Phishing e-mails are common enough, but a troubling new trend seems to be the phishing classified ad – and quite often for a rare classic or vintage!

Phishing e-mails are common enough, but a troubling new trend seems to be the phishing classified ad – and quite often for a rare classic or vintage! It’s a known fact that the used car marketplace in our country is an exceedingly shady place – full of illicit, and, at times even illegal, practices. Largely dominated by the unorganised segment, it’s full of wheeler-dealers who are willing to go to any extent to make a quick buck. The horror stories are frequent – mileage tampering, i.e. changing the actual number of kilometres that a vehicle has clocked, seems almost commonplace now. You often hear about stolen cars being sold with fake registration papers, and damaged cars being passed off as ones with clean histories is only to be expected. To an outsider, it almost appears as though making an honest buck in the used car space is frowned upon by the rest of the fraternity. So, it comes as no surprise that, as the interest in classic and vintage cars grows in our market – whether it’s a lifestyle statement or a real passion is a debate for another day – it’s drawing the attention of some of the most unscrupulous characters in the industry. And it doesn’t stop at creating fictitious histories for cars – almost all the vintage and classics in the market now seem to have been owned by some royal family or the other, or even film stars for that matter, to inflate their value. Creating false papers, in fact, is actually needed when the registration papers of old cars go missing. The latest scam, though, appears to be posting cars for sale that aren’t actually on the market. The latest case that was brought to my attention happened to a friend – a noted enthusiast and a genuine collector, Awini Ambuj Shankar. Amongst his collection of some very fine automobiles is a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, which was bought new by his father in 1966 and it’s been in the family ever since. While they were produced and sold in large numbers in Europe, very few examples exist in India – thus adding to their appeal (their sporty styling notwithstanding). So, Awini recently happened to spot his car for sale on the trading website olx.in. And, funnily enough, one of the pictures on the site happened to be taken by me many years ago at Awini’s home. The modus operandi, it seems, is to take a deposit from an interested party – a small amount ranging from anywhere between fifteen to fifty thousand rupees – and then conveniently disappear, never to be found again! Of course, the amount is deliberately kept small so that the poor fellow who’s been swindled doesn’t bother, in most cases, to follow up vigorously or approach the police. The end result is that the swindler making a reasonable packet by just posting free ads on olx.in, and other such classifieds sites. So, folks, if you find such posts online – be very clear about the antecedents of the car before you put even a rupee of your hard earned money down. And always remember the age-old saying – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!