Online car sale scam: Two arrested

Dhawan and Shah would allegedly contact second-hand car dealers and pick up vehicles on which there were outstanding loans.

Thane crime branch on Friday arrested two men from an alleged gang of four that would cheat people through online marketing. The accused would allegedly buy cheap, used vehicles using forged cheques and then prepare fake documents to sell those as brand new vehicles, police said.

According to Thane Crime Branch, Unit V, the police received multiple complaints from buyers and sellers cheated by the group. “We have arrested two men, both highly educated. There are more people involved,” said a senior officer. The two accused, from Palghar, have been identified as Rohit Dhawan (30) and Ronit Shah (35), the police said. “The accused had allegedly hatched the plan after watching a YouTube video, ‘How to make easy money’. They had many fake ID cards that they used to create fake accounts for online marketing applications,” an officer said.

Dhawan and Shah would allegedly contact second-hand car dealers and pick up vehicles on which there were outstanding loans. “They used to ask for scanned copies of RC book and other documents. Once those came in, they would give spurious cheques to the owners and switch off their mobile phones,” the officer said. They would then forge the papers, and post the same vehicles for sale on the app, this time from a different account, the officer said. The police said the accused sold two cars for Rs 5 lakh. “Three cases have been registered,” an officer said.