So upset and feeling like i want to die.
Discussion
Deedog said:
I came on piston heads to find a decent car within my budget, I found a nice Audi A3 2013 advertised at a good price. Contacted the seller and arranged to meet up with him. Did my initial check and car was fine, not reported stolen, not involved in a crash etc. Paid the seller in cash as he demanded it in cash.
A demand for cash at that price point would've been a red flag for me I'm afraid. What car and price? Did it seem like the cheapest on sale/too good to miss?! Did you get the V5? With his name/address on? Did you meet him at the address written on the V5? I would be paying that address a visit.
Who owns it? Finance company/insurance company/other third party?
Deedog said:
Both my parents don't drive due to an illness that happened over 10 years ago. I have been saving money ever since to get my self on the road to support them. I am 22, and after managing to save £20,000 i thought i'd buy a car and get it insured. Always have been a huge car fan and though it be great to buy me a nice car and use it to take my parents around to hospital, shopping work etc, and use it for my own use.
I came on piston heads to find a decent car within my budget, I found a nice Audi A3 2013 advertised at a good price. Contacted the seller and arranged to meet up with him. Did my initial check and car was fine, not reported stolen, not involved in a crash etc. Paid the seller in cash as he demanded it in cash.
A few days later the police turn up to my door saying the car is stolen and they took the car from me! I cant find the seller on here anymore and reported it to the police. I don't know what to do, police have said they are likely to press charges to anyone without evidence. However they do believe me as the car was stolen for 250 miles aways from where i live.
I don't know what to do just lost £16000 and don't know what to do! It took me 5 years to save this amount.
Contacted the site i did the initial check with and they said that because i didn't buy the one which offers cover they cant offer me any help.
The insurance company are not helping eaither.
Feel depressed with myself right now.
Any help would be helpful.
I'm sorry for your loss. Right now this seems like a huge amount of money to you but more importantly it prevents you from using the car for what you wanted. I came on piston heads to find a decent car within my budget, I found a nice Audi A3 2013 advertised at a good price. Contacted the seller and arranged to meet up with him. Did my initial check and car was fine, not reported stolen, not involved in a crash etc. Paid the seller in cash as he demanded it in cash.
A few days later the police turn up to my door saying the car is stolen and they took the car from me! I cant find the seller on here anymore and reported it to the police. I don't know what to do, police have said they are likely to press charges to anyone without evidence. However they do believe me as the car was stolen for 250 miles aways from where i live.
I don't know what to do just lost £16000 and don't know what to do! It took me 5 years to save this amount.
Contacted the site i did the initial check with and they said that because i didn't buy the one which offers cover they cant offer me any help.
The insurance company are not helping eaither.
Feel depressed with myself right now.
Any help would be helpful.
In reality, it's 5 years of savings when you are only 22. This doesn't help now but the feeling of loss will lessen with time. Nobody has died, you will recover from this.
For what it's worth, these things happen very rarely and had you bought a handful of cars through dealers, you'd lose a similar amount in the mark up they put on cars.
Heres some answers to your questions.
I bought this in birmingham, an Audi A3 2013 model.
Bought at the sellers house. However apparently when the police went to the address, it wasn't the person i described to them. It was a white male, and the seller was an asian male. Im guessing they were linked to this scam, however the V5C has the same address to the one i visited.
I live in Manchester, and really don't want to get a train down, watch the house for a few days and pay for the accommodation. Im sure the seller is long gone.
Police have told me that brum and the asian community are involved in car thefts and sell them on to the public or ship them out the country. They said that the address, the seller may have paid the owner of the house to use it. Hence why they have said they cant follow it up as without leads they cant really do much.
I bought this in birmingham, an Audi A3 2013 model.
Bought at the sellers house. However apparently when the police went to the address, it wasn't the person i described to them. It was a white male, and the seller was an asian male. Im guessing they were linked to this scam, however the V5C has the same address to the one i visited.
I live in Manchester, and really don't want to get a train down, watch the house for a few days and pay for the accommodation. Im sure the seller is long gone.
Police have told me that brum and the asian community are involved in car thefts and sell them on to the public or ship them out the country. They said that the address, the seller may have paid the owner of the house to use it. Hence why they have said they cant follow it up as without leads they cant really do much.
Ouch that's pretty bad scenario. I feel for your losses and it's a tough lesson to learn 
Quite surprised the police said that to you though, I'd have expected it to remain an unspoken acknowledgement. When buying cars there tends to be a few areas I just avoid, rightly or wrongly it's just a way to limit risk of things like this.
I'm guessing it's just a fake V5 you have, the house owner may not be involved though; the crims could have broken into the house - I'm sure there's an episode of "The real hustle" where they steal some mail from the wheelie bin of a house, call a locksmith using a discarded letter as proof of their house, then quickly punt on a stolen car from the address.
Quite surprised the police said that to you though, I'd have expected it to remain an unspoken acknowledgement. When buying cars there tends to be a few areas I just avoid, rightly or wrongly it's just a way to limit risk of things like this.
I'm guessing it's just a fake V5 you have, the house owner may not be involved though; the crims could have broken into the house - I'm sure there's an episode of "The real hustle" where they steal some mail from the wheelie bin of a house, call a locksmith using a discarded letter as proof of their house, then quickly punt on a stolen car from the address.
Why did you buy a your first car private for £16k, you wanted to save a couple of £100 by not buying from a reputable dealer. You also skimped on the HPI check. You just learnt one of life's lessons, you get what you pay for.
I bought my car private but im rather salty, ex-car mechanic, did a full HPI check, checked all the paperwork that was with the car looking for discrepancies in which I actually found a couple and some light social media stalking of the seller.
I bought my car private but im rather salty, ex-car mechanic, did a full HPI check, checked all the paperwork that was with the car looking for discrepancies in which I actually found a couple and some light social media stalking of the seller.
Foliage said:
Why did you buy a your first car private for £16k, you wanted to save a couple of £100 by not buying from a reputable dealer. You also skimped on the HPI check. You just learnt one of life's lessons, you get what you pay for.
I'm sure he's asking himself all those questions and more, and he'll never do it again.But it's a f
king hard lesson to learn, especially at 22. £16k is a decent wedge no matter who you are.Deedog said:
They said that the address, the seller may have paid the owner of the house to use it. Hence why they have said they cant follow it up as without leads they cant really do much.
Do they not have leads to follow up already, to produce more leads? As mentioned they could request the advert details from PH and follow up how it was posted. They could probably investigate the house owner, get a search warrant and look for evidence on phones and bank/phone records. It seems likely there is probably a large theft/laundering operation behind this.
sideways sid said:
So you still have £4k remaining OP?
I can sell you another A3 if you like.
To save all the hassle of travelling to buy it, I'll deliver it to you after you transfer the money into my account:
Account Name: High Prince Umbogogwoo
Bank: Lagos Central Bank, Nigeria....
Not an appropriate time for being a funny I can sell you another A3 if you like.
To save all the hassle of travelling to buy it, I'll deliver it to you after you transfer the money into my account:
Account Name: High Prince Umbogogwoo
Bank: Lagos Central Bank, Nigeria....
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