Just a word of warning ladies and gents. Of course many of you will be aware of this but some not. I want to buy a second hand car and have been looking at the usual spanish websites - Coches.net, Auto24, Segundo mano etc.. It very quickly became clear to me that these sites are rife with scams. The main one (and they're easily spotted) is cars for sale under market value. When you enquire about them you received an email (in spanish) from someone stating the car is in the UK (but the price includes transfer to Spain - ha!). There will be some nonsense about why it's in the UK and then (of course) a request for a deposit before the car is delivered. Total tosh of course (but I know of at least one person who's fallen for it).
Here's a good example still live on Coches .net
http://www.coches.net/honda-crv-22-i...contact_thanks
Here's the reply text emailed to me;

Hola,

Gracias por su interes.Le confirmo que yo soy el propietario de el vehículo anunciado: 2007 Honda CR-V 2.2iCTDi Innova 140 CV, 51.770 kilómetros,diesel, color Negro metalizado, kilómetros reales, en perfecto estado, muy bien cuidado. Coche nacional, las revisiones han sido pasadas en concesionario oficial y por tanto el libro del vehículo está al día, ITV valido hasta 2013. Siempre ha dormido en garaje y no ha tenido ninguna avería. Vivo en Reading, Reino Unido y el coche está aquí conmigo. Compré este coche de España pero cuando me mudé aquí y traté de matricular el coche aquí pero piden demasiado y por este motivo quiero venderlo. También quise venderlo aquí pero como tiene el volante el revés para ellos es muy difícil de encontrar un comprador y por este razón decidí venderlo en España de donde lo compré, y también porque el coche todavía esta registrado en España. El precio total que pido por el coche es 8000 EUR: transporte + transferencia de nombre incluido. Si esta interesado, puedo enviar el coche a su dirección y yo arreglaré por un Período de Inspección durante 5 días para usted. Puede probar, conducir el coche y llevarlo a un comerciante local para la inspección técnica.

Espero noticias suyas !
Muchas gracias y un saludo

So there you have it. Another thing to be mindful of is the practice of clocking cars - making both analogue and digital odometers show lower milleage than the actual amount. Very common with less reputable dealers. Only buy a car with a service history from the main dealer is the best solution.

Yes I nearly got sucked in a couple of years ago when I was looking for a classic car - I just checked the site to see if they had a system for reporting dodgy adverts - best I could see was their Guia de seguridad, where they do highlight possible scam ads, including people living abroad.
As always, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is - this is the perfect scam at the moment where people are expecting to find 'bargains'
I seem to remember reading a while ago a legit way of checking cars history, owner etc but have not seen the ad for a while so perhaps it is not so easy to check as in the UK.
Anybody know about that?

It's not just car sites either, I tried bying a Tyros keyboard here, lot's the sites were just scammers.

I advertised a car wanted once and I had a reply from some one who wanted to buy it

The best car advert I have seen in Spain in a freepaper read:-

Blue Bargain Tlf xxx yyy zzz

I have to be diciplined and not go to Autotrader. I know, if I do, I'll just fly back, buy a sensibly priced, well looked after genuine car but on UK plates and drive it back here and be back to square one.