The way in which criminals operate in Mexico has become more sophisticated year after year, especially when it comes to illicit assets, among which stand out fraud and theft through car sales operations. In fact, of the 547,966 thefts that have been reported throughout the country between January and July of this year, 14% correspond to the illegal seizure of automobiles.
Unfortunately, the incidence of this crime has not decreased significantly in the last three and a half years, since in 2020 an average of 400 vehicles were stolen daily; in 2021 and 2022 the average was 387 and 380 stolen vehicles every 24 hours; while in the first seven months of 2023 the average is 374 stolen vehicles daily.
impunity and the improper use of technology are two important factors that currently influence the commission of this crime, Therefore, if you plan to buy or sell a car, you must take various precautions, especially if you were planning to do it using the Internet.
Social networks and Internet sites in which individuals publish the sale of vehicles, with very attractive or bargain prices, are the first alert. Although many honest people buy and sell cars every day on pages like Meta Marketplace (Facebook), it also happens that they can be frauds.
The ways to carry out these crimes -using social networks- are the following: The offender publishes photographs of a vehicle for sale that he does not actually own, after the potential buyer contacts the false owner, this Appoints the interested party in a public place to carry out the transaction.
When the buyer arrives the thief forces him to hand over the money, even though they are in a shopping center or in the parking lot of a supermarket, since the criminal is usually armed and in the company of other people who help him commit the crime.
In turn, if it is a real owner who is selling his vehicle, there are also false buyers who pay with bad checks, or through simulated electronic transfers that are made by imitating payment vouchers from banking applications.
In these cases, it is common for the criminal to say that he has already made the deposit of most of the price of the car and, so that the owner does not mistrust, he requests that the invoice be given to him until the purchase is settled, although he obviously asks to take the unit, thus dispossessing the owner of the vehicle. In the end it is a robbery.
Believe it or not, criminals don’t care about the car bill, because their illegal activity also includes selling stolen vehicles at an auction price. With this, they close a circle of deception: They got a car without paying anything, and then they make a profit by selling it, while the last buyer will be the one who faces the problem when traveling in a car with a report of theft.
mistrust the internet
In addition to avoiding the purchase or sale of vehicles through social networks, you should also be alert to the counterfeiting of internet pages of recognized companies, whether they are automotive dealers or famous commercial firms.
The Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA) has reported two new forms of fraud: With the first, the website of commercial companies not dedicated to the daily sale of cars is imitated, but which “for the only occasion” announce the auction of a part of their used car fleet.
In the second, the falsified website is that of an automotive dealer. In both cases, to go to see the vehicle or to “remove” it, Monetary advances are requested that must be deposited immediately, because they are “unique offers with a lot of demand”. In fact it is a fraud.
In this sense, the Center for Response to Cyber Incidents of the National Guard, an area that was previously called the Cyber Police, and was part of the now extinct Federal Police, makes the following recommendations.
Safe buying and selling
For now, the safest way to buy or sell a car in our country is the same one used before the internet existed: Go to an established used vehicle lot, or to an automotive dealership in case you are interested in a new unit. .
If you want to sell your car, don’t risk it; leave it on consignment in a specialized company. There you will have to sign a commercial consignment contract in which you, as consignor, transmit the availability (not the ownership) of your vehicle to the consignee, so that he pays you a price in case he manages to sell it.
On the other hand, if you are the buyer and you are going to buy a used car from an established business, remember that you must review all the vehicle’s documents, check that it does not have a theft report, and make sure that the serial number and the engine number of the same match exactly with those indicated on the invoice.
In the same way, to acquire a new or used vehicle, you must take into account that -since 2014- the invoice for all automobiles is electronic, that is, whoever sells you must give you the corresponding CFDI (Digital Tax Receipt via Internet), and its printed representation.
MORE NEWS:
surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.