THERE are more than a hundred "protection stickers" issued by vehicle repossession syndicates and secret societies.
Sold to the buyers of kereta jalan terus (JT) for between RM100 and RM2,000 per month, the secret societies behind these stickers "protect" the vehicles from being repossessed by legal agents on the road.
Among them are Double Seven, Triple Seven, Four Seven, Pekida, Tiga Line, Along 85, 21 Repo team, 31 Repo team, 08 Repo Team, King 36 and 8686 repo teams.
In his 11 years as a repossessor, Kumar (not his real name) claimed that the number of vehicles with protection stickers that he encountered had increased rapidly. At least 10 of the 40 vehicles his team recovered in a day had these stickers.
"There are more than one hundred types of stickers nationwide. Those days, if we found a car with outstanding loan, we would straight away attempt to repossess it. But now, we have to check the windshield (for such stickers)," he said.
Kumar, who operates in Selangor, said he once stopped a loan defaulter who had gotten off the hook for 126 months (10½ years) with the use of these stickers.
"The car was in default for nine years and the rest were interest charges, but I can't repossess it because it had a protection sticker."
He said the stickers were only effective in certain areas — those under the control of the secret society — and vehicles that operated beyond would then be at higher risk of being repossessed.
"They promise buyers that they will 'close' the data (remove repossession orders from their database), but that is just a lie.
"They may allow you to use the car for a while, but once they need money, they will go after the car or get their associates to do it," he said.
Repossession notices issued by banks have a validity of 14 days and if the initial repossession panel fails to recover the vehicle, the notice will be reissued to another panel. This explains why buyers of kereta JT often enjoyed a few weeks of respite before being harassed by another repossessor.
Kumar said protection stickers were once prevalent in suburban areas such as Kuantan, Kelantan, Perlis and parts of Johor Baru. Now they have become common in urban areas nationwide.
Ahmad (not his real name), who admitted to being involved in this business some time ago, claimed that the rising reputation of rogue repossessors due to their job's inherent dangers and the networks they built over the years, particularly with the authorities, might eventually allow them to affix their own protection stickers.
"When you work in this industry long enough, there will be a point where you will make your name because our work is hardcore; we don't care who you are, we will repossess your vehicle.
"So there's a 50 per cent chance that they end up providing protection stickers because they know all the work processes.
"They know which bank issued the repossession orders, the officer in charge, how to deal with the police, the depots where the cars are kept, and the market price.
"So should the cars be repossessed by other agents, we know which depot they've been taken to, and we can block them to return it or ask the depot not to accept the cars.
"We can even blackmail the banks," said Ahmad, who has almost two decades of experience. He said the use of protection stickers on Kereta JT had evolved.
"Previously, it was repossessors who would use kereta JT when we wanted to go after loan defaulters as we didn't want to use our own vehicles.
"The repossessors might also obtain one for their wife and children to use. But now it has become a business.
"Those days only we (repossessors) use them. Now we have brokers who will look for buyers, we have a 'logo department' (to provide stickers), and we even have scammers claiming to sell kereta JT," he said.
The NST Focus yesterday reported about "recycled" vehicles, which are commonly referred to as kereta jalan terus (JT) or kereta logo. These vehicles would be resold by syndicates led by rogue repossessors below their market price.
Sometimes, these vehicles are also collectively known as kereta piang.
To be specific, kereta JT means repossessed vehicles sold in cash, kereta piang refers to cars sometimes sold in a "loan takeover" concept known as sambung bayar, and kereta logo stands for those with "protection" stickers.