chelseabmw:
@uzzie


Bro, any update yet?

Ralphlauren:
TheMadame


Thank you for all the tips on the fraudulent methods used by clearing agents.

TheMadame:


Wrong. The customs duty on that vehicle is nothing less than five hundred thousand Naira inclusive of the 7% surcharge and VAT.
What fraudulent dealers do is called MO or machined outside-this is a process where a scammer forges the bank reciepts and all customs documentation. The documents look genuine but are not in the customs data base. It is a giant syndicate in the ports because the vehicles are ultimately smuggled out of the ports with conivance of fraudulent customs officials. So you can imagine if a fraudulent dealer smuggles out five cars in a week,that is a lot of cash in the dealers pocket because he still charges the buyer as if he actually paid the proper and correct duties to the government.
Inspired was only lying when he claimed he gave the OP forged documents because he was owing him 200 thousand.

TheMadame:


No problems. I have been crying myself hoarse on these boards about fraudulent activities of many of these dealers and clearing agents. The best guide against them is to insist on paying your customs duty yourself at any of the designated banks,but the dealers will insist on paying duty for you because they know their evil intentions.
Another way to safegaurd yourself is to study the customs duty papers given to you by your dealer. At the top right hand corner of your document is a very bold set of numbers. This is the "C" number. You can not miss it because it is so bold and prominent. Underneath it is a date. That date is to reflect the date duty was paid at the bank and stored in the customs ASSYCUDA data base. ASSYCUA means automated system customs data. And the date under the C number means that that C number was computed into the data system on that date plus all the charges paid. If the payment reflects on the data base it means your documents are genuine,on the other hand if it does not reflect it means your car documents are duds/fake and your vehicle is liable to seizure and confiscation if you are stopped at any check point,if you are on a long distance journey.
My advise to any one bbuying a car from anybody is to request for the relevant documents in particular the SGD form which means single goods declaration form and has the C number boldly written at the top right hand corner. Under the C number is the date that ocument was posted into the data system.
No two vehicles can have the same C number and date. So armed with this you can visit any customs station to know if your documents are genuine.

TheMadame:


No problems. I have been crying myself hoarse on these boards about fraudulent activities of many of these dealers and clearing agents. The best guide against them is to insist on paying your customs duty yourself at any of the designated banks,but the dealers will insist on paying duty for you because they know their evil intentions.
Another way to safegaurd yourself is to study the customs duty papers given to you by your dealer. At the top right hand corner of your document is a very bold set of numbers. This is the "C" number. You can not miss it because it is so bold and prominent. Underneath it is a date. That date is to reflect the date duty was paid at the bank and stored in the customs ASSYCUDA data base. ASSYCUA means automated system customs data. And the date under the C number means that that C number was computed into the data system on that date plus all the charges paid. If the payment reflects on the data base it means your documents are genuine,on the other hand if it does not reflect it means your car documents are duds/fake and your vehicle is liable to seizure and confiscation if you are stopped at any check point,if you are on a long distance journey.
My advise to any one bbuying a car from anybody is to request for the relevant documents in particular the SGD form which means single goods declaration form and has the C number boldly written at the top right hand corner. Under the C number is the date that ocument was posted into the data system.
No two vehicles can have the same C number and date. So armed with this you can visit any customs station to know if your documents are genuine.

saintjoel:


They only thing you can do is follow up the C-number on the SGD form cos you as the importer will not be able to pay duties into the bank yourself,you'll still need an agent and his/her agency to obtain dollar value,capture etc.

TheMadame:


Wrong. The customs duty on that vehicle is nothing less than five hundred thousand Naira inclusive of the 7% surcharge and VAT.
What fraudulent dealers do is called MO or machined outside-this is a process where a scammer forges the bank reciepts and all customs documentation. The documents look genuine but are not in the customs data base. It is a giant syndicate in the ports because the vehicles are ultimately smuggled out of the ports with conivance of fraudulent customs officials. So you can imagine if a fraudulent dealer smuggles out five cars in a week,that is a lot of cash in the dealers pocket because he still charges the buyer as if he actually paid the proper and correct duties to the government.
Inspired was only lying when he claimed he gave the OP forged documents because he was owing him 200 thousand.

eastermaris:



I have reading carefully and trying to follow your responses, never thought I would contribute myself. Now am forced to say you are not only a wicked business man, you are also a very fooolish one. You must think we are morons here right? What's your explanation for the fake documents and putting the unsuspecting man through all that shiit? Shouldn't that be your first response?
Best dealer in Nigeria indeed, and you still don't know the right channel for genuine documents? You simply tried to play on the buyers gentility, you intentionally went for forged documents this time around just to make more money for yourself, I can bet on my husbands balls that you have successfully robbed others in same format without them knowing, probably because no law enforcement agent noticed it!
Customers should avoid this man like plague! Moderators, if you guys aren't profiting from this, do something immediately. Nairaland is fast becoming olx of criminals!

