Online car insurance news

Motorists urged to exercise caution when buying cars online

Online car insurance sites usually have excellent security and users are not exposed to any risk of fraud whatsoever. However, this is not the case with all web-based motoring services and recently a number of UK motorists have lost tens of thousands of pounds as a result of internet auction scams.

Gangs of fraudsters are operating from Spain and Portugal hotels and offering luxury cars such as BMW at low prices, supposedly because they are having trouble using them in European countries which drive on the other side of the road.

One woman, from Richmond, North Yorkshire, is reported to have lost £16,000 after a BMW she ordered never arrived.

The trading standards department of North Yorkshire County Council has been looking into the scams. Following an alert from a Yorkshire car dealership, investigators found that gangs were using copied pictures of genuine cars to advertise their invented vehicles.

Corrine Aldous of online car insurance company duck2water Car Insurance Services commented: "Whilst this type of fraud is a worrying discovery, people should not be put off from using the internet for getting motor insurance quotes and doing their banking.

"Simply exercise a little caution in any decisions that you make when buying online and it is unlikely that you will get caught by a scam such as this."

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