Read this before buying pre-owned vehicles

A foreigner married to a Filipina contacted Ford EDSA requesting for the original OR/CR of a Ford Fiesta he purchased from a female seller a year ago for P400,000. The seller acquired the car from Ford EDSA thru bank financing. She stopped paying the bank for her monthly payments and disappeared from this earth.
The bank discovered that she used fraudulent documents in securing the loan. She faked her identity by using her landlord’s name, billing address, utility bills, etc. The Ford Fiesta was flagged and the bank filed a lawsuit against her. The landlord only discovered that someone faked her identity after she started receiving lots of demand letters from the bank.

Here comes the foreigner who was trying to register the vehicle in Tagaytay. I would like to praise the LTO officials in Tagaytay who found the laminated (fake) OR/CR questionable. They directed the foreigner to contact the original dealer where the vehicle was bought by the seller. The fake OR/CR was purposely laminated by the fraudulent seller to conceal any printing imperfection. She obviously had done this scheme many times before. Professional.

The foreigner has no choice but to turn-over the Ford Fiesta to the legal owner, the bank, or else he could be sued for Estafa, theft, carnapping or connivance with the fraudulent seller. I hate to say it but it’s goodbye to his 400,000 pesos.

In buying pre-owned vehicles, it’s not enough that the seller shows you the car with a deed of sale, ID, OR/CR because these documents can easily be reproduced and faked. With the advancement in printer, scanner, computer technology, it would be hard to detect a fake one from the authentic copy. The best way is to contact the dealer and inquire about the history of the vehicle before you part with your money.

Go to the Facebook account of the seller and compare his/her photos if that’s the true likeness of the person you were dealing with.

Ang daming salbahe ngayon kaya mag-iingat tayong lahat.
BEWARE.