Drivers risk losing 'thousands of pounds' with Facebook marketplace fraud scam

Motorists have been warned to take extra caution following a dramatic surge in cloned car scams on Facebook Marketplace, which leave drivers out of pocket.

The alert comes as UK used car transactions reached a record-breaking 7,807,872 in 2025, representing the highest figure ever recorded.

Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders data showed this marked a 2.1 per cent increase on 2024 figures and sits 15.6 per cent above 2020 levels.

Demand for private vehicle purchases continued to climb, with online searches for "Facebook marketplace cars for sale near me" rising 52 per cent compared to the previous year.

Matt Clamp, a used car expert at Scrap Car Comparison, has issued a stark warning about the unprecedented number of stolen and fraudulently altered vehicles flooding the private sales market.

He warned that the volume entering the private sales market right now is "something we haven't seen before", with many drivers looking to social media to buy.

The expert explained that while the recovery in used car demand benefits the market overall, shifting buyer behaviour has created new vulnerabilities.

"More buyers are going straight to Facebook Marketplace and other private platforms, and fraudsters are exploiting it," he said.

The specialist noted that deceptive vehicles can appear entirely legitimate at first glance, with clean histories and proper paperwork.

Mr Clamp added: "What concerns me most is how convincing these cars can look. But the moment we check the VIN in person, that's where it unravels. The numbers fail to match, the stamp has been tampered with, or the code isn't consistent across the car."

Scrap Car Comparison has observed a sharp increase in vehicles arriving with fake or altered VIN numbers, the unique 17-character identifier that contains a car's complete history.

Mr Clamp emphasised that verifying this code requires no specialist knowledge and takes just five to 10 minutes, which can be completed by anyone.

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The VIN appears stamped into metal on the driver's side dashboard, visible through the windscreen, and also on a plate within the door frame. This code must match exactly the number recorded in the V5C logbook.

Should any discrepancy exist between these locations, even a single digit, buyers have been advised to abandon the transaction immediately.

A recent discussion thread on one of Reddit's largest used car communities attracted hundreds of responses after a user questioned whether requesting a VIN before viewing a Facebook Marketplace listing was advisable.

One contributor narrowly avoided handing over "thousands of pounds" for a vehicle advertised with 66,000 miles that actually had 250,000 on the clock.

The user claimed that the screenshots sent to them by the seller had falsified reports, prompting them to run checks themselves.

Mr Clamp advised prospective buyers to treat unusually attractive pricing as a major red flag, since cloned or stolen vehicles are typically listed competitively to encourage swift transactions.

Before arranging any viewing, motorists can utilise the DVLA's free vehicle checker, which reveals MOT history, outstanding finance and whether a car has been written off.

"Buying a car is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll make, and this one simple check could be the difference between buying with confidence and losing thousands to fraud," the expert stated. "The people losing money to cloned car fraud aren't doing anything wrong; they just don't know this check exists."