Over half a million vehicles have been found for sale online while already having live finance agreements in place. Commonly known as ‘Wrongful Conversion’ or ‘Conversion Fraud’, the practice sees vehicles bought and sold when there is no legal grounding to do so.
The figures were uncovered by Auto Trader, who conducted vehicle provenance checks on vehicles advertised on its platform over the course of 12 months. The research spanned private and trade adverts and found over 600,000 vehicles – funded via 240 different lenders – that were fraudulently being sold while still in existing finance agreements. The small sample suggests a much higher number of fraudulent adverts are being placed across the UK.
Financial pressures and tough economic conditions – as the UK is currently experiencing – always correlate to fraud rising.
While most prevalent on vehicles under hire purchase agreements, BVRLA members are urged to take steps to protect themselves. Members could be at risk on both sides, either by customers fraudulently selling member-owned vehicles or by purchasing used vehicles from illegitimate sellers.
Victims of conversion fraud typically face costly and time-consuming processes to repossess their vehicles. As with all fraud, prevention is always better than reaction.
As part of the research, Auto Trader is offering BVRLA members access to its free vehicle check service. The service enables checks to be conducted on member-operated vehicles that prevents them from being sold via the Auto Trader platform.
Members seeking more details should contact Karan Ridgard via [email protected]
