[theflyingguy]

A colleague of mine seems to have become victim of fraud for no fault of his. He wanted to sell his Amaze and listed it on multiple sites. He was expecting around 4.5 lakh for the car. A person contacted him for test drive and told him that he is a small-time reseller and has a buyer ready at 4.3. He also said that his commission would be 5k only once my colleague receives full amount for car.

My colleague agreed to this and car was sold. The commission agent transferred full amount of 4.3 lakh to my colleague via multiple accounts citing UPI limit of 1 lakh per day. My colleague gave 5k INR cash commission to this agent. The new buyer registered the car in his name and that was the end of transaction for my colleague. This was done about 2 months back.

This week, his account was suddenly frozen with a complete hold on transactions. On enquiring, he was told that this is as per request by cybercrime unit. He went to the branch and was given the copy of order from cybercrime department requesting for asset freeze. He reached out to the police and was told that the accounts from which he received the funds were related to financial scams like OTP fraud. Hence, all account which received money from these accounts were frozen.

The buyer of the car has not received any notice or summon and the commission agent is nowhere to be found. The buyer is ok to testify that he bought the car but since the transfer of funds did not happen directly between buyer and seller, it may not be of much use. My colleague has been asked to provide evidence that he is not beneficiary of the scam and the amount credited is for legitimate reasons failing to which, he would lose all the amount received for car sale and would also need to face the legal proceedings.

Not sure how this will proceed but it is scary to imagine that there is little or no way of knowing that accounts you are sending money to or receiving from are fraud related and you just stand to lose everything completely randomly.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by theflyingguy

Not sure how this will proceed but it is scary to imagine that there is little or no way of knowing that accounts you are sending money to or receiving from are fraud related and you just stand to lose everything completely randomly.

Thanks for sharing insights, very valuable. Best will be to demand direct transfer from the account of buyer, just like the way new car dealerships will demand.

In your case, your friend should ask the buyer to cooperate and share the details of the payments he made to the broker. If this whole round transaction - buyer paying to broker, who in turn paid your friend can be proved, your friend should be able to use the funds.

[payyans]

There is already a Kerala High Court ruling against this Account Freezing

[Aviator_guy]

Originally Posted by theflyingguy

.

My colleague agreed to this and car was sold. The commission agent transferred full amount of 4.3 lakh to my colleague via multiple accounts citing UPI limit of 1 lakh per day.

Scam apart, any large transaction (funds received) may attract tax scrutiny and hence proper documentation should be maintained for funds received from unrelated person (sender info, purpose of transfer etc). Folks from tax/accounts background can throw more light.

[DrivingDoyen]

It is all the more important to ensure that all payments that are received through banking channels and other payment platforms are coming from the sources which are known to us and does not involve anything which can be traced to cybercrime or money laundering sources. To that extent it pays to know your customers and only accept payments from your legitimate counter parties to the transaction.

The legislations on this subject are often onerous and tricky that the onus is on the party to prove that he is in fact a victim only rather than being the perpetrator of the economic offence.

It is always best to accept payments not through payment apps or cryptos, but, through conventional banking channels and that too by ensuring that the payment originator is the counterparty to our contract. This also helps us in tax compliance.

[ChandraSekarMN]

Originally Posted by Aviator_guy

Scam apart, any large transaction (funds received) may attract tax scrutiny and hence proper documentation should be maintained for funds received from unrelated person (sender info, purpose of transfer etc). Folks from tax/accounts background can throw more light.

No expert, but from my experience. Concur the above statement. We bought a pre owned Swift (2009 vxi directly from a owner) in 2010 and had been using it till early 2022. Somewhere around 2017/2018, the owner reached out to us requesting to share the RC Copy (evidencing transfer of ownership) stating that he had received a letter from IT Dept asking about some large credit in his account/ cash deposited in his loan account with bank. So we should think twice before accepting huge deposits to our savings accounts, and more so if there is no documentary evidence confirming the purpose of credits.

[gupta_chd]

Originally Posted by ChandraSekarMN

No expert, but from my experience. Concur the above statement. We bought a pre owned Swift (2009 vxi directly from a owner) in 2010 and had been using it till early 2022. Somewhere around 2017/2018, the owner reached out to us requesting to share the RC Copy (evidencing transfer of ownership) stating that he had received a letter from IT Dept asking about some large credit in his account/ cash deposited in his loan account with bank.

Weird that IT Dept asked for the credit after 8 years. Normally there is no follow up after 3-4 years at max. Very big / highly suspicious transactions may be an aberration though.

[Aviator_guy]

Originally Posted by ChandraSekarMN

No expert, but from my experience. Concur the above statement. We bought a pre owned Swift (2009 vxi directly from a owner) in 2010 and had been using it till early 2022. Somewhere around 2017/2018, the owner reached out to us requesting to share the RC Copy (evidencing transfer of ownership) stating that he had received a letter from IT Dept asking about some large credit in his account/ cash deposited in his loan account with bank. So we should think twice before accepting huge deposits to our savings accounts, and more so if there is no documentary evidence confirming the purpose of credits.

