Vehicle scam
JAMAICA Customs has warned the public to be on the alert for criminals who target mainly women with promises of good deals on motor vehicles, but who either trick them out of their money, or force them to accept vehicles that differ from what they ordered.
“Nine times out of 10, ladies are targeted. You have persons who are not licensed as motor vehicle dealers who target professional women, or these ladies are referred to them. The individual engages with them, usually collects money and then is expected to remit the funds to the supplier. Oftentimes that money doesn’t move. Then they ask for an update, and they say the car is on the way,” head of Jamaica Customs, Major Richard Reese told yesterday’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s head office in Kingston.
He said that if the vehicle finally does arrive, it is usually not what the buyer ordered. “They order a seven-seater SUV of a particular colour and it (what arrives) is white — the cheapest colour — with five seats,” he noted.
The Customs boss said the scammer usually asks for money to pay the importation duties. “If you’re paying duties then there is only one place that collects duties, and that is Customs, so you should either make out a manager’s cheque to Customs, having been shown all of the various breakouts, or you go down to Customs and make the payment for yourself. The duties are usually more than the car, and that is what they (the scammers) move away with,” he pointed out.
According to Reese, the criminals often ask their unsuspecting victims to meet with them on the premises of the Jamaica Customs Agency to give greater legitimacy to the transaction and allay any doubts the purchaser may have. “We have caught people using our CCTV,” he remarked, further noting that sometimes scammers also go about fleecing their victims via telephone ‘deals’, using a similar modus operandi.
Electronic scamming is yet another method being used to trap unsuspecting individuals, with the thieves going as far as to create a bogus e-mail account using the commissioner of Customs’ name. “It has nothing to do with me,” he stated.
The Customs boss further explained that people are pressed to close the transaction swiftly, usually by a specified time, and given a bank account number to which deposits are to be made. He said the scammers draw their victims in with promise of a sale of newer model motor vehicles in “showroom condition”.
Reese said this particular scam tries to grab prospective buyers ahead of Customs’ own legitimate auctions. “It rears its head usually a month or two before each Customs auction. Maybe they will miss two months and then return for the next auction,” he said.
He advised that these offers have nothing to do with the department, as all auctions are publicised in the press and prospective buyers have to be registered in order to participate.
In the meantime, he said the agency has intercepted a number of scamming machines that criminals attempt to import via couriers or post offices.