TheMadame:


Sorry sir, I disagree.
If you want to pay your customs duty by yourself,you can do it at any designated bank and then hand over the bank reciept to your agent to carry on from there.
The fraud arises when the importer refuses to pay the correct duty by him/her self at the bank but prefers to give his/her agent 100,000 naira to clear a car which you know the import duty is a minimum of 300,000 Naira and tell the agent to do it as your colleagues are doing it.
The duty is 300,000 Naira and you give him 100,000 Naira to get it out of the port? Definately the guy is gonna fly the vehicle or machine the customs entries outside the ports!

Seun:

I will ask him about this urgently.

Seun:
Inspiredm has been removed as a mod from the car talk section.

saintjoel:


Madam,I'm not disagreeing with you.Most the crimes agents have been committing were caused by importers who wanted save costs,I once had an issue of a client that wanted to clear an RX330 from cotonou and I gave hime a quite of N480,0000 but to my surprise he paid N350,000 into another agent's account and the jeep was impounded by a patrol team from seme operations,I only got to know when they approached me to help them at the legal office cos my mother-agency is owned by an asst.comptroller of customs but to the importer's dismay,he still paid over N500,000 to secure it's release it.

Nigerians will expect you to buy a car like 03 accord,ship and pay customs at the port,then still sell for N1.1-1.2M on the streets of Lagos,how'll you expect the importer and agent not to cut corners?.Once you reject the job,they're ready to give another agent that is ready to fly it across the border or from the port and some will even tell you that once the vehicle has been registered but what they don't know is that your vehicle can still be impounded after registration cos duty papers expire after seven years.

blank:


Sounds funny right? But it's your business, your call.



Thank you for doing the right thing. However, it goes further than that. He has been able to get away with this for a long time because such complaint threads are usually deleted or just locked and pushed further down the archives. This particular case should not go the way of others. First of all, forgery is a very serious criminal act and should be exposed to all. Next is that he has openly agreed that he forged custom duty papers. These are enough to make this thread front page worthy so that people can be aware of all facts before taking business decisions.

It hurts whenever i see a customer has been genuinely scammed whilst trying to carry out legitimate business. It is not right. We are all talking of change and how Nigeria is so corrupt. This is the time to take our stance and let our voices be heard that we as Nairaland forum, do not encourage anything fraudulent. Can you morally still take money from him and advertise his business when you know that his business has many fraudulent aspects? Should you not call him out the way Ishilove has done? How about a disclaimer that your forum does not associate with that type of fraudulent act.

Sorry for the epistle but when it comes to business, i believe that we should do all in our power to stamp out such acts. Let us give people hope that there are still people of integrity that are willing to do the right thing no matter the personal loss to them.

TheMadame:
While it is true that some buyers and importers want cheap articles/vehicles,we should not lose sight of the objective of this thread and that is the fact that the OP gave inspired motors close to 5 million Naira to buy him a vehicle and Inspired motors gave him falsified/forged customs documents. There was no reduction in fees. He passed off dud/fake documents to the OP at the price of documents that passed through the customs data base. Apart from this forgery and fraudulent evasion of customs duty,he callously failed to inform the OP of these fake papers and the OP was innocently driving the vehicle believing the papers there in to be genuine. What if he had ran into a customs patrol and the vehicle was impounded/seized?

Fhemmmy:


[b]Inasmuch as i dont condone fraud or entertain it, i think buyers ought to be educated as well about how this things are, you have said it ALL, buyers' expectations are just sometimes worrisome, a car that is being sold in USA for 4000$, someone in Nigeria want to pay 1M Naira for it and they will quote for you how they have seen some being sold at such prices, and in all fairness to those buyers, some people are selling at such prices and when someone investigate well, it is either:

1. The ride was stole
2. It is Insurance fraud from the USA/Canada or Europe
3. Duty was never paid on the ride
4. Lots of our people uses the cars to do money laundering, it is not about profit for them BUT to use it to transfer the money home to Lagos.

However, as a dealer it is my duty to know how much i wanna sell my car and if the price is not good enough, i would rather walk away from the deal than to cut corners . . . . That is why i wont send a car to Nigeria till there is a buyer on ground for it, cos when you send a car to Nigeria before there is a buyer, then, you are at the mercy of the buyer and competing with the prices on street of Lagos.

