THE Highway Patrol Unit (HPU) in the Cordillera has called on aspiring motor vehicle owners to refrain from entertaining offers via the internet and be victimized by “rent-tangay” modus.

The HPU coined “rent–tangay” from the words “rent” and “tangay” or to take away.

In the weekly “Pulis Ko, Kaibigan Ko” ko radio program, HPU Cordillera Chief Senior Superintendent Ranser Ibasco said that for this year alone, at least 3,000 coming from Calabarzon, Central Luzon, National Capital Region and some from the Cordillera Region have been victimized of these on-line and “rent-tangay” groups.

“These rent–tangay groups operate by purposely renting out someone’s vehicles leaving them with monetary collateral to initially persuade them to the point that the vehicles rented out would not be returned to the owners leaving them to answer for the remaining balance which is drastically higher than that of the cost of the rental,” Ibasco said.

Ibasco also warned would be buyers of vehicles of the “assume balance” modus wherein spurious individuals look for vehicle owners under a loan agreement from a bank having difficulty in paying for the monthly amortization wherein they would offer to continue paying for them at the bank which subsequently will be stolen by the said syndicate.

“In able not to be victimized by these syndicates, we advise would-be motor vehicle buyers to come to the HPU to inform them on the status of the motor vehicle plate, make and model if it is under an alarm status, go to the nearest Land Transportation Office (LTO) to gather information on the said vehicle, or try texting 2600 for vehicle plate information, or even go to specific care dealers to know the status of vehicles being sold online,” Ibasco added.

HPU Cordillera have apprehended 14 colorum vehicles consisting of bus, jeeps and vans, aside from recording victims of “rent–tangay” and “assume balance” modus with most cases coming from Baguio City and Benguet Province.

Unregistered motorcycles have also been recovered by the HPU Cordillera coming from Kapangan and Atok, Benguet also having spurious vehicle registration documents.