September 30th 2015
Embroiled in the software scandal involving diesel engine vehicles, Volkswagen Group has said it will be contacting owners in the UK in a matter of days or weeks to arrange for the vehicles to be brought in for a technical fix. The company has today revealed that 1.2 million vehicles in the UK are affected.
As is often the case where such widespread concern occurs, we anticipate that fraudsters may exploit the situation by contacting members of the public and businesses, either claiming to be from VW and falsely charging unsuspecting victims to carry out the fix, or from a third-party technical firm offering to short-cut the process. In either case, no fix will be carried out and the victim will have been defrauded out of the ‘fee’.
If you own a VW car or commercial vehicle – or an Audi, Skoda or Seat car – you must be aware that any genuine approach will be issued by Volkswagen Group themselves, although the method of contact is not yet clear. At the time this news item was written, we believe that it will be via a letter received in the post, on official Volkswagen Group letterhead. We recommend that you report such approaches – which could be via fake letter, email, text or phone call – to Volkswagen Group or one of its authorised retail dealers, and also to Action Fraud.
If you do not own a Volkswagen Group vehicle, you could get contacted anyway, as such scams are often perpetrated by ‘scattergun’ approach. If this is the case, do not respond to or take action on the approach in any way apart from hanging up on phone calls or deleting emails/texts.
Reports can be made to Action Fraud online at www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.
