I have a friend who is trying to sell her car. She put an advert in a
local London organ called "Loot" to advertise her car. (some of you
may have heard of this publication).
Instead of getting calls from prospective private buyers, she is
geeting numerous calls from various financing outfits. These
organisations explain
that they have lots of potential buyers for her car. The deal is if
she pays them a sum of money (usually £80.00 but is sometimes less)
then they will direct these buyers to the seller. If the buyer uses
the organisation to finance the money for the car, then the fee from
the seller is refunded.
The web of one of these companies is as follows:
www.autobuyer.co.uk
while the other sent the following e-mail to my friend
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Miss Mavis 

Thank you for your interest in The Motorist Guide, which you can
access on-line by clicking on the link,
or download in pdf format. 

The Guide is packed with useful information for motorists, especially
those looking to buy a new or used car.

Selling your Car? 
For every vehicle there is a buyer! and for every buyer there is a
vehicle, the problem can be finding each other. That's where Cardata
succeeds.

Cardata intelligently matches a buyer to a seller every 15 seconds!
Established in 1981 and with over 20 years experience we are the
largest and longest running vehicle marketing service in the UK

Our service: we contact potential buyers and send out over 150,000
tailor made letters, emails and faxes to private buyers every month.

Additional marketing: depending on the service you choose your vehicle
will be advertised on up to 80 motoring websites.

Once only fee: for a one off fee of just £79.99 your vehicle will be
advertised until sold. There's nothing extra to pay and no commission
on sale. We start work the minute you register and you can change the
details or price at no extra charge. Or choose our Gold Service for a
boxed advert, larger type, gold backing on our website and a photo of
your vehicle to make your advert really stand out.

Money back: As licensed credit brokers, if you or your buyer uses
finance arranged by us we will give you up to £80 back.

Free Warranty: We give most of our buyers a free month's 'Warranty
Direct' engine and gearbox warranty to give them peace of mind and
help you sell.

Interested? To find out more call us today on 0870 444 7373. 

Yours sincerely 

Andrew Sobell 
Marketing Manager
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My question is: Are these organisations legitamite or are they simply 
ripoff artists willing to scam innocent car sellars?

Very Many Thanks
DPRK007

PS I hear ANSWERFINDER may be good at dealing with this type of question

Dear dprk007-ga,
I?m afraid your friend is suffering from sales pitches by legitimate
rival companies trying to sell advertising space. I have suffered
myself from the same approach. You place an advert to sell your car
and all you receive are calls from other magazines, newspapers and
internet advertisers making offers to sell your car. By the time you
receive a genuine call showing interest in the car, you are so fed up
that you turn them off by your telephone manner.

The offer of refund of the fee comes from the bonus they get from the
finance company for selling the finance to the buyer. Personally,
however, I must ask how do you know they used Cardata / Autobuyer to
arrange the finance? Would they ever tell you? What are the chances
that your buyer would go to Cardata / Autobuyer for the finance? In my
view, ultimately you?re just paying £80 for them to advertise your
car.

Cardata is part of Database Advertising plc 
The Grange 100 High Street London N14 6AB. telephone:, 0870 444 6161
http://www.cardata.co.uk/contactus.jsp

It is registered at Companies House and accounts are up to-date.
Database Advertising plc 
Company No. 03940499
Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 06/03/2000
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

The number in the email is their sales desk 0870 444 7373
https://www.cardata.co.uk/selling.jsp

Here are some independent references to the company in various sources.

1998 ?Telephone Researchers, Data Inputters and Customer Care staff work?
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=22720

?A new office complex opened today by the First Minister Henry McLeish
will help bring an extra 90 new jobs to Glenrothes. Mr Mcleish opened
the Pentland House facility in Glenrothes and announced that
Auto-User, the telemarketing division of Database Advertising plc will
set up a call centre there creating 90 new jobs.?
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/news/2000/12/se3105.asp

Guardian article. Selling your car ? reference to Cardata
http://money.guardian.co.uk/cars/story/0,11944,1430693,00.html


As for Autobuyer, less information on this one, but it appears legitimate.
Autobuyer 
Northway House 
1379 High Road
Whetstone
http://www.autobuyer.co.uk/

It is registered at Companies House and accounts are up to-date 
AUTOBUYER.CO.UK LIMITED
Company No. 04781183
Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 29/05/2003
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Both companies should hold Consumer Credit Licenses and should you
want to advertise with them, ask for their number and then check it
with the Office of Fair Trading

?The Consumer Credit Public Register is maintained by the OFT. The
register documents traders that hold a licence and any action taken
against them. It also details traders that have applied for a licence.
Enquiries can be made to the Consumer Credit Licensing Bureau on 020
7211 8608.?
http://www.oft.gov.uk/About/Who+to+contact/In+Consumer+Regulation+Enforcement+division.htm

I hope this has helped you even though some of it is personal
knowledge. If I can also advise you friend on a scam that is very
prevalent at the moment.  This is from a US site but it equally
applies to the UK, and applies equally to non-internet sales.

?The victim most often is selling a used car (or some other item of
value) over the internet, though sometimes the seller might receive a
call or fax in response to a print ad as well. A buyer indicates that
he or she wants to buy the car and will pay with a cashier?s check. At
the last minute, the so-called buyer will come up with a reason to
write the check for significantly more than the asking price and
request the seller to wire the difference. The checks are often such
convincing fakes that the car seller wires the money immediately after
his or her bank clears the check. However, in a week or so, the check
turns out to be counterfeit, and the bank requires the car seller to
cover the money for the phony check.?
http://cars.com/carsapp/national/?srv=parser&act=display&tf=/advice/shopping/howtosell/sell_beware.tmpl

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder

Many thanks for a quick and to the point answer, details of which I shall pass
unto my colleague

DPRP007

At least it seems that they are indeed registered companies
(unfortunately, there is no access to the British government's
database of registered companies at this time of the night, so this
private database will have to do for now):

http://www.ukdata.com/creditreports/viewCompanyDetails.do?companyId=04781183
http://www.ukdata.com/creditreports/viewCompanyDetails.do?companyId=04066055

But that alone does not tell us anything about their behaviour in
business affairs. And in the case of Autobuyer, it looks a bit fishy
that they have decided to conceal who has actually registered their
Web domain and used an anonymizing service for the registration, as I
found out (The database entry says: "The registrant is an individual
who has elected to have their address omitted from the whois database"
- no, they are not. They are a company with a business address. Why
would a reputable company do that?)

Scriptor

Have you ever heard of any of those companies or do you know anyone who has?
If not, I'd say it's a scam. When I advertised my car in the US, I got calls from
other advertisers who wanted to advertise my car for a fee in their publication.
When I looked into it deeper, I found those publications to be quite unknown.
They pretty much relied on suckers to advertise their stuff in their publications.

Dear dprk007-ga,
Many thanks for the tip.
answerfinder-ga

I've come across these companies before and in my opinion if they did
have a buyer for the car 'as they say' they would do it for free as
they make they're money on the finance. Why don't they take it off the
price of the car? I'm sure I wouldn't mind taking £80 less than my
asking price!

You can advertise your car here for free with 4 pictures www.thecarpitch.com 

If your car is advertised on the internet no doubt you'll come across
a scam from bogus car buyers that say they want to buy your car and
where do they send the cheque etc. more info here 
http://www.thecarpitch.com/classifieds/classifieds.php?a=22&b=3