Too good to be true: Perak man gets scammed of RM140,000 after falling for Facebook ad offering sale price for Mercedes-Benz

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — A local man suffered a loss of RM147,600 after being deceived in a car purchase transaction offered through Facebook recently.

Perak police chief Datuk Azizi Mat Aris said preliminary investigations revealed that on April 15, the 53-year-old trader saw an advertisement for the sale of a Mercedes-Benz on the social media platform and clicked on the provided WhatsApp link, national news agency Bernama reported today.

He said the victim contacted the suspect, who introduced himself as a salesperson at a car sales company in Selangor.

The suspect then offered a sales price of RM113,000 with a monthly instalment of RM1,328.80, and also convinced the victim that he had won a lucky draw prize of an iPad.

Azizi said after being attracted by the offer, the victim made a registration payment of RM2,680 to the bank account provided by the suspect and was promised delivery of the car on April 19.

“From April 17 to July 25, the victim made 32 payment transactions into nine different bank accounts provided by the suspect, totalling RM144,920 for various purposes such as insurance, road tax, AP permit, import duty, account activation, sales agreement letter, and stamp duty,” he was quoted as saying in a statement today.

However, the suspect continued to ask the victim for an additional RM20,000 for the expired sales agreement and stamp duty, Azizi was quoted as saying.

Becoming suspicious that the purchasing process was too complicated, the victim then lodged a police report on August 6.

The case is now being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

Azizi advised the public to take preventive measures before making purchases and not to easily trust sales advertisements that offer cheap or special prices without verifying their authenticity.

He added that the public could also physically visit the vehicle sales company to see the car for themselves and discuss with legitimate sales agents.

“Buyers can also verify bank account details and phone numbers first on the Semakmule portal to identify accounts involved in fraud,” he was quoted as saying.