SEREMBAN: If you come upon online advertisements offering scrapped luxury cars from Singapore at dirt cheap prices and your eyes light up, quickly drop your dreams of owning the vehicle.
It is a ruse by scam syndicates to lure and swindle unsuspecting buyers of their hard-earned cash.
A 50-year-old factory manager from Jalan Sungai Ujong here learnt this the hard way when he lost RM91,000 after he took interest in a sleek-looking used Audi A4 that was put up for sale in August, at a third of its market price in an advertisement on Facebook.
The seller claimed the car was from Singapore and that all documentation to have the vehicle on-the-road will be sorted out by him.
The victim contacted the seller and agreed to buy the car after a chat.
The seller requested for a booking fee, to which the manager agreed.
His troubles began after he made the first payment of RM3,000 to a mule bank account on Aug 17.
Negri Sembilan commercial crime investigation department chief Supt Aibee Abd Ghani (pix) said after the payment was made, the seller demanded for more, claiming he had to settle fees related to Customs Department taxes and other documentation.
He said the victim made another payment of RM4,000 a few days later.
Aibee said the scammer continued demanding for more cash, luring the victim to pay between RM700 and RM7,000 each time.
He said over the next three months, the victim made 24 transactions via 14 mule bank accounts, paying the scammer RM91,000.
On making his last payment of RM4,560 on Nov 27, and with the car of his dreams nowhere in sight, the victim finally realised he had been fleeced.
Aibee said the man then lodged a police report.
He said checks showed that the same scammers were behind at least 23 other similar cases reported in other states, with losses totalling RM1.5 million.
He added that such scam syndicates that prey on victims through social and e-commerce websites have existed for years but recently, they have been actively placing advertisements, following a higher demand for used cars.
