Purchase Scams
What are they?
Purchase scams are when a fraudster sells you goods or services that you do not receive. It is a type of authorised push payment scam (APP scam) or bank transfer scam. We see a huge range of fake products or services offered by fraudsters such as vehicles, rental properties, building work or valuable items such as jewellery.
How do people come across purchase scams?
How people end up the victim of a purchase scam varies hugely. Often scammers will create adverts on Ebay, Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace or other legitimate platforms. However, sometimes the scammer will even meet you in person (such as builder scams) so you always have to be vigilant.
What investment scams
should I look out for?
-
![]()
Vehicle purchase scams
The most common is vehicle purchase scams. The scammer will appear trustworthy and they will build out a convincing story as to why you can’t see the car in person and provide comfort as to why it’s okay for you not to see the car. For example:
They will pretend to be abroad and that the vehicle is the property of a deceased relative that is in the UK
They will create a fake “Escrow” or delivery company that acts as a middleman in the sale. The company will be fake or they’ll use the details of a real company. Often they’ve gone as far as creating a website for this fake company
They will send you their passport and V5 documents that are either faked or are often actually real. They are extremely unlikely to be the passport of the person you are dealing with and while the V5 may be real, it’s something they’ve obtained dishonestly.
-
![]()
Builder scams
We frequently see builder scams at Refundee and unfortunately, it can often be quite difficult to distinguish between what is a scam and what is a civil matter. This is because it’s in the interests of fraudsters to ‘blur the lines’ to avoid prosecution for fraud. This means that often they will start work such as demolition, but only with the view to extracting as much money as possible before they disappear. Unfortunately, carrying out partial work can be a very good way of extracting work from victims who feel they have no choice but to bend to the builders demands to get the work finished.
