Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Police have busted a six-member gang of bogus car buyers who cheat unsuspecting potential car sellers. The gang would buy the vehicles and give dud cheques to the sellers, according to a senior police official.
The six people arrested were reselling the cars at less than the market price after cheating the car owners, Brigadier Rashid Mubarak Al Mesmari, director of the External Regions Directorate at Abu Dhabi Police, said in a press release on Saturday.
He warned potential car sellers to be cautious about fraudulent car buyers.
Explaining their modus operandi, he said the gang would lure the potential car seller to a sale deal and convince him or her to accept a cheque instead of cash. By the time, the sellers realise that what they had got were dud cheques, it would be too late.
The official said Al Rahba police station received a complaint from a victim of such a fraudulent deal. The gang inspected his vehicle and agreed to buy it in the name of one of them for Dh90,000. It was later found out that the gang sold the car for Dh65,000 in another emirate.
He said the police investigations found that the owners were handing over their vehicles to bogus buyers, who were strangers, before receiving the agreed price money and without exercising due diligence required in such transactions.
Based on the information received, the police identified and tracked down the suspects and arrested them. They confessed that they had cheated several car owners this way.
The police have referred the case to the public prosecution for further legal proceedings.
Brig Al Mesmari called on the public to be cautious while selling vehicles to strangers. The seller must ensure that he/she has received the agreed amount before handing over the vehicle to the potential buyer.
8 cases in Dubai
As Gulf News reported on November 28, 2016, Dubai Police had reportedly handled eight such cases last year, including that of an Arab man, who conned a woman into handing over her Mercedes car.
In another case, an Indian expat, K.M. Basheer, who works as a pickup van driver with a logistics company, lost his dream SUV to a con man.
He had bought a used Land Cruiser Prado in mid-2014 for Dh130,000 with the savings he had made over the past 20 years. Basheer, who earns Dh4,000 in monthly salary, found it expensive to maintain it and decided to dispose it and use that money for constructing his house back in his home state of Kerala.
After placing an advertisement on Dubizzle, a potential buyer, an Emirati, met him, negotiated and settled for Dh108,000 price. Another man, Khalid, who introduced himself as the Emirati man’s brother, also joined them and the duo took Basheer to Tasjeel office in Al Ghusais and handed him Dh15,000 in cash.
Then they asked him to transfer the car to Khalid’s name and said the first man would bring the balance amount by the time the registration process was done. The latter’s so-called brother, however, did not return saying he had to rush to the hospital as his wife had fallen ill. Then Khalid gave him a cheque for the balance amount and took away the vehicle.
However, the cheque bounced the next day. Khalid gave him another cheque, which also bounced. Khalid’s phone was switched off after that and Basheer later found out that his SUV had already been exported to a neighbouring country.
