The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has Friday cautioned members of the public of the emergence of a new trend of crime especially in Murang’a and Kiambu counties.
In the new trend, unsuspecting victims are being hoodwinked into buying motor vehicles hired out to swindlers who pose as genuine customers, only to forge the car documents, advertise the cars for sale and ultimately sell them out.
The DCI further reveal that the cons after forging details in the vehicles’ original documents (which detectives suspect are shared by rogue car hire agents) they go ahead to fake the identity of genuine car owners, making it difficult for the customers to detect any discrepancies after conducting a search.
According to the detectives, it is until the innocent buyers demand that car logbooks be transferred into their names that they realize they were duped into illegal deals as well as lost a huge percentage of the cost of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the car hire agents will have moved to the police to report that cars they hired out were long past the agreed date of return.
On being tracked down, they are found in the hands of victims who have no idea they are suspects in motor vehicle thievery.
Numerous such scenarios have in the past few days hit the DCI’s social media platforms with victims narrating their ordeals.
The DCI is urging members of the public to beware of the tricks of the con as they work to dismantle the ring.
This caution adds to the warnings issued previously by the DCI on existing fraudulent online vendors who trade without any physical addresses or locations, some of whom transact in stolen and/or counterfeit products that often get victims in trouble with the law.
The public is also being urged to dial 0800722203 to share intelligence information at zero cost. Usiogope!!
