[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has requested the police to investigate 31 suspicious used car fraudulent listing websites. It also requested domestic portals such as Naver and Daum to block information searches on these sites.
Gyeonggi Province previously held a briefing on the 27th of last month and announced that a sample survey of 31 sites with insufficient information such as vehicle location, business information, and vehicle prices through internet portal site search engines found that 95% were fraudulent listings.
The province decided to request a police investigation into these 31 sales sites that violated the Automobile Management Act. It also officially requested major portals such as Daum and Naver to block internet searches so that these sites do not appear when searching for "used cars".
It was revealed that these sites posted fraudulent listings by not removing vehicles that had already been sold or by unauthorized copying of photos registered on other sites.
In addition, it was confirmed that consumers were lured by lowering the selling price or falsifying the mileage.
According to the current Automobile Management Act, posting fraudulent listings or unfair advertisements can result in imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million won.
The province also plans to discuss countermeasures with experts from various fields to establish policy directions at the provincial level to solve chronic problems in the used car sales market such as fraudulent listings and to address the recent controversy over large corporations entering the used car market.
Kim Ji-ye, head of the Fair Economy Division of the province, stated, "Starting with this measure, we will continuously conduct inspections and preventive measures in the used car sales market to prevent consumer damage and eradicate fraudulent listings, and we will do our best."
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