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-   -   Car Transport Scam! Customer vehicle being used as an Intercity Taxi (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/278956-car-transport-scam-customer-vehicle-being-used-intercity-taxi-2.html)

I can't believe someone would be so bold as to mess with someone else's car. This is definitely wrong.

It would be helpful to have something like an Airtag or GPS device inside the car too. From what I remember, transport companies also give us the driver's number, so we could ask them to send us pictures every now and then. I'm not sure how this happened. Usually, bigger companies share the GPS location of the truck in realtime and send pictures every 8 hours or whenever we ask. They make sure to load and unload goods in front of us for extra security.

He must have chosen the wrong player or a fake transport company.

Shocking to see such activities, Wonder what cops would do when they figure out such activities upon a mishap. Similarly a friend of mine wanted to transport her Verna 1.6 AT from Manipal to Mumbai. I told her its better to drive than hand the car to a transporter. In the end, me and cousin ended up driving it from Manipal to Mumbai.

In this case, the Dzire's VSS ( Vehicle Speed Sensor) located in the engine bay was disconnected and not the entire meter since the Fuel gauge, Tachometer and Engine Temperature gauge is working. The presence of the CEL also confirms the disconnection of VSS.

Regards
Ashton Castelino

How would you validate if the car is being transported by road or via trailer by using GPS location? The road network will remain the same, correct?

By comparing the real-time tracking provided by truck companies with the tracking we do ourselves.

As I mentioned, many logistics companies offer real-time tracking of their trucks, so we have access to the truck's GPS data, and it's worth comparing both sources.

I simply searched for car movers online and clicked on three links. Out of those, two offered real-time tracking of trucks. Additionally, I recall inquiring about this feature around two years ago for a Ladakh trip, and they assured me of providing real-time truck tracking along with the option for me to be present during the loading and unloading processes.

Most GPS devices also log engine ignition start and stop times and the speed at regular intervals. For a flatbed transportation, both can indicate that something's not right.

I am not sure about other fastag providers, but ICICI allows users to blacklist the tag temporarily. Just set the date and time and you are done.

Thanks for sharing this brother!

My father has a transferrable job because of which we often end up shifting across states. This post makes me thankful that we never took the shortcut and always drove our cars to the new cities ourselves despite colleagues stating that it's an unnecessary hassle.

I will make sure to advise my friends against availing the services of the auto-logistics industry from now on.

Branching into a slightly different track, what if this were a connected car?

Would I be able to track the car without fail, or is there a way to disconnect that as well?

Damn. Truly a flagbearer for "India is not for beginners" analogy. As someone here has mentioned, i do have a Samsung Smartag hidden in my car, mainly to monitor it when given for service while availing pickup & drop facility. The scam here is a Pro Max version of this. Sure a Smartag will show the exact location but who will bear responsibility even when caught red handed? The logistics company will wash their hands and no police will take up the case seriously saying "The car looks good only na" or worse take a bribe from the same logistics company and look the other way.

Only way out is to get a connected OBD device like JioMotive and set up Geo-fencing while transporting vehicle across long distances. This will send immediate notification and also can be set up to disable ignition the moment it crosses the fence. But i'm not sure about the ignition part (any experts here?). It would be real fun to get a call from logistics company to turn on the vehicle because they are stuck on a road in the middle of nowhere with extremely angry car-pooling passengers and a hapless driver. Now this creates some leverage for us on these companies to negotiate a compensation.

Connected car is not entirely foolproof, and there's always a possibility that individuals with the right skills and resources can find ways to get around its systems. When control of the entire car is given to someone, they can simply turn it off from the infotainment system itself, as there is usually an option for the owner to deactivate it for privacy reasons. However, I don't believe these dishonest transporters are capable of handling such sophisticated systems.

My colleague used one of the transporters post COVID to transfer the car to his hometown in Odisha from Bangalore. He came to know that his car was misused when they delivered the car to his parents with pan stains on the seat and speedo disconnected! When questioned, they had no answer. Red flag was, they had provided an ETA from Bangalore to his hometown in Odisha as 1 week but the car reached after 22 Days! He was in Bangalore following up with the trucking company and they cited COVID as the reason for delay!

A couple of months later when he went to his hometown, he was shocked to see that they had swapped all 4 tyres to worn out ones from different brands. According to him, he had changed the tyres just a week before COVID lockdown hit and they were as good as new! By then it was too late to take any action.

Packers and Movers are the biggest scamsters in our country. In 2015, when I got my first posting in Bangalore, I had to get my car transferred from Gurgaon to Bangalore. Unaware of any of these scams, I just googled Packers and Movers, and left my number on few websites. I got a call from so called Agarwal Packers, who gave a reasonable quote and offer to pick my car the same day. Car was picked and they gave proper receipts. It was conveyed that the car will reach Bangalore within 4-5 days depending on when all the slots in trailer are filled.
I reached Bangalore and reached out to them after 4-5 days and then started the endless story of excuses and lies. After another week, they said that the Truck has broken down near Hubli. I was so frustrated by then that I asked for exact location of truck, and that I will send Police there to get my car, which can be then driven by someone known. Immediately, they said that the car will reach next morning. I got my car next day, but I am 100 % sure that it was driven to Bangalore, and not brought on a trailer. Meanwhile, they use such cars as Taxis for as many days as they can.
Next time, when I had to get my car back to Delhi, I found one office colleague whose brother runs packer's agency. They charged more but I could see photos of car in trailer and could track the truck for 3 days it was on road. Lesson learnt that never ever book any packers movers from Google, especially for transporting your cars/bikes.

Even to disconnect the speedometer, I guess they have to almost dismantle the dashboard. I was under the impression that in modern vehicles the odometer reading cannot be tampered unless some chip is flashed on the odometer PCB.

Yes correct. Tampering with the speedometer and simply disconnecting it are indeed different actions. Disconnecting the speedometer involves physically removing its connection or disabling its functionality, which might not necessarily involve tampering with the odometer reading itself.

When I was reading a few car delivery experiences recently. Many people mentioned that their speedometer was disconnected when brought to the showroom or during PDI, so it is indeed very much possible.

As seen in the first pic, He used his own Fastag which was pasted using Paper Tape. Not sure what they do with the original One.

I am surprised to see how common this is! Shows how far this scam is prevalent across the length and breadth of our country. :Frustrati


I don't think mentioning the names here on a public forum is a good idea when we aren't really sure considering the multitude of Impersonators using big names. We have our own Bhpian conned by impersonators of GATI.

https://www.team-bhp.com/news/car-tr...big-brand-name