Web portal becomes source of false trade

A man bought a car online, later discovered the documents were fake

LAHORE: A famous web portal for selling goods, which connects buyer and seller for easy access to transactions of different essential products, has also attracted criminals to sell products through fraudulent means.

One such fraudulent case has reached Lahore High Court, where bail of accused was dismissed as non-prosecution.

The FIR of complainant Farhanullah stated that he saw the advertisement of a vehicle, of 2019 model, and contacted the seller, Ashfaq, on the mentioned cell phone number. Ashfaq directed the purchaser to reach The Mall Road. The complainant submitted that he belonged to Gujranwala and he reached on the said venue. Finally, he paid Rs1.412 million to Ashfaq and documents were handed over to him.

Farhanullah implored in FIR that after purchasing the vehicle, he reached Gujranwala. However, the following day, he along with others reached the region’s Excise office, where they came to know that those documents, which were handed to him, were fake. He along with others reached at the given address of the CNIC, of the seller, attached with the documents file.

When they inquired, they came to know that Ashfaq was not the actual owner of the sold vehicle.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2020.