Theft by Deception warning

The Motor Trade team have become aware of a significant increase in the use of fraudulent credit cards to acquire motor vehicles.

 In the last two weeks alone we have been contacted by 3 clients reporting 4 vehicles paid for by stolen / cloned credit cards.

 In two of these cases they were contacted by an alleged ‘motor dealer’ from Bristol.

The credit card company will contact you after the transaction has taken place and simply recover the money from your account but obviously by this time the vehicle has gone!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be aware that most Motor Trade Insurance Policies exclude losses caused by “Theft by Deception” and those Motor Trade policies that do provide cover often have significant excesses for this type of loss.

If you have any concerns regarding your policy cover or would like more clarification please call your usual Account Executive.

We would  suggest that you exercise extreme caution when processing debit / credit cards and take extra steps to satisfy yourself that the card holder is legitimate.

Alternatively, the safe option is not to take credit cards at all.