By Ollie Juggins
5th February 2026
Part of our “How do I sell my Classic Car?” Series.
How are scams like clothes? Both are subject to fashion trends.
Unfortunately, this means that as someone buying or selling a car privately, whether classic or modern, you have to stay alert to changes in the landscape, and to what’s fashionable when you’re selling your car.
Today we’re going to focus on a scam that preys on sellers with limited knowledge of engines – but that can snare even mechanically-minded sellers when executed well.
In 2023, I was selling my old Jaguar – before you ask, I was selling privately because as a daily driver with many miles it wasn’t right for Trade Classics Auctions! I quickly received a viewing request through a well-known classifieds platform. “Huzzah”, I thought: “I know my car is great, so once they travel (all the way from London!) to see it, they’ll surely buy it.”
I was wrong.
Firstly, let me say it’s very easy to be taken in by these scammers. They are hugely convincing on the phone and by email. They ask all the right questions, sound respectable, and write well – they’d clearly researched my car model before calling.
They say things like “I’m definitely buying this car as long as nothing is wrong.” and “I want to give you a deposit to secure the car.” They can, counter-intuitively, get quite pushy about sending you a deposit. The thing is, if you accept this deposit it becomes incredibly difficult to say no to their offer later, and then to insist they leave your property when you work out it’s a scam. The deposit forces a sense of reciprocity.
They also used emotions to keep sellers off their guard (“I’m buying this for my wife, who’s car broke down/was stolen” and communicate well and regularly (“we’re on our way/we’ll be with you in 5 mins”/etc. If anything, having sold a few cars over the years, they’re too nice and helpful to be real!
In simple terms, the scammers replicate the symptoms of a broken engine. In slightly more complex terms, they mimic a head gasket failure – smoke from the exhaust, oil in the coolant, and sometimes rough running/check engine lights. Head gasket failure often means, if not caught immediately, that a new engine is required. The car loses a significant portion of its value.
In recent months I’ve heard the same story from two of our customers, one with a stunning Bentley Flying Spur and one (G from the Midlands, who I quote below a lot) with a lovely Porsche Cayenne. The playbook was almost identical, as were the feelings involved:
“I felt a bit silly not spotting it at the time as I’m a car guy.”
“They made me feel guilty for wasting their time, and offered me a lifeline by taking the car anyway – but at a low price.”
So it seems to be getting more popular.
In all these cases, soon after a friendly arrival, the scammers had a good poke around, and then the seller took them on a test drive.
On the test drive, the cars all started to smoke, which, in the words of G from the Midlands: “I thought strange, as the Porsche engine is known to be bulletproof. I assumed it was smoking because I hadn’t used the car for a while, because quite quickly it cleared.”
However, “the main scammer kept insisting he could still see the smoke when we got back, so he asked me to look under the bonnet. We did this, and left the bonnet open. He then suggested we look through the service history to see why it might be smoking, and took me to the rear of the car to review it in the boot”.
This was when, based on the CCTV, his accomplice struck. In about 10 seconds, he’d put oil in the expansion tank & on the top of the engine, and then pulled out an injector to make it run rough and throw up a code.” The CCTV also confirmed that soon after arrival, one of the scammers fiddled at the rear of the car (squirting oil in the exhaust to create white smoke when the exhausts got warm) while the other kept G busy at the front end.
“They were really smooth – I didn’t see the guy putting oil in the exhaust pipe or unplugging an injector until I checked the CCTV later.”
They then got upset about having had their time wasted, but conceded that “the good news is I do know someone who can get me an engine for this, so I can still buy the car”. This, to a panicked seller, could feel like a lifeline.
G: “The way they phrased it made me feel that it was on me because it had gone during the test drive. I felt guilt for getting them to drive up allegedly from Reading (thought that was probably a lie). They played on that guilt to try to get the car at a huge discount.”
Fortunately for him, G is extremely honest: “I would never sell a car with a problem, so I apologised and insisted on taking it to Porsche to get it looked over. Then they went to sit in their car, parked out of sight on the street, the said they’d call me in 10mins when I’d ‘calmed down’! This gave me the time and space to really think and to feel suspicious so took a look at the CCTV recording. I saw them fiddling with both ends of the car, and I felt utterly relieved.”
“Then I felt foolish, and then I felt angry.”
Back to my case, I caught them because I know head gaskets aren’t an issue on the AJ-V8 engine, and I knew my car well. G said “I should’ve noticed that the oil in the expansion tank was clean, and not emulsified as it would be if it had genuinely mixed with hot coolant. But they just don’t give you the chance to stop and think about it while they’re present.”
And that’s the key – they’re experts at preventing you from thinking clearly. G and I are both real car guys (I’ve rebuilt engines), and whilst that did help, it took us both time to realise what has happening because the scammers were so convincing and overwhelming in their approach. They’re very slick, very confident, and very good at pressuring sellers continuously.
In this photo, you can see one of the scammers engaging the seller in the car boot, “carefully going over the maintenance records”, while his partner in crime is at the front of the car, putting oil in the expansion tank and unplugging an injector:
So we know this scam has recently been tried on a Jaguar XFR, a Bentley Flying Spur, and a Porsche Cayenne Diesel. In each case, it only took an hour of time to book and undertake a viewing.
Let’s assume it also takes a few hours of searching, and their success rate of viewings isn’t too high – although the fact that they’re willing to risk providing a deposit, which a seller clearly won’t return if they realise they’re being scammed, means the success rate must be reasonable. And they are very convincing on the phone and in emails.
In the case of the Porsche, which was advertised for £23k, the scammers offered £10k. We suspect they had a ‘friendly’ garage ready to take if off their hands for £18-£20k, who would then retail it for £25k.
So if they get away with this twice a week, net £10k per time, and manage to repeat it for 45 weeks of the year, that’s £900,000 pa. It’s a worryingly good crime from the scammers’ perspective – victims who fall for it will never know, those who don’t mostly don’t report it, and even when reported it’s hard to prosecute as there’s only very weak evidence to work with.
Finally, in the words of the police, “no harm has been done” – though we firmly disagree with that assessment!
If you read our last blog, you’ll know that a well-prepared, correctly priced car attracts serious buyers and competitive auction bidding. To that advice, we add ways to spot and avoid this scam:
We’ve tried to help people avoid this risk entirely – along with many others: anybody requesting a viewing is verified using government id before they can visit, and in order to bid, they must register a payment card with us. On top of this, 90% of our clients’ cars sell without viewings, such is the quality of our auction listings: one buyer said “I trust your listings more than I trust myself to look over a car!”. All sellers also undergo verification, and all cars are HPi checked.
So the easy way to avoid having complete strangers spend time in your home, and with your pride and joy, is to sell with the UK’s most trusted online auction platform. Please get in touch now to learn more.
However you sell or buy, be careful out there!
We want to understand how often this scam is being attempted now -and what cars are being targetted – and pass our concerns to the proper authorities. We’ve made a very short 6 question poll (mostly multiple choice) to help us. It requires no login or personal data.
If you’re willing to submit your answers and share this poll as widely as possible, we’d really appreciate it.
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