New repo scam targets repossessed vehicle owners

KUALA LUMPUR: Apart from the allegations of re-selling repossessed vehicles and their affiliations with secret society groups, syndicates masterminded by repossession agents are now allegedly scamming victims of repossessed vehicles.

An industry insider told NST Focus that these syndicates would gather owner information, including photographs of their vehicles parked at the repossessed vehicle depot, before contacting them to offer a bargain for their vehicles to be released.

Ahmad (not his real name) who has been in the industry for over 15 years said the syndicates would demand between RM800 and RM1,000, claiming it to be the fee for releasing the repossessed vehicles.

Once payments were made, the callers would be unreachable.

This, he added, would, in turn, result in the agents who repossessed the vehicles being blamed for scamming the victims.

"They won't ask for much, normally below RM1,000, so people can pay.

"They will send pictures of their vehicles at the repossessed vehicle storage centre and share details, such as how many months the vehicles have been outstanding, in order to convince the victims.

"But once payments were made, the victims will be blocked.

"In the end, the blame would be directed towards the repossession agents who initially repossessed the vehicles," he said, adding that he had been on the receiving end of being blamed for scamming people.

Ahmad claimed that he had come across about 10 such cases in the past few months.

Previously NST exposed the various illicit activities going on within the repossession industry, which included the illegal selling of repossessed vehicles and the issuance of protection stickers by syndicates, colluding with secret society groups.

These syndicates which created an illegal market out of selling these vehicles, would offer these "protection stickers" between RM100 and RM2,000 per month.

These stickers, plastered on the windshield of these illegally sold repossessed vehicles would serve as a warning to honest repossessors to dissuade them from recovering these vehicles for banks.

The syndicates would also exploit the police reports filed by registered owners to deceive buyers and inflate the prices of these repossessed vehicles.