PNP: Beware of car deals via Internet

MANILA, Philippines—Take extra care when buying or selling cars via the Internet.

The Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group is warning the public about the operations of a syndicate whose modus involves selling stolen vehicles through a popular classified ads website.

The CIDG said it arrested a runner of the syndicate allegedly run by a Filipino-Chinese suspect during an entrapment operation at the parking lot of Victoria Tower on Timog Avenue in Quezon City.

Michael S. Udasco, 26, a resident of Angono, Rizal, was caught trying to sell a black Mazda 3 (NWQ-882) believed to have been stolen, CIDG director Samuel Pagdilao Jr. said in a statement.

The entrapment operation stemmed from a complaint by Rosherrie Anne Magpantay Skrilec, 32, a businesswoman from Pasig City, who told the CIDG that a certain Richard Co Go had stolen her brown Mazda 3 (TWO 956) on December 16.

Skrilec said she met Co Go in November after she posted an advertisement on an online site to sell her Mazda 3.

Co Go called her up offering to buy the car, and they agreed to meet so he could test-drive it. But when they stopped at a fast food restaurant in Taguig City, Co Go  drove off with the vehicle, the complainant said.

Two days after the incident, Skrilec and CIDG investigators surfed sulit.com.ph, an online buy-and-sell site, hoping to see whether the suspect would try to sell the victim’s Mazda 3 via the Internet.

They came across an ad for a black Mazda 3 that was being sold by a certain Eric Co, whose contact number was the same one used by Co Go when he contacted Skrilec, the CIDG said.

The suspect was also selling several sports utility vehicles via the buy-and-sell site.

Posing as buyers, CIDG operatives settled for a deal with Eric Co, who agreed to meet them at the Victoria Tower. But, instead of Co, Udasco showed up, leading to his arrest and the confiscation of the black Mazda 3.

Udasco, who referred to Co as his “boss,” showed investigators the documents of the car, which turned out to be spurious upon verification, the CIDG said.

The suspect alleged that the vehicle was sold to them by a certain Cai Rong Fa of Pasay City, but it turned out that the name was fictitious. CIDG found out later that the stolen black Mazda 3 was registered to a  businesswoman in Metro Manila.

Charges of car theft, falsification of documents and robbery extortion were filed against Udasco, while the CIDG was still working to arrest the leader of the group.

In the statement, Pagdilao appealed to people who arrange transactions via the Internet to “be extra careful in dealing with prospective buyers or sellers so as not to fall victim to carjacking syndicates that use the cyber net in their nefarious operations.”

He cited the case of another victim, Jerome Ferdinand Ociano, 31, of Makati City, who bought a Kia Rio (PLI 225) online.

Ociano sought the help of the CIDG after he found out that the car he bought on December 16 from a seller who posted an advertisement on sulit.com.ph had spurious documents. He surrendered the car to the CIDG on December 24.