A case involving a salesperson of a Japanese car brand went viral over the weekend. The salesman allegedly received a deposit from a customer to buy a car, but when he received the car, it was discovered that the previous customer’s deposit had not been properly paid to the dealer for the purchase of the car.
Auto dealers have advised customers time and again to avoid being scammed by bogus sales advisors asking customers to pay into their personal bank accounts. previously we brought an announcement by Perodua back in 2021 advises the same.
“We recently discovered at least two scammers, posing as Perodua sales advisors, asking customers to make booking fees or deposit money into personal bank accounts. We take this opportunity to remind all our valued customers to pay only to official corporate accounts or over the counter in our stores,” Perodua President and CEO Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad said.
However, it looks like scammers have found a workaround, perhaps inspired by the 1MDB case where payments to a similarly named but not quite identical bank account. Based on a Facebook post which included a police report, cash payments of up to RM90,000 were made to a bank account that was not owned by the individual, but that bank account did not actually belong to the agent .
Since the scammers seem to have stepped up their game now, we must be extra vigilant. Always verify the correct bank account for depositing with the agent’s finance officer. One warning sign in this case is that the bank account name doesn’t have Sdn Bhd in the name, usually auto dealers will be Sdn Bhd. You can always talk to the cashier at the aftermarket to make sure.
Always make sure you get a receipt as well, as the police report mentions that the receipt was not provided as a reason for the system outage.
