Five Used Car Dealerships Face $1.2M Fine For Scamming Clients: DCA Suit

EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — Five used car dealership have been accused of scamming their clients and may have to pay up to $1.2 million in fines, according to the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Owners of the East New York dealerships — USA1 Auto Sales, Lenden Used Car Sales, D&A Guaranteed Auto Sales, Linden Used Cars and Mosulei Group — were charged with defrauding 75 customers in a DCA complaint filed with the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings on Wednesday.

The dealerships allegedly scammed their customers by advertising low prices online that they later refused to honor, hiking the prices — without telling their clients — on financing documents, and failing to inspect their cars for safety issues, the DCA said in a statement.

One woman named in the suit came to the dealership expecting to buy a Volvo for $6,900 discovered the car actually cost $12,900 and unknowingly signed a contract that charged her $14,500, according to the statement.

Another woman believed she bought her 2004 Nissan Pathfinder Armada for $8,000 only to discover the dealer had secretly written $12,999 on her contract and added an $1,730 extended service plan that she told them she didn’t want, the DCA said.

Two other clients bought cars that later set fire and stalled in the middle of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, according to the DCA.

The DCA is asking the used car dealers to pay $600,000 in fines and $577,000 in restitution as well as turn over their dealership licenses.

There are 784 licensed used car dealerships in New York City and the DCA has received more than 5,500 complaints about dealerships' forged contracts, lack of disclosure, and false advertising in the past four years.

Legislation to crack down on used car dealerships was introduced to City Council in April after the DCA charged dealership Major World with predatory lending.

New Yorkers who fear they were conned by their used car dealers can file a report with the Department of Comsumer Affairs on the agency’s website.

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