But again, at the end of the day, buyers needs to be real with what they are buying..... [/b]

Fhemmmy:


I think the change could start from the buyer as well, when a buyer wanna buy a car, it is up to the buyer to investigate the cost of that car in $$ and factor in trucking, shipping, clearing and pay of the sweat of the dealer, once all that ground has been covered, then, leave the rest into the hands of the dealer . . . . Again, i am not supporting any act of fraud, but we all could work together to make the nation a better place.

TheMadame:
While it is true that some buyers and importers want cheap articles/vehicles,we should not lose sight of the objective of this thread and that is the fact that the OP gave inspired motors close to 5 million Naira to buy him a vehicle and Inspired motors gave him falsified/forged customs documents. There was no reduction in fees. He passed off dud/fake documents to the OP at the price of documents that passed through the customs data base. Apart from this forgery and fraudulent evasion of customs duty,he callously failed to inform the OP of these fake papers and the OP was innocently driving the vehicle believing the papers there in to be genuine. What if he had ran into a customs patrol and the vehicle was impounded/seized?

wheredemdey:


Ogbeni what is the morale of your story??


Are you supporting inspired or condeming him??

someone coughs out 5m..in this hard times for a 2009 fx...which to me is overpriced(yes i have seen your lexus thread)..and the inspired fellow had the nerves,the audacity to issue him fake custom papers...

omoh..OH Lord of Hosts..why don't these kind of things happen to me...the OP and other victims of inspired autos are all calm men....i wonder how they made the so called money they used in buying the cars from inspired autos...all these oil company workers...they are just intelligent bookwise and have lil or no street street sense..i always tell my better half...its better to have street smart wise kids than have bookworms..

If you read the person that i quote and from where i quote the first guy, you would understand the morale of my story . .. Fhemmmy Motos would and WILL NEVER support anything fraudulent, yes, i do condemn any act of fraud regardless of who is involved . . . The OP actually came to my thread and inquired from me at the start but i was so busy to attend to his inquiry . . . . Glad you have been to our thread, and i will not agree with you that 5M Naira is too much for a 2009 FX 35 till we know, the mileage of the ride, the state of the ride and if the ride is clean record or not, there are few things that decides the price of a ride . . . Not just the year and the model.

And what is wrong with having booksmart and streetsmart kids all in one package?

Fhemmmy:


If you read the person that i quote and from where i quote the first guy, you would understand the morale of my story . .. Fhemmmy Motos would and WILL NEVER support anything fraudulent, yes, i do condemn any act of fraud regardless of who is involved . . . The OP actually came to my thread and inquired from me at the start but i was so busy to attend to his inquiry . . . . Glad you have been to our thread, and i will not agree with you that 5M Naira is too much for a 2009 FX 35 till we know, the mileage of the ride, the state of the ride and if the ride is clean record or not, there are few things that decides the price of a ride . . . Not just the year and the model.

And what is wrong with having booksmart and streetsmart kids all in one package?

blank:


Sounds funny right? But it's your business, your call.



Thank you for doing the right thing. However, it goes further than that. He has been able to get away with this for a long time because such complaint threads are usually deleted or just locked and pushed further down the archives. This particular case should not go the way of others. First of all, forgery is a very serious criminal act and should be exposed to all. Next is that he has openly agreed that he forged custom duty papers. These are enough to make this thread front page worthy so that people can be aware of all facts before taking business decisions.

It hurts whenever i see a customer has been genuinely scammed whilst trying to carry out legitimate business. It is not right. We are all talking of change and how Nigeria is so corrupt. This is the time to take our stance and let our voices be heard that we as Nairaland forum, do not encourage anything fraudulent. Can you morally still take money from him and advertise his business when you know that his business has many fraudulent aspects? Should you not call him out the way Ishilove has done? How about a disclaimer that your forum does not associate with that type of fraudulent act.

Sorry for the epistle but when it comes to business, i believe that we should do all in our power to stamp out such acts. Let us give people hope that there are still people of integrity that are willing to do the right thing no matter the personal loss to them.

Fhemmmy:


Yes, you are right and i am sure the OP will be taken cared of by the dealer . . . .

Coldplay007:


Lol! Una don start damage control ba?
This 'damage' can't be controlled...

The onus lies on the dealer to insist on the amount he can get the car..
If I tell you I have 1.1m for EOD, you collect the money from me then forge customs paper, you are a CRIMINAL that should rot in jail...
You can't blame me for offering you that amount,you are meant to reject the money if you can't work with it..

striktlymi:


1) Is Inspired autos a legitimate business recognized by law?
2) Does inspired autos engage in fraudulent activities in the ordinary cause of its core business activity? E.g are the vehicles it imports stolen?

If we can't answer in the affirmative to 1) and 2) above then I don't think seun has any reason not to engage inspired autos in any legit business.