Several people in HCM City have found themselves victims of criminal extortion when leasing their cars to beginner drivers.
Car rental services vulnerable to criminal extortion
These incidents have grown in HCM City. Offenders use several sophisticated tricks to realise their goal even though their victims were very careful.
The Police Department of Criminal Investigation in Social Order (PC45) in HCM City have discovered several cases of extortion related to car rentals where offenders tried to falsified documents to sell the hired vehicles for profit.
The most prominent cases involved Truong Thi Cam Nhung, 25, and Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, 35, from HCM City who were arrested for allegedly asset appropriation.
In March, Nhung had Tam falsified documents and stamps and she travelled to the southern province of Vinh Long and rented a car at VND17 million (USD810.87) per month.
Nhung and her boyfriend then fabricated the vehicle registration papers, personal identity card, and residency paper with the same name of the car owner and offered the vechicle as collateral in Vinh Long and some districts in HCM City for a combined over VND1.2 billion (USD57,238).
The couple used the same tricks with another vehicle, a seven-seat car owned by a person in District 12, and used the vehicle as collateral to take VND200 million (USD9,539).
Unfortunately, this was not a random case.
PC45 is investigating into a case of extortion involving 36 cars as well as another case where a man was allegedly accused of appropriating a car by a man in District 1 and using it as collateral for VND50 million (USD2,384).
The agency warned that car owners should be very cautious when renting cars.
