In a new bombshell report Santander have revealed that there could be more than 100,000 fake car adverts on Facebook Marketplace in the UK alone.
One victim of the Facebook fake car scam crisis is Ofelia Forbes.
Ofelia revealed that she had just moved to the UK from Jamaica and desperately needed a car for her work.
Unfortunately, she quite quickly fell folly to a scammer who called himself Peter.
Ofelia said that he had seemed quite friendly in his profile picture.
“He seemed like an older gentleman who you would respect. There was a link to his company’s website where there were reviews from happy customers.
“I also searched his name online and found no indication of a scam.”
Ofelia contacted Peter via Messenger to tell him she was interested in a Kia Picanto 2021 Model that he had listed for £1,500, and asked to arrange for delivery to her home.
She was asked to pay a £250 deposit, and was informed that it could be delivered the next day.
Ofelia said: “We agreed that the next payment would be made when I received the car.
“However, on the day of the delivery he called to say all was on schedule but I needed to pay £500 for the insurance and paperwork.”
According to Ofelia, Peter said that the car wouldn’t be on the road until the money was in his account.
She explained: “I didn’t understand why they needed money for insurance and asked them about it. But I needed the car so I paid it.”
Only a matter of hours later, Peter claimed that there had been an issue with her payment and that she would need to send another £500.
If he received both payments, he said he would deduct £500 from her final payment.
Ofelia said: “At this point I was nervous because I was paying more than half of the total without getting any confirmation the car was on its way but I paid it anyway.”
Soon after, Peter confirmed that he had received the money and said that the car would arrive at her home at 2pm.
Ofelia asked to see a form of proof, but Peter said that he could not do that.
She said that she was just told to “be patient and remain calm.”
An hour later,Peter was demanding £100 for fuel now as the car had run out.
Ofelia said: “I’d never heard of this happening before so I was getting annoyed but he threatened that I wouldn’t see the car if I didn’t pay so I did.”
Within 15 minutes of paying, she was then told that she should just pay the final £150.
She recalled: “Peter said the driver was really close now and was naming local streets.
“He said I should go ahead and pay the final £150 so that when it arrived everything would happen smoothly, given how many delays there had been already.”
Ofelia initially refused as she was worried that she was being scammed. But when she raised her concerns, Peter responded by saying that he ran a good business.
She said: “He kept giving me reasons to pay so I did. But the car didn’t arrive.
“I was begging him, saying please don’t let this be a scam because I already explained to him I really need this car.
“He started to laugh and said all was ok.
“But then when there was still no sign of the car I asked what the problem was and he just replied ‘LOL’.”
Ofelia says she was then blocked by Peter and could no longer make any contact with him.
She took immediate action and called her bank, Lloyds, as well as Action Fraud.
Lloyds reimbursed her with £500, and an intervention from Money Mail also returned £150 to her.
A spokesman from Lloyds Bank said: “Keeping our customers safe from fraud is our priority and we have a great deal of sympathy for Ms Forbes.
“Buying a car from social media that you haven’t viewed in person is always risky.
“In this case, while we did show a warning before Ms Forbes completed any payments advising her to pay by card, we have provided a partial refund.”
The head of fraud risk management at Santander, Chris Ainsley, said that Facebook Marketplace has been trawled through to assess the scale of fraudulent car adverts.
It took just half an hour to find 25 scam accounts and 4,000 fake adverts.
One profile alone had 687 adverts for fake cars.
And given that hundreds of accounts post adverts in the UK, it has been estimated that there could be up to 100,000 scam listings at any time.
Chris Ainsley said: “What we found on Facebook Marketplace is really concerning and problematic.
“We have raised it with Meta because we want them to understand the scale of the problem — it is costing thousands of people in the UK.”
Meanwhile, Lloyds has reported that there has been a 74% increase in vehicle scams this year.
According to them, the average victim has lost at least £1,000 as a consequence.
Incidences of these scams rocketed by nearly three-quarters in the first six months of 2023.
People aged between 25 and 34 were most likely to fall victim, especially to fake ads on social media.
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