Scammers on Autotrader UK now asking for shipping fees

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.

The Autotrader UK site is awash with scam adverts and listing them here has become pointless. A few scams inserted among the regular adverts might be a hazard but they are now so numerous that the parasitic scammers risk ruining the host from which they seek to feed. The scammers' greed is more evident than their common sense. The scammers appear able to hack dealer pages at will.

The scammers' latest idiotic wheeze is to request buyers to pay shipping fees, as they invariably state that their car is located abroad. Again, the greed of the scammers overwhelms their ability to think straight, but it's something to watch out for.

If you follow the above common sense rules, you won't have to worry about it.

If the car is claimed to be located abroad and can't be viewed or inspected - walk away.

It certainly does seem that dealer accounts on Autotrader UK are extremely vulnerable - I've seen as many as six in one day. Apparently Autotrader's response to the dealer is always "it's your fault" - you have to wonder how there are so many apparently stupid dealers, so stupid as to get hacked repeatedly in many cases.
Or perhaps there is a vulnerability in Autotrader's software - but until they have something to lose themselves from these hacks, I guess there's no incentive to find out, is there? The dealers bear the cost. And the scam victims. Time for a large lawsuit perhaps?
It also doesn't help that for 12 hours a day scammers can post fake ads and no-one is around at Autotrader vetting them. Either vet 24/7 or don't allow posting 24/7 I say. Ah but that would reduce your profits.
Over to you Autotrader - we'd love to hear from you.

Why would anyone pay to post adverts when hackers and scammers can post their adverts for free, making all other offers look over-priced ?

When sellers perceive that there is no benefit (quite the opposite in fact) in paying to offer their goods alongside under-priced scams, they won't use the service.

Because nothing has been done to address the problem it is apparent that the problem will worsen exponentially. Buyer, AND seller, beware.

A Coventry dealer account that I noticed had been hacked last night, and is still hacked, shows a car with snow on the ground. It hasn't snowed in Coventry for a year. The situation is absurd.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201401161081148/sort/default/usedcars/dealer/344958/postcode/sl11xd/page/4/advert-type/dealer-stock?logcode=dsp

The scammers/fraudsters regularly post over 100 adverts a day covering every major vehicle type obviously with the intention of making their vehicles come top of every site vehicle search and representing the best possible bargain in each case. By hacking more than one dealer they can also get the best geographical spread for those who make distance a limitation.

It also appears, from the example above, that unless I or someone else reports them, they are liable to remain in place for longer than a day. Potentially therefore, the scam adverts could total many hundreds from the cumulative effect.