Once upon a time a young girl decided to start saving for her first house rather than continue renting. One way to make a saving was to buy a cheaper car to reduce monthly payments. But first she had to sell her current car which was only 18 months old. Repayments were nearly £300 a month with another 40 odd payments to go. So it was advertised on e-bay with photos for in my opinion a very reasonable sum. It was sold very quickly to a dealer who asked her to remove it from e-bay and he would purchase it by paying off the finance. The sale then went through privately. The girl confirmed with the finance company (major bank) that the money was paid. And was told it was, by debit card. The next day a person collected the car. She also contacted the finance company that day and was told finance was clear. The following weekend she bought another ceaper car financed by the same finance company.
Everything was fine the payments reduced by over half and a car of similar age and milage.
However a week after the original payment was made the finance company rang her to tell her that the finance was now outstanding again, because it had been a fraudulent transaction. Her insurance company has refused to pay out and the finance company is ringing literally everyday for the stopped payment. Obviously she has complained against the finance company, but it looks to me that she is stuck with the debt and her own house is even further away!

Sounds awful mate, but without being smug, who on earth sells a car on e-bay?

All her friends apparently - dead easy - lets face it hers went in a day! But remember wasn't actually sold thru e-bay in end.
Friends knew all the ins and out and took loads of photos.
Well they knew all the ins and outs but one!

I sold my car on ebay, but told them that I wanted cash.

Did she confirm that the buyer was in fact a dealer? And that the person collecting the car was from that dealership? And the persons name on the debit card was the name of the dealer, or that the dealer confirmed that person worked for him? Its popular on the mainland at the minute for this type of thing to happen, particularly with identity theft where the card holder doesnt notice his details have been taken for anything up to a month and when he reports fraudulent activity on his cards the bank query transactions that had went through no problems some time before.

BFM - Obv can't give too many details on web but company who left receipt for car was bogus.

Update - On hearing her tale of woe -as a gesture of goodwill the garage she bought her new (second hand) car from agreed to meet the first 3 months payments. That never happened. Numerous unreturned phone calls followed. 3 months later a letter was sent to their Head Office - after 3 weeks and no response a phone call was made to the Head Office. We were told to go to the garage and pick up a cheque the next evening. On the way there the manager rang mobile to say the cheque needed two signitures so don't bother coming! However someone dropped off a cheque for 3 months payments for the new car the next day!

She got refused a mortgage as she was blacklisted by credit company - even tho' she had eventually paid 2 months payments for a car she no longer had - and paid a fine for the fraudulent credit card payment bouncing.
The loan company were ringing her up to 3 times a day for payment so eventually she cracked and pair even tho she had asked for loan to be frozen til resolved.
Got the credit company to remove from black list - and reapplied for mortgage - got mortgage.

The Insurance Company sent out an investigator and spent a couple of hours at the house interviewing daughter and taking copies of letters/docs. Insurance company then decided that they would pay out subject to loan company investigating her complait which was with the Financial Ombudsman.

She then got stupid questions from Loan company which had already been addressed and had to hire a solicitor.
Loan company have no recordings of phone calls but after over 3 months agree to cover loan but not to return the extra payments she was forced to make. So still arguing the toss about this.
THe credit card company have since agreeing it was their fault - have asked for another 2 payments and blacklisted her again!

The DVLA even yesterday sent out a reminder for the car tax as the police still havent told them the car is stolen!

Anyway 4 months on and things are looking up it looks like she may only lose out by about £1000 whch is a lot better than it looked before, and she should get the keys to her new house by end of month.

Just a small point, but have you told the dvla that the car is stolen? Surely a crime reference number and a call or letter is enough.
Trying to think, but not sure police actually tell the dvla.

Yes twice - DVLC told us to tell police to tell them both times.

I too know a few people who have bought and sold a car on ebay (my dad included last month), but as mentioned they always dealt in cash. This is not a nice read and I feel sorry for your friend, but I suppose the situation, with the finance on the car, was absolutely perfect for some low-life to take advantage, and things like this have a nasty habit of sticking for a long time on your credit rating.

Odd
Plenty of cars out there shown as no current keeper or keeper has informed dvla no longer keeper.
Are you still shown as registered keeper?
I just gave them a bell when i messed up selling my first car and they put a marker on.
You should be able to get your details removed from the car.
The police will have a marker on pnc saying veh is stolen as soon as you reported it

Yes - I believe she is still shown as registered keeper - they have a note on file that she is not responsible for car since day of "theft". Just don't think police bothered to tell them.

Police did let slip there is someone in custody.

The outcome - eventually finance company took the hit, the insurance company after investigation did say they would accept a claim if the finance company refused liability, (but this was at second time of asking).

Car turned up, released by police but as a write-off so don't know what happened there. Finance company claimed wrecked car as theres.
Still in dispute with finance company over monied paid after car dispute began. Ombudsman still involved. Still down money daughter paid back to con-man who collected the car. So still around £800 down on deal.

Solicitor waived fees - but he still had her business for the house buy.