If there’s one thing more prevalent than the UNIQLO oversized t-shirt in Singapore, it’s scams.
A PHV driver recently got scammed of $67K and her old car by a fake salesman from the CarTimes Group. And CarTimes doesn’t seem too apologetic about it.
PHV Driver Scammed By Fake Salesman of $67K & Her Old Car
On Sunday (11 June), a private hire driver, Ng Poh Leng, shared a post on the Complaint Singapore Facebook group detailing her experience with the popular car dealership, CarTimes Group.
A fake salesman from CarTimes Group had scammed her.
It all started on 25 April, when Ng went to the CarTimes Group’s Ubi branch to look for a Toyota Voxy to replace her old car.
While she did not find the car she wanted, she managed to rub shoulders with the fake salesman from CarTimes Group, known as Chan Chee Ken.
He’s a shapeshifter—he also goes by Kent Chan and Ken.
Two days later, on 27 April, Chan contacted Ng on WhatsApp, asking if she was interested in viewing a Toyota Noah. While she was initially reluctant, she eventually agreed.
At this juncture, her first payment to Chan was made—a payment of $10,000 via scanning a QR code provided by Chan on his phone.
But this would be far from her last payment.
The next day, on 28 April, Ng changed her mind about the Toyota Noah after some deliberation. She wanted to replace her current car with a Toyota Yaris Cross instead.
Noah? No ah.
She let Chan know about her change of mind. Chan subsequently voided the prior agreement for the Toyota Noah and issued a new one for the Toyota Yaris Cross.
Now for the trick up Chan’s sleeve—asking Ng for a second payment, this time of a significantly larger sum of $50,000.
Well, Ng fell for it. Chan provided Ng with a UOB bank account number to which Ng transferred $50,000.
For a while afterwards, things continued smoothly, with Ng not having a single suspicion about Chan being a fake salesman.
Chan even went down to Ng’s place on 18 May to help her with the final steps to what Ng thought would be the successful replacement of her car.
Specifically, Chan “helped” Ng transfer ownership of her old car, a Honda Shuttle, to CarTimes Group—she would subsequently discover that it wasn’t transferred to CarTimes Group as Chan led her to believe.
That day, Ng also made another payment to Chan via the same QR code from the first $10,000 payment. This time, she made a payment of $7,000.
If maths isn’t your thing, it’s alright; we calculated it for you. The total amount that Ng has transferred in cash so far is $67,000. She’ll later find out that this $67,000 did not go to CarTimes Group as she’d expected.
PHV Driver Gets “Ghosted” By Fake Salesman From CarTimes Group
Earlier, Chan had promised Ng that her new Toyota Yaris Cross would be ready for collection by 22 May. However, he suddenly called her that day to inform her that her car was not ready for collection.
After discussion, the two eventually decided to exchange vehicles on 30 May instead—Ng would drive her old Honda Shuttle out to CarTimes’ Ubi branch, and Chan would present Ng with her new Toyota Yaris Cross.
Or at least, that was what was supposed to happen.
What happened instead was this: on the days leading up to 30 May, Chan “ghosted” Ng. He was uncontactable, and according to the CarTimes office, Chan had been on MC for a week.
CarTimes Group Claims No Payment Received Despite $67K Paid By PHV Driver As Instructed By Salesman
So here’s the situation now: Chan transferred Ng’s ownership of her Honda Shuttle to someone else that wasn’t the CarTimes Group, Chan likely took the $67,000 cash that Ng transferred to him, and Ng now has a brand new Toyota Yaris Cross at CarTimes Group’s Ubi branch which the dealership claims they did not receive payment for.
You never take the $67K, I never take the $67K, then who take?
The fake salesman was gone, and Ng was left high and dry. She attempted to seek recourse from the CarTimes Group, but also to no avail.
On 1 June, when Ng met up with the managing director of CarTimes, Eddie Loo, she expected to receive updates on the situation or at least an apology from Loo. Yet, she claims that Loo implied the whole problem was her fault instead.
Apparently, Loo pointed out a clause on the sales agreement stating, “All Payment Above $3,000 must be in cheque/CO made payable to Car Times Automobile Pte Ltd,” which, to Ng, seemed like Loo pushing the blame on her for failing to make payment via the proper channels.
Flip here, flip there—we wonder if the CarTimes managing director has ever considered a career in making roti canai.
Feeling “betrayed” by CarTimes and with nowhere else to seek recourse, Ng lodged two police reports, one on 31 May and one on 1 June.
Fortunately, according to Ng’s Facebook rant, Chan has since been apprehended. Investigations are currently ongoing.
On 11 June, CarTimes Group responded to Ng’s long rant about the automobile dealership on Facebook.
If you’re looking for an apology in CarTimes Group’s response, save your time and energy—there isn’t one. We don’t know what’s with Singaporeans and their inability to apologise recently…
CarTimes Group first sets out the fraudulent activities Chan has been carrying out. This includes approaching customers and offering unauthorised trade-in services, requesting customers to transfer payments to personal accounts, misappropriating those funds, and misrepresenting his actions as being on CarTimes Group’s behalf.
100% Chan’s fault, 0% CarTimes Group’s fault.
Wah. This CarTimes Group macam Taiji Master sia.
CarTimes Group has since lodged a police report and launched an internal investigation. The company also revealed that Ng wasn’t the only one scammed by Chan—CarTimes Group is currently working to provide temporary recourse to two affected customers.
It’s time to look for the second Complaint Singapore Facebook rant about Chan. Perhaps it’s buried among the other complaints about chicken rice portions and kopi peng prices.
The company then reassures customers that this matter is being taken seriously and reminds customers to avoid such scams by making payments only to the company’s UEN number.
We don’t know how this matter will be resolved yet, but one thing’s sure: the PR teams for local personalities endorsing the CarTimes Group will be OT-ing in the coming weeks.
This includes Wang Lei, Jack Neo, Henry Thia and even YangguangKele.
After all, how could celebrities that Singaporeans know and love “betray” them by endorsing a dealership like this?
Perhaps it’s time to switch to Jianhao Tan’s dealership instead?
