Gyeonggi-do "Serious Issue of Fake Listings on Used Car Websites"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province conducted a sample survey of products for sale on 31 online used car trading sites suspected of posting false listings, revealing that 95% were actually false listings that could not be purchased.

Kim Ji-ye, head of the Fair Economy Division of Gyeonggi Province, held a press conference at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government on the 27th and explained the background of the investigation, saying, "The domestic used car market is a large market with an annual volume of 2.2 to 2.3 million units and about 27 trillion won, which is 1.3 times the volume of new car sales. Nevertheless, the used car market is rife with acts that destroy trust between buyers and sellers, such as falsely registering cars or offering low prices to lure customers and then selling at higher prices."

This investigation was conducted from the 5th of last month to the 24th of this month based on reports received through Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung's social networking service (SNS). The province selected 31 sites with poor information on vehicle location, business operator details, and vehicle prices through internet portal search engines, randomly extracting 100 vehicles per site and cross-checking them with the vehicle registration records.

According to the current Automobile Management Act, used car sellers must transfer ownership under the company name, officially register the vehicle as a product used car, and delete the product once it is sold.

However, among the 3,096 vehicles on the surveyed sites, only 150 vehicles (4.8%) were officially registered as products for sale after ownership transfer under the used car company name. The remaining 2,946 vehicles (95.2%) were false listings.

By type, there were ▲ 71 vehicles deregistered ▲ 304 vehicles with changed license plates ▲ 24 vehicles with untraceable license plate numbers ▲ 2,547 vehicles with completed ownership transfer (sold, etc.).

In particular, 2,390 vehicles (81.1%) had completed ownership transfer more than one year ago but were still posted as listings on internet sites, indicating poor management.

Looking at the selling prices and mileage of the total 3,096 vehicles surveyed, the average selling price posted by used car sellers was about 7,483,000 won, while the actual acquisition cost averaged 21,296,000 won, which was 2.8 times higher. The mileage posted was 5,899 km, but the actual mileage at the time of ownership transfer was 28,422 km, showing a 4.8 times difference.

Sites that mainly register false listings notify that, as telecommunications sales intermediaries, they bear no responsibility for product information or the sales process on their sites. Most of them are found to copy photos from other sites without permission, post them as listings, and set vehicle prices very low to lure consumers.

Kim said, "Posting false listings and unfair advertising are acts punishable by up to two years imprisonment or fines up to 20 million won under the Automobile Management Act. For the 31 used car sales sites that violated this, we plan to request police investigations and blocking measures from the Korea Communications Standards Commission and others."

Meanwhile, the province encouraged the use of the real listing search service provided on the Auto365 website (www.car365.go.kr) to prevent consumer damage.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.