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Kuala Lumpur, 5 August 2021 – Vehicle Theft Reduction Council of Malaysia (VTREC) are warning the public on the rise of frauds and scams relating to vehicle. The pandemic Covid-19 has resulted in large fortunes for some e-commerce companies, unfortunately so did automotive frauds and scams. Automotive frauds and scams have skyrocketed in first half of 2021.
The internet and e-commerce have become one of main tools for fraudsters and scammers since it has a large footprint in the number of bogus selling. The internet allowed modern day scammers a new tool which not only widen their net of potential victims but makes it an extremely easy to target a large number of potential victims at extremely low cost for bogus selling. Malaysian has seen frauds and scams are on the rise in recent years, particularly the bogus selling of vehicle online which has becoming latest headline. The losses related to e-commerce in 2020 were 5,847 cases with losses of RM41.3 million, meanwhile 2019 recorded 3,513 cases with losses of RM9.0 million. The cases have increased by 40% and the value of losses increased event further by 78%. During the first half of this year alone from January to June, total cases recorded have amounting to 4,628 with losses reaching more than RM27.2 million according to Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation (CCID) during a webinar organised by VTREC recently.
The unsolicited communications were done in a way to make it difficult for authority and enforcement to trace their tracks by using various platforms including e-commerce, Whatsapp and social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Total frauds and scams via Facebook from January to June 2021 were 1,512 cases with losses of RM9.5 million, Instagram recorded 892 cases with loss of RM3.5 million, Mudah.my recorded 449 cases with losses of RM1.9 million and Whatsapp recorded 354 cases along with losses of 2.6 million, based on CCID statistics. Among all of the platforms apparently Mudah.my recorded the highest number of cases and the most prevalent platform with bogus selling. The authorities have proactively ramped up measure to protect the public, they will always find ways to track the fraudsters’ and scammers’ footprints including collaborating with various parties in order to stay ahead of these criminals.
VTREC Co-ordinator, Mas Tina Abdul Hamid said “Out of the cases, second-hand motorcars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles were the highest categories of goods affected by frauds and scams. In the latest auto frauds and scams operations, the motorcars are offered at a very cheap price well below market value, normally those motorcars are foreign made. A VTREC assessment of the impact of Covid-19 on auto frauds and scams has shown a significant increase in the first six months of 2021. The record shows that from January until June 2021 there were 669 frauds and scams cases recorded on second-hand vehicles along with RM7.5 million losses, while the whole year of 2020 recorded 707 cases with losses of RM5.7 million. During the first half of the year 2021 alone (January to June inclusive), for reference, that is about the same record throughout the entire of 2020, referring to CCID records.”
“The key reason of the rise in the statistics is fraudsters and scammers were taking advantage on online purchasing amid pandemic Covid19. These involves among others, bogus selling of vehicle online and forgery of insurance claims. The criminal perpetrators may post fraudulent online advertisement using fake pictures selling stolen vehicles or cloned vehicles to buyers together with forged documentation including Total Loss registration cards. Cloning a vehicle is refers to exact duplication of another vehicle which was legally registered with Road Transport Department (JPJ). Vehicle cloning resulted in innocent people becoming victims of vehicle fraud since they might buy vehicles without knowing that the vehicles are cloned. In other cases, the fraudsters advertise vehicle for sale that are not, nor have ever been in their possession with discounted price or below market price. Once contact is established, they would ask and pressure the victims to transfer money to bank accounts they provided, which belonged to unknown individuals or companies, then the fraudsters or scammers went disappeared. In the end, the vehicle is not delivered and the buyer never able to recuperate their losses,” she said.
Mas Tina highlighted that if a vehicle, offered for sale by any individual which looks like an offer of too good to be true, take your time to inspect the vehicle, check the company background and ask question BEFORE purchasing it. Watch out for vehicle reselling fraudsters and scammers, the modus operandi used by them was to offer at well below ordinary price vehicles by claiming that the vehicles were from Singapore or Thailand.
“Despite the significant reduction in offline business transactions during MCO and its extended duration, frauds and scams activities resulted higher record through online than offline. If current trends continue, the country will see a big spike in auto frauds and scams cases, while Malaysian could lose much more to auto frauds and scams this year than in 2020. We want to raise awareness of these frauds and scams to reduce the number of people who may be vulnerable to them. At the same time, VTREC intensify its collaboration efforts with various stakeholders to reduce rate of vehicle theft in the country,” concluded the VTREC Co-ordinator.
Auto frauds and scams not just happening via online but it happened in various forms. It can be anything from lying about vehicle whereabout to exaggerating an accident to outright situations. There are cases whereby the vehicle owner steals his own vehicle and sell it, smuggling own vehicle to neighbouring countries and leave or sell it or the owner disposes or destroys the vehicle or burning it or hiding it or dumping it somewhere or striping it for spare parts and then claiming it was stolen as fraudulent insurance claims. There are also cases such as criminals steal vehicle for illegal used spare parts and selling them to corrupt middlemen. These middlemen mark up the stolen parts and sell them to dishonest workshop who pay below market rates for these stolen parts but bill vehicle owners or insurers for full price of new parts.
Other cases includes fraudulence in value of claims, like claiming shabby windscreen with a perfect fine quality or when the claimants over reporting of their accident vehicle by purposely overstating the accident damages or dishonest workshops involves in exaggerating certain aspects of an otherwise legitimate claims for example inflate of spare parts value or include illegal spare part as mentioned which normally substandard quality or old substandard spare part of a new claim. The insurers paying good money for original part but the dishonest workshop replaces the damaged spare parts with illegal spare parts and substandard quality causing insurers losing money and putting motorists at risks in the country when a counterfeit spare part is used.
VTREC advised public to check by utilising CCID’s Semak Mule application at website http://ccid.rmp.gov.my/semakmule/ to check whether the bank account given by buyer is used by fraudster or scammers. Those looking to buy a used vehicle need to be vigilant and make effort to keep records of your conversation, details of the seller and payment transaction as evidence to determine. Also, where the vehicle came from, its original owners, inspect the vehicle properly and do fingerprint verification whereby buyer and seller must provide their thumbprint in order to exchange ownership. Always deal face-to- face, avoid sellers who refuse to meet in person or who refuse to allow the buyer to physically inspect the vehicle before the purchase. If you believe you have been a victim of this frauds or scams, please lodge a police report.
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About Vehicle Theft Reduction Council of Malaysia (VTREC)
VTREC is the Vehicle Theft Council that enhancing co-operation between the public sector and private sector stakeholders in effort to deliver a culture and practice of reducing vehicle theft in the country. More information on VTREC can be obtained from its website: www.vtrec.net
Media Relations Contact:
Puan Afif Aliyana Abu Fitri Executive Officer,
Vehicle Theft Reduction Council of Malaysia (VTREC)
Tel : +603-2274 7399 ext 502 Fax : +603-2274 5910
E-mail : aliyana@piam.org.my
Encik Muhammad Alif Mohd Adnan Executive Officer,
Vehicle Theft Reduction Council of Malaysia (VTREC)
Tel : +603-2274 7399 ext 503 Fax : +603-2274 5910
E-mail : alifadnan@piam.org.my