Originally Posted by gupta_chd

Weird that IT Dept asked for the credit after 8 years. Normally there is no follow up after 3-4 years at max. Very big / highly suspicious transactions may be an aberration though.

Large cash deposit is a red flag. In fact, any sum more than 50k needs PAN card details to be shared with the bank. Limit of cash deposit is 2 Lacs in a single day and 10 lacs for a financial year IFAIK. It is always recommended to transfer or receive large funds via NEFT/RTGS/Cheque/DD for proper documentation and KYC.

AFAIK, IT dept can open file as old as 7-8 years and send notice. It is expected for the person to keep proper documentation just in case. IIRC now a days, there is a field in the tax filing form to furnish info about cash deposit beyond a limit during the year.

[Fuldagap]

Originally Posted by theflyingguy

The buyer is ok to testify that he bought the car but since the transfer of funds did not happen directly between buyer and seller, it may not be of much use. My colleague has been asked to provide evidence that he is not beneficiary of the scam and the amount credited is for legitimate reasons failing to which, he would lose all the amount received for car sale and would also need to face the legal proceedings.

He should get a lawyer asap. As he is really not the beneficiary of scam money, he will come out of the trouble and his bank account will also be reinstated.
He is not guilty, he received funds in lieu of selling his car, legitimately.

Bank accounts can only be frozen for illegitimate money transactions where proceeds are linked with crime.

The buyer will be caught hold of by the police and he will try to bribe himself out of the trouble (if he is an accomplice in the illegitimate money transfers).
The agent seems to be the real criminal here. He would have told the buyer to transfer/pay cash equivalent to say 4 lakhs to agent. The agent then told his friends to pay seller 4.3 lakhs using different UPI IDs. To look innocent, the agent asked for 5k commission from seller. The agent is an ordinary money launderer. He will also try to bribe himself out. He will surely be caught by police though eventually.

[Aditya]

Car buying scam | Dealer pays me through UPI via multiple accounts | Account frozen - Posts moved to a new thread.

[MT_Hyderabad]

The best way to transact financially while selling or buying a vehicle is through RTGS.

Enrol the person 48 hours before the actual transaction date in your list of payees and while taking delivery, send the money through RTGS. Same holds good for receiving money.

Blocking of savings account is unlawful. There were instances where scamsters sent money through UPI using just your mobile number and ask for refund in good faith. Imagine if someone's only account was sent money without his knowledge and he has to prove that it was a legitimate transaction to unblock the account.

[self_driven]

Receiving money from the agent and NOT the buyer was a big mistake on your friend's part. It is very likely that the agent accepted payment from the buyer in cash, which could be higher than 4.3 lakh or simply unaccounted money. While not impossible, it will be difficult to prove innocence in that case. As suggested by others, ask your friend to talk to a competent lawyer and a finance professional.

[Capri89]

Originally Posted by theflyingguy

....and the commission agent is nowhere to be found....

Thanks for sharing. A real eye opener for everyone here.

Going forward it seems one has to get id proofs like Aadhaar, PAN card etc of all the parties involved in the transaction.

Also it may a better idea to draft a legal agreement for sale (in addition to the existing forms) between the buyer and seller and also evidence the commission paid if any. Additional costs, yes, but worth it.

[BOTT]

Hi OP,

You can talk to the police to see if they will issue a letter to the Bank to unfreeze the account. If the police do not cooperate, please get in touch with a lawyer. Your lawyer will help you to make an application to the concerned jurisdictional Magistrate who oversees the FIRs/investigations from the concerned police station where this FIR was registered. It is a fairly straight forward process that your lawyer would be able to help with. The magistrate should pass an order to remove the freeze on the account if you are able to demonstrate that you are not connected to the scam in any way. Ideally this should happen in a month or two at most. Feel free to DM me with your location if you have trouble finding a lawyer and I will help you find someone. Hope this is sorted soon.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by theflyingguy

The commission agent transferred full amount of 4.3 lakh to my colleague via multiple accounts citing UPI limit of 1 lakh per day.

As soon as I saw the title of this thread it clicked for me!

When we sold our Vento 3 years ago, it was to one of those "dealers" (who happened to offer the best price from all the established players etc).

After we agreed on the price, the payments started coming in in piecemeal format which definitely sketched me out. Especially since they were from several different accounts.

I just assumed that this was some sort of tax saving workaround, and told the dealer/buyer that the balance needs to be paid in 1 shot from 1 account. Nonetheless, a total of 6 different payments came in!

Eventually I just documented it to cover my tail as best I could and parted with the car.



The thought of these payments being made from compromised / scammed UPI ids hadn't even crossed my mind!!

Thankfully the receiving bank account was not affected in any way.


If i was to go back in time, I guess a safeguard would be to RETURN the funds to those IDs, and ask them to all be routed through the actual buyer's account, or 1 singular account as a lump-sum payment to us.