VSA BULLETIN
September 25, 2008
Issue #18 - 2008

Dealer gets 3-day suspension

The dealer licence of SG Power Products Ltd. of Victoria was recently suspended as a result of unlicensed salespeople dealing with the public.

The company, cited by VSA inspectors as a "chronic offender" with respect to salesperson licensing, did not appear at a hearing called to assess the case. Imposing the suspension, Deputy Registrar Ian Christman said:

"I also note that this is not the first time SG has failed to ensure its salespeople are properly licensed and this appears to be a chronic problem. I recognize that SG's sales staff is now licensed, but that occurred only after a Notice of Hearing was sent to it. I believe some deterrence is necessary in order to ensure future compliance from SG in this regard."

Beware of Ghana credit card scam

Here's a new one to watch for.

An Internet shopper from Ghana professes an interest in buying a specific vehicle and having it shipped to the African country. As a down payment to hold the car, the buyer puts forward credit card numbers. These clear the first hurdle with the bank credit card exchange. The dealership is then advised to contact a bogus company, Seaway Shipping, using the e-mail address seawayshipping@gmail.com (a Google trace locates this address on an African-based computer), and forward vehicle weight and dimensions. This company then advises that it will only accept payment for shipping from the pickup point. In one case, this charge was $3,500, funds to be recovered from the buyer.

The scam is that credit card payments from the buyer are on stolen cards, the bad news arriving much too late from the credit card exchange, while the shipping fee, paid by the victimized Internet vendor, has long since disappeared.

We are grateful to Sean Miller, Internet Manager for Turner VW Audi in Kelowna for his expert tracking through cyberspace, and this information.

Mr. Miller adds:

"If you send any money via Western Union you will be shortly out that money when the credit card company (in this case MasterCard) contacts you regarding a stolen credit card number.  I did not fall for this but continued to attempt to collect as much information as possible including insisting on an address and phone number to be used for our records and the Bill of Sale. The buyer…allegedly "Mark Moore," provided an address to a house here in Kelowna that has been vacant for two years and a phone number to a land line in a small town in Florida. The e-mails from Mark Moore I traced and do come from Ghana. The e-mail from the shipping company routes through Google servers in California but originates from the same mega-mail server in Africa that Mark Moore sends from.

"As much of this occurred over this weekend I contacted the RCMP this morning and they put me through to their PhoneBusters division. The complete record has been made to the RCMP file #519641. They have suggested to terminate the e-mails with the customer and to expect a phone call from Master Card regarding the deposit money as it is expected the card numbers provided (includes the 3 digit security number on the back of the card) are stolen."

www.vehiclesalesauthority.com

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