Kenya’s Fraud Car Dealers!!! - 2

“They tell potential buyers that they are the car owners but have handed it over to the bazaar to be sold,” said Mr Orenge. Proof of ownership is the fake logbook.

Often, these conmen rent temporary offices in town where they conduct their business. “The offices are usually well furnished and the sellers well dressed to give an impression of well-to-do individuals,” said Mr Nyale.

Keen to make a saving, the unsuspecting potential buyers will inevitably fall into the trap of the fake owner. “The deal is then secretly concluded behind our backs,” said Mr Orenge.

Most of these transactions involve cash and no witnesses.

With the transaction done, the “buyers” are instructed to collect their cars from the bazaars. As the client steps out of the door, the con artists discard their SIM cards, lock their offices and disappear.

Mr Orenge said he recently had to deal with such an incident involving an elderly man. “The conmen sold him a lorry we had here for Sh1.5 million yet we were selling it for Sh2.2 million. Obviously it looked like a good deal.”

Thriving business

He attributes the thriving business to the gullible nature of Kenyans. “Kenyans hardly take time to check the validity of the documents they are given by the so-called traders. People trust strangers too much for their own good,” he said.

But for some victims, it is sometimes difficult to resist the silver tongues of these con artists as Judy, a marketing manager at a local bank, told us. She shared her story on the background for personal reasons.

The mother of two became a victim of a suave conman operating out of the airport. Like most victims, she identified a car through the newspapers and called the number.

She was told the car was at a bazaar in Langata. “The man told me he was selling the car at Sh720,000 but the bazaar was offering it at Sh780,000 as the final price.”

Naturally she went for the lower price. But the seller became insistent. “He told me he wanted to conclude the deal quickly since he wanted to leave for Mombasa for the holidays and he needed the money to pay for some cars he had imported.”

She wanted to use the car for the holidays and therefore decided to seal the deal quickly by paying cash. When he met the man at the airport, she had no reason to doubt him.

“He was expensively dressed and even had plane tickets to Mombasa. He had several high-value phones and an expensive briefcase. By all accounts he was a successful businessman,” she said.

After the transaction was done, the seller gave her Sh20, 000 to fill up the tank and give the rest to the bazaar as their cut for the transaction.

“Imagine my shock when I arrived at the bazaar only to be informed that I had been conned,” she said.

Mr Orenge says their best efforts to curb con games have failed. “They are usually a step ahead of everyone,” he said, recalling how they lost Sh700,000 to a conman two years ago.

After identifying a car, the potential customer made a deposit of Sh200,000, promising to clear the balance the next day. They agreed to meet at a bank to complete the transaction.

At the bank, he met the buyer and the man said he had already bought a banker’s cheque in the dealer’s name. They left together to the bazaar where the man took possession of the car after presenting the cheque.

To his shock, officers from the anti-banking fraud called him five days later inquiring why he had deposited a forged cheque. So what could have happened?

The conman, in collusion with a bank employee, had made a fake cheque. Mr Orenge suspects that the “buyer” never had the money in the first place. “I found him collecting the cheque. So I am not sure whether he deposited the money or not,” he said.

The timing of the bank transaction was key; it took place on a Friday afternoon, which is favoured by most conmen according to Mr Nyale. “Before the transaction is cleared, these people will have disappeared into thin air,” he said.

Car hire firms have also been on the receiving end of the con artists. A particularly notorious one was a Mr Wambua who used to operate from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

“He would alight, say from a trip in Mombasa, expensively dressed and ask for a 4×4 vehicle to hire. He would remain in communication for a few days then nothing would be heard of him again,” Mr Nyale said.

Often, the detective said, the thieves disable the vehicles’ tracking devices on their own or with the assistance of professionals in their employ.

Other conmen, said Mr Nyale, pose as major importers of vehicles, especially the 4x4s. “Once you give them money to import for you, they close their offices and disappear,” said Mr Nyale.

To curb the thefts, Mr Nyale suggested that KRA should make it mandatory for fingerprints and copies of IDs of all those asking for vehicle searches. “We have to close the loopholes which these people are exploiting,” he said.

Copyright : Nation Newspaper

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