Shas­tri Boodan

Be­ware of con­men op­er­at­ing in the for­eign-used car in­dus­try.This warn­ing comes from Visham Bab­wah, head of the T&T Au­to­mo­tive Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion. In an in­ter­view, Bab­wah, who heads P&V Mar­ket­ing, said he had more than 20 re­ports for 2013 from an­gry cus­tomers who have lost mon­ey to con­men who promised them cars cheap­er than mar­ket prices.

Bab­wah said the con­men are giv­ing the in­dus­try a bad name. He said the scam in­volves a so-called deal­er whose op­er­a­tions in­clude an on­line show­room where he dis­plays cars on the In­ter­net to cus­tomers and promis­es them a bar­gain.The po­ten­tial vic­tim is asked to cough up more than half the cost to have the ve­hi­cle shipped to T&T. Bab­wah said the vic­tim is then told the ve­hi­cle would take six to eight weeks to ar­rive.

By that time the con­man dis­ap­pears with the mon­ey.Bab­wah said a man came to his of­fice last week in tears af­ter he lost $100,000 to a con­man who promised to get him a Nis­san X-Trail for $20,000 less than the nor­mal mar­ket price.Bab­wah said peo­ple should on­ly buy from reg­is­tered deal­ers and should not pur­chase cars that they see on­line.

"You should buy cars that you see on the lot. A car from the lot should take at most two weeks to li­cense once the pa­per­work is com­plet­ed. "Check around and com­pare prices and don't be afraid to ask ques­tions. There is no steal of a deal wait­ing, on­ly con­men pos­ing as deal­ers wait­ing to steal your mon­ey with bo­gus deals."If you are un­sure of the deal­er you can con­tact the Min­istry of Trade at 675-8242 or con­tact the TTA­DA at 784-1654 for ad­vice," he said.