95% of Used Car Listings on Suspect Websites Found to Be Fraudulent

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Park No-hoon] A sample investigation of products for sale on 31 suspected online used car sales websites with fraudulent listings showed that 95% were false listings that could not actually be purchased.

Kim Ji-ye, Director of Fair Economy at Gyeonggi Province, held a press conference at Gyeonggi Province Government Building on the 27th and said, "The domestic used car trading market is worth approximately 27 trillion won annually with 2.2 to 2.3 million units, 1.3 times the volume of new car sales, a significant market." He added, "Nevertheless, the used car market is rife with practices that undermine trust between buyers and sellers, such as falsely registering vehicles or presenting low prices to attract customers before selling them at higher prices," explaining the background of the investigation.

The investigation was conducted from June 5 to July 24 based on reports received through Governor Lee Jae-myung's social media account. The province identified 31 websites with insufficient information regarding vehicle location, business information, and vehicle prices through internet search engines, randomly extracted 100 vehicles per site, and cross-referenced them with vehicle registration records.
Under the current Automobile Management Act, used car sellers must transfer ownership under a trading company's name, formally register the vehicle as a used car for sale, and delete the product after it is sold.
However, among 3,096 vehicles on the investigation target websites, only 150 vehicles (4.8%) were formally registered as used car trading products after ownership transfer under a trading company's name. The remaining 2,946 vehicles (95.2%) were false listings.
By type, there were ▲71 vehicles with cancelled registrations ▲304 vehicles with changed numbers ▲24 vehicles with unretrievable numbers ▲2,547 vehicles with completed ownership transfers (sold, etc.).

Particularly concerning is that 2,390 vehicles (81.1%) remain listed on websites more than one year after ownership transfer was completed, indicating a persistent lack of management.
Looking at the sales prices and mileage of all 3,096 investigated vehicles, while used car sellers posted an average sales price of approximately 7.483 million won, the actual acquisition cost averaged 21.296 million won—2.8 times higher. The posted mileage was 5,899 kilometers, but the actual mileage at the time of ownership transfer was 28,422 kilometers—a 4.8 times difference.
Websites that primarily post false listings typically disclaim responsibility for product information and trading processes on their sites, positioning themselves as telecommunications sales brokers. Additionally, it was found that most sites copy photos from other websites without authorization to post as listings and set vehicle prices extremely low to attract consumers.

Director Kim Ji-ye stated, "Posting false listings and engaging in unfair advertising can result in imprisonment of up to two years or fines of up to 20 million won under the Automobile Management Act. We plan to request police investigation of the 31 used car sales websites violating this and request blocking measures from the Korea Communications Standards Commission."

Meanwhile, the province recommended consumers use real listing search services provided on websites such as the Auto365 homepage (www.car365.go.kr) to prevent consumer damage.