Second Hand Car Scam Warning Issued By Consumer Centre

Tuesday, 16 March 2010 15:12

Written by Mark Dunphy

The European Consumer Centre Ireland warned today of a major car scam involving second-hand cars bought in the UK.

The service, which provides consumer advice on cross-border transactions, has highlighted an emerging car cloning scam in the UK which could affect car buyers here. Car cloning involves copying the identity of a car onto a similar, but stolen one. Fraudsters copy the registration plate and other identifying details of a matching car so that the origin and history of the stolen car is ‘disguised’. Cloning can also occur on cars which have been involved in serious car accidents and may no longer be safe to drive.

According to Caroline Curneen, PR and Marketing Manager of ECC Ireland, "This is a scam which may affect Irish consumers as they often shop cross border for larger items such as cars, with many consumers discovering that it cane be cheaper to buy a car in the UK and register it in Ireland. You may only discover that you have purchased a cloned car when you are issued a parking fine or speeding ticket. If you buy a stolen car, you risk losing the vehicle and your money even though you bought the car in good faith so it is imperative that consumers carry out comprehensive checks on any vehicle before purchase. This Consumer Day ECC Ireland urges consumers to remember that an informed consumer is an empowered consumer."

The threat of the car-clone scam has increased significantly since the theft in 2006 of blank registration documents from the UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in 2006. This allows fraudsters to copy the genuine vehicle’s log book which makes the cloning more difficult to detect.

ECC Ireland advises consumers to conduct a thorough car history check and to scrutinise the vehicle’s documents before purchase when buying a second hand car, from the UK in particular. The DVLA has published on its website a list of serial numbers for the blank log books which it believes have gone missing and consumers should check that the serial number on the logbook of the car they are considering buying does not fall within these ranges.

The ECC is one of a network of consumer advice centres across the EU, jointly funded by governments and the European Commission. The network is to help protect consumers in the Single EU Market and provides information and advice when things go wrong. Unfortunately, advances in technology and the increasing professionalism of fraudsters ensures that customers are consistently faced with ever more sophisticated scams. In such circumstances the best protection is information and consumer awareness.