New phishing scam to be wary of whilst selling on here

[Toady1]

I was contacted about a car I have advertised. The texts came direct to my phone as I haven't hid my number. Their messages were typical of someone scamming, not relevant enough for a petrolhead to be asking, so straight away I was cautious. I told them to call me if they were genuine, surprisingly they did! But the foreign accent made it so hard to understand them that I suggested they continued via text.

After some more BS texts they asked me to do a check report. WTF is a check report anyway? I assumed they mean HPI check etc. so said yep, all clear. They then told me to go to a website called reportsverifier.co.uk. Then send them the report once done. Total scammer, I called them out without doing the report they asked and haven't heard back from them since!

The phone number this came from was [phone], (07897 069418) for any future searches people may do.

I see this is known to Pistonhead in the advice thread but it was new to me as I hadn't seen this thread first. -

Reg check/lookup/HPI report phishing attempt


We have been made aware of scammers asking sellers to provide a report from a phishing website called 'reports verifier'. Do not enter your data into any website link provided – if a genuine buyer is interested in running a HPI check on your car, then they can do this at their own expense through a reputable website.

Edited by Toady1 on Tuesday 10th October 14:20

[Ben Lowden]

Thank you for reporting this – we've now updated our classified safety advice to include this.

[paul onslow]

I have been contacted by the same phone number asking for me to carry out a check with reportsverifier.co.uk against a car i am selling and then send it to them. Felt this was odd and rand them. Again like you it was so hard to understand him but he said he was genuine LOL. Definitely avoid

[nismo48]

paul onslow said:

I have been contacted by the same phone number asking for me to carry out a check with reportsverifier.co.uk against a car i am selling and then send it to them. Felt this was odd and rand them. Again like you it was so hard to understand him but he said he was genuine LOL. Definitely avoid

+1

[JohnCooperWorks]

Thanks for posting the mobile number. I had a similar approach yesterday and request for a report on my car via text and was sceptical, so googled the number. It brought me back to the Piston Heads chat forum. 👍 Number blocked 🚫

[DanCup]

Thanks for flagging - this number has just started asking me questions about an ad I currently have up. I started getting cautious as they were asking things which I had clearly detailed in the first couple of sentences in the advert. Will block now!

[Ben Lowden]

Thanks for the continued reports here. We've sent a warning email out to all private sellers to make them aware.

[hunt123]

Thankyou OP for increasing awareness of this scam.

[rix]

Not a PH specific thing but just seen this as a similar trend - not looked at the link, obvs!

[WingNut]

Had the same on my advert. New number though [phone]. Quite a bit of conversation back and forth before request to run a report was suggested so they are very dedicated in trying to snare you I have to say.

[Tom-gn4fp]

I have also been texted by the same number Wingnut was contacted by. No content apart from the advert headline. Who sends texts anymore!? Seemed dodgy and haven’t replied. Ignore [phone]

[muckyman]

Tom-gn4fp said:

I have also been texted by the same number Wingnut was contacted by. No content apart from the advert headline. Who sends texts anymore!? Seemed dodgy and haven’t replied. Ignore [phone]

I also got texts from this number today about a car I have for sale on PH. I ran the number through Google and found a site where it had been flagged as a scammer (and those who reported it specifically mentioned theirs was an advert on PH)
Again, after a few general queries they asked me to do a ‘check report’ for outstanding finance/write off etc. Wanted me to use the site they would provide etc etc.
I politely ignored them after that and blocked their number.
Be careful folks.

Edited by muckyman on Friday 1st December 09:11

[muckyman]

And another scammer with the same thing, using number 07397283678

[550Anniv]

.....And another scammer contacted me from my advert. Very Very pushy for me to do a 'Vehicle HR Report' from a link he sent.
He called himself James and the number was 07445004165 ( 07445 004165 ) I also had a email that was [e-mail]
which gave the game away even more, as it even looks suspect!
Said he was in Chelmsford, yet when I rang the number I had an international dialing tone.
I got a few very agressive texts when I refused to do his 'vehicle check'

Take care out there people!

[Andy Monkman]

Just had Allan texting me from [phone]
Email [e-mail]

Same stuff as in this thread, ass wipes trying to scam people!

[Wish]

same number [phone]. 07445 004165

Has contacted me too…… asks all the right questions.

[Ade76]

Yep - just had this guy on to me…. 07445 004165….Alan this time…maybe he just likes collecting cars.

[100 IAN]

Yes, I’ve just fallen for this one. Paid £15 to do a vehicle check on autochecks.co.uk and to then forward it onto [e-mail] which I stupidly did. Guessing autochecks.Co.uk is the scammers website and they’re getting £15 from each person they con 🤬

[sam-2vnb0]

Yup, “Alan” just relieved me of £15 too. I normally spot these things a mile off but was distracted by this one.

Alan Thompson [phone]
[e-mail]

[VEX]

Same has happened with me.

07445004165
[e-mail]

I said i would not pay and pointed them to CarVertical