Hyderabad: A new scam using used luxury cars as bait on online marketplaces has trapped 24 residents, mostly well-educated and belonging to high income categories, in the city. The scamsters make their money and disappear. Police said the scamsters were luring techies and professionals by putting up advertisements of used luxury cars on olx.com and pretending to be foreign nationals wanting to sell the vehicles before leaving the country.
When a buyer expresses interest, the scamster states that the vehicle is with the Customs department at the airport, awaiting clearances. The scamster tells the target it would take a few lakh rupees towards clearance charges. Once they pay up, the scamsters are never heard of again.As many as 24 persons have approached the Cyber Crime police after they were duped. The scamsters promised to sell vehicles like Mercedes Benz, BMW and Jaguar cars and Toyota Fortuners at low prices.
According to Cyber Crime officials from Cyberabad, this is the newest trend in the city. “We have been getting complaints in the last four months from people belonging to high income categories. These victims deposited money in the account numbers provided by the scamsters. They realised that they were cheated only after losing their money,” said Cyber Crime inspector Mohammed Riyazuddin. The scamsters used a few techniques to lure customers. “Their advertisement contains photograph of the vehicle in various angles. The vehicle number is hidden or changed. Super luxury cars are priced very low,” the inspector said.
When the customer responds, the scamster tells him that he wants to leave for his home country from India immediately which is why he is selling the vehicle at a discount, said a cyber crime official. “Another offer has it that once the charges for Customs clearance are paid, the users can get the vehicle for 10 days of test driving,” the official said. The victims were told that the vehicles were awaiting clearance for packing, and the charges for maintenance, airport tax and demurrage had to be paid, an official said.
“Apart from this, they were asked to pay airport/cargo duty clearance. These charges do not make any sense, but the victims did not think twice and paid close to Rs 5 lakh,” he said. The scamsters are suspected Nigerians or other African nationals. Police has booked more than 20 cases in the last four months. Most of the victims are well educated, police said.
Cops seek banks’ help to capture racketeers:
The posh car scamsters give out account numbers of banks located in Assam and Manipur when they reel their victims in. Cyberabad Cyber Crime Police, who moved to freeze as many as 124 bank accounts used by the scamsters, said the accounts were opened using fake addresses and documents. Police suspects the kin-gpins are Nigerians and other African nationals with many locals helping them in financial transactions. The police has arrested two Indian agents.
During online conversations with victims, the fraudster gives the contact number of an ‘airport officer’, who is actually an Indian helper. “When victims call him, he asks them to deposit more money to get the vehicle released. These locals help the racketeers maintain their bank account, withdraw money, and hand it over to the kingpins for a commission,” said Cyber Crime inspector Mohammed Riyazuddin. Police suspects that the scam is operated from Mumbai or Delhi. “The kingpins are yet to be caught. But it looks like their agents are active in Hyderabad,” said an investigation officer.
The bank accounts we-re opened using rental agreements, fake Aadh-aar and PAN cards by the local agents. “We are monitoring these accounts after freezing them. We have sought help from the banks to trap the racketeers,” an officer said. An officer said the sca-msters purchase clothes and other goods with the money and export them to their home countries, where their counterparts sell them.
Police found that most vehicles shown in the advertisements were actually photographed on the streets. “It looks like they clicked pictures of luxury vehicles parked by the roadside and uploaded them after blackening out the number plate or changing it,” said a police officer.
