PSA: Car Cloning Modus Operandi

PUBLIC SERVICE CASE STUDIES:

Below, an E-mail from a Fan of my Blog, Mr.C:

"Hi, I am no sure if you can help me but i am going to tell my story to you.

A friends of my bro said he is able to bring in Singapore car and register in Malaysia as legal car, which i believe this is not possible under legal way..

he manage to pursuit my bro to buy a Subaru Impreza WRX 2.0 for RM70K.

He said he is able to come out with the document to make this car legal.

1st he asked 20K from my bro for down payment in order to get the car out from port.

he collected 20K from my bro and my bro got the car with "temp" plate no and Green Card / Grant.


initially they asked my bro to apply for car loan to settle the remaining 50K and he will proceed with the Legal Document and Car Plate no but my bro refuse to apply loan and wish to pay in cash.

so he collected another 5K to kick start the legalizing the document.

1st 5K is for AP
2nd 10K for "JPJ" to change the engine no to malaysia engine no and legal car plate
3rd another 10K to create legal Green Card or Grant
4th 10k to settle the remaining document which he haven't mention.

is this possible? or my bro been cheated?"


Jefferson Lim's Reply:  

Your brother is cheated.  The Scammer is "Cloning" an existing Subaru WRX car.  Yes, this process is called "CAR CLONING". 

Here's an article regarding this case...  SOURCE: New Straits Times 26 October 2014.

Cops bust car ‘cloning’ syndicate

26 OCTOBER 2014 @ 8:08 AM

KUALA LUMPUR: Police broke a car theft ring specialising in “cloning” vehicles after they nabbed 12 men and seized 12 cars worth RM1.3 million recently.

Among those arrested were six motorists, including a school teacher, who bought the stolen cars after being offered very low prices by the syndicate.

Sentul police chief Assistant Commissioner R. Munusamy said the suspects aged between 20 and 50 were arrested at several locations in Tanjong Karang, Kajang and Cheras in Selangor during a series of operations between Oct 14 and Friday.

Among the recovered vehicles were Toyota Alphard, Toyota Estima, Toyota Fortuner, Honda City, and Toyota Vellfire, which were reported stolen in Selangor, Perak, Pahang and here.

He said the syndicate cloned the vehicles after acquiring details, including registration, engine and chassis numbers, of legitimate cars of the same models and colours.

“It was a tactic to avoid the authorities and buyers’ detection, as the stolen cars would then have the cloned details installed on them.

“The syndicate members would then send images of the cloned cars to their friends and offered prices that were very low compared to the market values. The price cut was offered on the pretext that the cars were taken from owners who failed to settle their bank loans or imported from Singapore,” he said here yesterday.

He said buyers were given counterfeit car grants and road tax stickers which made the vehicles they bought appear legitimate.

The prices offered were said to be so attractive that the syndicate managed to easily lure buyers.

It is learnt that a cloned Toyota Vellfire was sold to the teacher for only RM60,000, compared with the model’s market value of around RM200,000.

Munusamy said the syndicate members had the expertise and equipment to print counterfeit road tax stickers which were of similar quality to those issued by the Road Transport Department (RTD).

“The buyers are also being detained to facilitate investigations as they bought stolen property which is a criminal offence. I would like to advise the public to be aware when being offered vehicles for very low prices, as these kind of offers were usually given for cars which were either stolen or evaded tax.”

A source close to the investigations said police were looking into the possibility that the syndicate had help inside the RTD.

Investigators believed that this was the case as the syndicate could easily acquire specific information on cars which they wanted to clone, including chassis and grants details.

END OF SOURCE...

Hope this Public Service announcement (PSA) helps.  That's all folks, thanks for having the time and patience to read this blog entry.