Police Warn About New ‘Car Scratch’ Scam

POLICE in a town in the UK has issued a warning about a new and predatory scam. Con artists are tricking people – particularly the elderly – into paying thousands of pounds for damage supposedly caused to their vehicles.

Bridport, a small town in Dorset has seen a spate of such attacks. Two women approached an elderly resident on her doorstep and claimed that their vehicle door had been pranged  – and cheekily demanded payment to fix the ‘damage’. The elderly resident was unconvinced that they had caused the damage, as they hadn’t driven for weeks.

One of the women told the elderly resident that the vehicle damage would cost around £200 for them to fix; she told the resident she would obtain a quotation and took her phone number.

Later that day the elderly lady – in her 80s – received a phone call from the woman, claiming that she had now received a quotation of some £2,500. The resident was shocked and immediately disconnected the phone call and rang the police.

The two women are described as Eastern European, about 35 years old, and were driving a black Vauxhall Corsa. The number plate (VRM) was likely registered in 2014.

It comes after police issued a similar warning last month with so-called copycat websites tricking drivers into thinking they are legitimate DVLA or DVSA websites.

In the UK, anyone can verify the status of a vehicle and if it has any damage or accident history. In addition, central databases record all stolen and write-off history for any UK-registered vehicle. Websites like HPI Check and FreeCarCheck can instantly verify the legality of a vehicle – whether it’s a car, motorbike, or van. Often these services provide free data lookups but some of the financial histories is being a paywall.

A spokesman for Bridport Police warned that being vigilant is as important as ever. There has been an uptick in this fraud across the country; most of those losing money are in their 70s and 80s. Official figures on how widespread this con is, are increasingly harder to obtain given a change in crime figure reporting, but it’s believed up to 50 people a week are being scammed across the UK.

As ever, the advice is to remain vigilant at all times, and if you have any doubts or concerns, shut the door and phone the police immediately.