Police find ten more vehicles used in car-rental scam

BANGKOK: -- Metropolitan Police have recovered 10 more vehicles to return to the victims of car-rental scams.

Police received anonymous phone calls from February 18 to yesterday reporting that the cars had been abandoned in isolated sois of Bangkok's Pradit Manoontham-Ram-Indra area and the keys were hidden in nearby power poles, Phirapong Wongsaman, superintendent of the Metropolitan Police's Investigation Centre, said yesterday.

Seven cars and three pickup trucks were recovered, with three of the vehicles confirmed as belonging to victims in Min Buri, he told a press conference.

The callers claimed that the cars, which were reportedly involved in the rental scheme, were pawned to them and they wanted to turn them over to police for fear of punishment, he said.

Nearly 300 people have filed police complaints about losing over 500 cars to Paradise Car Rent Co in Bang Phlat district and Yufuku Decorate Co in Min Buri district.

Suwannee Muhammad, 41, an elder sister of Yufuku Decorate executive Natnarin, said she was happy to get her Toyota Vios back.

The fifth of eight children, Suwannee was convinced by her youngest sister Natnarin, who is still at large, to invest in the scheme so she bought the brand new car last November for the company to rent out to customers in exchange for a Bt33,000 monthly fee.

She said she only got the first month's instalment and then her car disappeared, so she filed a police complaint. Describing her sister as a generous person who she never thought would cheat her, she urged Natnarin to surrender.

Juthamas Phumthong, 31, another victim who got her car back, said her Toyota Vios' licence plate was changed from Uthai Thani to Bangkok but she still remembered the two scratches on its rear from an accident.

She said her mother provided three cars to Yufuku Decorate in exchange for a Bt33,000 monthly fee each and they received the payments until last month when they dried up and they never heard of their cars again until yesterday.

-- The Nation 2008-02-27

There have been WAY too many people scammed on this. The whole thing sounds rather fishy. In a city this size. It shouldn't take that many cars to be stolen before the public is alerted to what's going on.

There have been WAY too many people scammed on this. The whole thing sounds rather fishy. In a city this size. It shouldn't take that many cars to be stolen before the public is alerted to what's going on.

When policemen are major actors in the very same scam...

The whole force should be stripped of it's name, Royal Thai police.