Woman Allegedly Scammed By Salesman Into Transferring Car Ownership
The process of buying a new car may be complicated for some, so we place our trust in car salesmen to help us handle the transaction.
However, a woman claimed she was recently scammed out of S$67,000 by a car salesman.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
Worse still, the ownership of her existing car was also transferred to an unknown party.
The car dealership the salesman worked for has said that they didn’t know about his actions and were “deeply troubled” by the situation.
Woman met salesman when she was looking for a car
In a lengthy Facebook post on Sunday (11 June) to the Complaint Singapore group, Grab driver Polin Ng told the story of her negative car-buying experience.
She had looking for a new car on 25 Apr, she said, and went down to the Automobile Megamart in Ubi to look around.
That’s when she met Mr Chan Chee Ken, or “Ken Chan”. He said he was a salesman from CarTimes Automobile, a car dealership.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
As they didn’t have a Toyota Voxy, which she was looking for, she left.
Woman agrees on car, transfers S$10K in cash
Two days later, Ken sent Ms Ng a WhatsApp message, offering her a Toyota Noah, she said.
Though it wasn’t the car she’d been looking for, she eventually agreed.
She then transferred him S$10,000 in cash via PayNow.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
Woman transfers S$50K in cash after changing car model
The next day, 28 Apr, Ms Ng told Ken that she’d changed her mind and wanted a Toyota Yaris Cross instead.
Ken then came down to void the previous agreement and issue a new one.
Later, he gave her a United Overseas Bank (UOB) account number, into which she transferred S$50,000.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
He later informed her that the new car will be ready for collection by 22 May. She had no problem with the date.
Woman transfers S$7K in cash & car ownership
As the transaction is a trade-in, Ms Ng would have to surrender her existing car, a Honda Shuttle, to the dealership upon collecting the new car.
On 18 May, Ken came to her place and told her that her Honda was valued at S$105,000.
As the total cost was S$172,000, there was a balance of S$7,000 remaining.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
She thus transferred another S$7,000 via PayNow to a number.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
Ken also allegedly helped her transfer the ownership of her car as she’s “not IT savvy”.
She subsequently received a message from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) that the ownership of her car had been transferred.
She didn’t see who the car ownership was transferred to, she maintained.
Car salesman claims collection delayed, goes uncontactable
On 22 May — the day of the collection — Ken called Ms Ng and allegedly told her that her new car wasn’t ready yet due to port delay and LTA inspection.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
They agreed on another date, 30 May, as she would be overseas from 24-29 May.
However, when Ms Ng was overseas, Ken became uncontactable. When she called his office, they said he had been on MC for about one week, she said.
Dealership says no payment nor car was received
Upon returning to Singapore, Ms Ng went to the car dealership, furnishing proof of payment to them.
However, the dealership informed her that they hadn’t received any payment, nor had her car been transferred to them.
Neither were they aware of the trade-in agreement, she said, claiming Ken had altered it before handing it to them.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
Woman allegedly scammed by car salesman, makes 2 police reports
Feeling lost, she made a police report on 31 May.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
The next day, Ms Ng said she met CarTimes’ managing director, who allegedly informed her that their sales agreement states that payments above S$3,000 must be made via cheque or cashier’s order.
They also advised her to wait for the police investigation to be concluded.
After that, she made a second police report concerning the car ownership transfer.
Source: Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore
CarTimes says they didn’t authorise or condone alleged actions
On Sunday (11 June), CarTimes addressed the incident in a Facebook post, describing it as a “fidelity issue”.
Source: CarTimes Group on Facebook
They revealed that Ken, whom they described as a “former employee”, had allegedly engaged in fraudulent activities, including,
- offering unauthorised trade-in services to customers
- requesting customers transfer payments to the company into his personal accounts and misappropriating the funds
- misrepresenting his actions as being on behalf of the company
These actions violated their company’s principles and were possibly criminal, they said, adding,
CarTimes did not authorise or condone any of his alleged actions.
As such, they’re “deeply troubled” by this situation.
Dealership investigating case, 2 customers affected
CarTimes said that they promptly took action after discovering what Ken had allegedly done.
Besides filing a police report, an internal investigation was also conducted, they maintained, adding,
We are fully cooperating with the authorities to facilitate the investigation process.
CarTimes also revealed that there are two customers affected in the case. It’s uncertain whether that includes Ms Ng.
The affected customers are being assisted in funds recovery with the support of their insurer, the dealership stated. Legal advice has also been sought.
They advised customers not to make PayNow transfers to personal mobile numbers or transfer their vehicles to other parties even if instructed to do so by their staff.
CarTimes added that they won’t be making further comments about this matter until police investigations have concluded.
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Featured image adapted from Polin Ng on Facebook via Complaint Singapore.
