With online market places like OLX, scammers have found a new way to make money. Police arrested a man in Ghaziabad on Tuesday for duping people by selling them a Maruti Suzuki WagonR and then stealing it back from them. He did the same process of selling and stealing with five different individuals.
The accused who is identified as Prashant Tyagi is a 23 year old resident in Ghaziabad, UP. He installed a GPS tracker in his car and did not give the information to the buyers. Prashant used OLX to sell his car and after delivery and getting the money, he used the GPS tracker to locate the car. Prashant used fake registration to sell the car online and even negotiated with the buyer to sell the WagonR. He used a second key to steal the car and he repeated the exercise with five different people at least as per TOI.
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According to the police, the car belongs to one of the relatives of Prashant and he is not the owner. Ram Gopal Singh, SHO of Kavi Nagar said that Prashant sold the car to Aman Dwivedi, who is a resident of Kavi Nagar. He made the deal at Rs 1.4 lakh. On February 14, when Aman took the car to a local car servicing garage on Ambedkar Road, Tyagi used the second key and stole the car from outside the shop. The police registered an FIR for the same.
The cops tracked him and during interrogation, the accused told police that he sold the car to at least five people and stole it back within a week. Deepak, who is an accomplice of Tyagi is currently on the run and is absconding.
Accused booked under various sections
The cops have booked the accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code or IPC. To start with, the cops have imposed section 420 for cheating, section 467 for forgery, 468 for forgery for purpose of cheating and 471 for use as a genuine forged document or electronic record. The cops produced him before a magistrate who sent him to jail.
Such frauds are quite regular in the online marketplace. Last year a man used the same tactics to make money and scam people. He sold a Maruti Suzuki WagonR and Dzire 14 times to different buyers. There are many other scams related to used cars that happen online too. In one of the scams, a thief posed as a buyer and used to run away with the vehicles while taking test drives.
Since the used car market is on the rise and is becoming more popular, such scams are likely to become much bigger in the future. However, one needs to be extremely careful while dealing with used cars in the market. Always check documents properly and get NOC while buying a used car. Spare no time to transfer the registration and also check for the keys. If in doubt, get the locks changed and always ask for the original keys from the previous owner. It is also a good idea to install a GPS tracker in the car that will help you to locate it easily in case of a theft.
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