For most of us, Christmas might be in December, but for scammers, it’s a year-round festivity—Singaporeans are constantly being taken on sleigh rides by scammers.
Recently, a PHV driver was scammed by a fake CarTimes salesman of $67K and her old car.
Fortunately, she has since received a new car from the CarTimes group.
PHV Driver Receives New Car From CarTimes After Getting Scammed By Fake CarTimes Salesman
In June, the car dealership CarTimes made the news after a PHV driver spoke out about her experience with a CarTimes salesman.
Well, a “salesman”, so to speak.
What happened was this: the PHV driver, Ng Poh Leng, had dealt with a fake CarTimes salesman, Chan Chee Ken, otherwise known as Kent Chan or Ken.
Not the “Come on Barbie, let’s go Barbie” Ken lah. Just a Singaporean Ken.
Chan was supposed to assist Ng in replacing her old Honda Shuttle with a new Toyota Yaris Cross. However, before the car keys were handed over, Chan suddenly “ghosted” Ng.
Ng ended up being scammed of $67K cash and her old car.
Initially, the CarTimes group didn’t seem too bothered about Ng’s loss.
Wah. Buey paiseh one sia.
However, fast forward two months, the dealership has since done a 180° turn and has decided to offer Ng a new car.
This is despite CarTimes itself also being a victim of the fake salesman’s ploys—the dealership never received most of the money paid by Ng to Chan concerning the transaction.
The parties signed the agreement on 10 July, and the new car was delivered to Ng last Thursday (27 July).
Customer happy, can already lor.
CarTimes is currently also in talks with another victim of Chan’s scam.
Where is the Fake CarTimes Salesman?
We’re glad that Ng received a new car, but what happened to the fake salesman, Chan? Well, as with all good news, bad news is tagged along too.
Authorities have yet to find Chan.
Singaporean DB Cooper ah?
Both CarTimes and the authorities have been unable to contact Chan and have little to no information about his whereabouts.
Investigations are currently ongoing.
On this note, CarTimes emphasises that the dealership is not responsible for Chan’s scams.
Yet, by right, victims of Chan’s scams can hold CarTimes responsible for Chan’s actions, although Chan is no longer an employee at CarTimes.
All we can say is: Good luck, CarTimes.
Since the incident, CarTimes has reinforced its payment procedures to ensure fake salesmen like Chan cannot pocket money from customers.
For one, the dealership has introduced a new sales verification process whereby a text confirmation will be sent to customers upon payment.
No message received means your salesman probably took your money lah.
That’s not all—CarTimes is serious about moving forward from this incident. The dealership will also make it a point to make its official payment channels known to customers.
CarTimes is also working with banking institutions to prevent salesmen from being able to suka suka change their personal PayNow account name to that of the car dealership like Chan did.
But of course, it takes two hands to clap—while CarTimes might have put in all this effort to protect customers, customers must also learn how to protect themselves from such scams.
As Ng suggested, when transacting with dealerships, one should handle all documents through the dealership and not sign agreements privately with the dealership’s salesmen.
So, TLDR, be cautious lah.
You can read more here if you want to learn more about the fake CarTimes salesman’s scam.
