UK - Scam Adverts and Dealer Hacks

Under no circumstance and for any reason should you EVER make any payment before viewing and inspecting ANY vehicle you intend to buy.

The scammer has no vehicle and he can't scam you if you insist on viewing the vehicle first.

Paying in to a bank account provides no protection whatsoever. If you've paid a 'money mule' no one will refund your stolen money.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/audi/a4/used-audi-a4-2-0-tdi-143-s-line-4dr-reading-fpa-201401191140986?logcode=p

FOR MORE INFO & PICS EMAIL ME : CLIVE@BACLUZ. COM

£4,500 2009 Audi A4 2.0 TDI 143 S Line 4dr Diesel Saloon

Interestingly the domain 'bacluz.com' was registered on 12th January 2014 and the registrant's identity is hidden behind a Chinese domain privacy service.

TODAY - Number of scam adverts 1 - Cumulative Total - 1

Here's a strange one. The same car being offered for sale at two different garages.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/volkswagen/polo/used-volkswagen-polo-1-2-match-60-3dr-poole-fpa-201401191141657?logcode=p

[email protected]

£1,700 2009 Volkswagen Polo 1.2 Match 60 3dr

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/volkswagen/polo/used-volkswagen-polo-1-2-match-60-3dr-bristol-fpa-201401181133752?logcode=p

[email protected]

£0 2009 Volkswagen Polo 1.2 Match 60 3dr

I've made screen prints.





TODAY - Number of scam adverts 2 - Cumulative Total - 3

Singletons.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/audi/a6/used-audi-a6-2-0-tdi-s-line-4dr-multitronic-reading-fpa-201401191140984?logcode=p

[email protected]

£0 2012 Audi A6 2.0 TDI S Line 4dr Multitronic Diesel Saloon

Bargain price of £0 but beware because according to the album photos it's a bike.

TODAY - Number of scam adverts 1 - Cumulative Total - 4

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars/fiat/500/used-fiat-500-1-2-lounge-3dr-dualogic-birmingham-fpa-201401191143637?logcode=p

[email protected]

£0 2010 Fiat 500 1.2 Lounge 3dr Dualogic

Again it's another free car described as a bike in the photo album advertised in a dealer's account.



TODAY - Number of scam adverts 1 - Cumulative Total - 5

1st Large Scale Dealer Hack of the Day.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/dealer/147310/stock/used/cars/postcode/b297qr/page/1

The scale of scams and hacks is so great I'll just link to the main pages and calculate a daily running total with screen grab as an example. As the same car photos are often used, I'll show them when they appear on multiple dealer accounts.



TODAY - Number of scam adverts - 59 Cumulative Total - 64

2nd Large Scale Dealer Hack Today.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/dealer/629111/stock/used/cars/postcode/b297qr/page/5

I'll write up the details later.

I have to admit that I don't think posting links to hacked accounts and scam adverts on Autotrader UK achieves very much. It certainly doesn't reduce the volumes of scam adverts at all, which are usually between 100 and 200 a day on the one site alone, and they appear unlikely to reduce.

I would certainly never use any online site myself to purchase a car and, having seen how easily scammers, hackers and fraudsters infiltrate and post their own adverts on these sites, it would be an irritating annoyance to wade through them trying to find genuine ones.

I regret that there will always be victims of these adverts, but if buyers don't pay for something they haven't seen, this is one fraud they'll avoid.

I didn't know how bad the problem was until I began looking at it. If you're thinking of buying a car online I have two pieces of advice 1. DON'T and 2. BE VERY VERY CAREFUL. I don't think that posting lists of scam adverts helps, in fact it could lead buyers to believe that I may have located them all. I won't post new lists.

If the price is £0 the ad has already been removed from circulation by Autotrader - it won't show in searches e.g.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... 191147671/
won't show in a search for 'BMW 1 Series £0-£500'.
I think your decision to stop posting lists of ads is the correct one - the URL the victim uses to access it may well differ from the one you post anyway, so even if they are searching the web for info they may not hit this site. Whether it is right to 'out' the hacked dealers is debatable too.

My intent was not to 'out' the hacked dealers which is why I didn't printed their name, thereby avoiding indexing by Google.

However, once the pages are taken down there is then no evidence of what I saw. I did not intend to do more harm, but I was not going to allow myself to face criticism that I hadn't seen what I claimed. I believe that Autotrader UK's has its own view on where the blame lies, without acknowledging that the value of the service is seriously undermined, to both buyer and seller, if so badly hacked and filled with scam adverts. The fact that I am pulling out is purely because I can't handle the volumes, not any other reason.

I can't say whether or not their service is any better or worse than any of the other major sites, but I would never use any of them from what I have seen.

In spite of what you say about the nil value items you may have noticed that the adverts also appear on a scraper site, so they do remain indexed, linked and active, if not on Autotrader UK's own site. Anyone following the link from the scraper site is led directly to the advert. That doesn't explain how I was picking them up, as mostly I was using the site's own search system, but then how and why cars were being sold with photo albums labelling them as bikes is another mystery, and postulating why this might be achieves nothing.

If I could give a potential buyer a simple rule to follow as to how to avoid the scams, apart from only buying a vehicle they've seen I would, but the scammers/hackers are able to post their adverts in so many different forms, it's impossible. As we know that any buyer who falls for a scam advert has no chance of getting their money back, for many people, buying online is a risk too far.

I wasn't questioning your motives TerranceBoyce, and I'm sure nobody expects you to document every fake ad.
As to the scraper sites, we can only hope that anyone who follows a link to a nil-value ad comes to the right conclusion about it. At least that information is out in the open for them here.

No problem corsages.

The point is to be more effective and, in saying that, I'm not saying I won't return to posting details of scam adverts. It depends what the tactics of the hackers and scammers are. I can switch tactics quickly and it's useful to just monitor what they're doing and how they're operating.

I'll still keep busy.