By Jeff Lipton
An investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo uncovered what his office termed a widespread "scam" at Five Towns Mitsubishi on Burnside Avenue in Inwood, which is accused of persistently using misleading promotions to attract customers to the dealership. The state has ordered the dealership to pay victims $115,000 in restitution, in addition to $35,000 in penalties and costs to the state for a "litany of deceptive acts."
Once they were "baited" into visiting the dealership, consumers were targeted for other fraudulent and unfair sales practices, including signing contracts to purchase cars without knowing it, Cuomo's office said.
Consumers who may have been victimized by the alleged scam have until Aug. 5 to file a complaint and be eligible for restitution.
Repeated calls to Five Towns Mitsubishi were met with a busy signal.
Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said that more than 50 victims have filed complaints, and that other Nassau County residents may have been subject to the dealership's deceptive sales practices. "Our office has already received scores of complaints," said Detrick. "And we're encouraging anybody who feels like they were victimized to contact our office.
"These scratch-offs were essentially rigged," Detrick added. "They were disingenuous and a scam. This is a public awareness campaign. We want to reach out to more victims who may have suffered from this and who may have been defrauded with bogus offerings."
Consumers who believe they were victims can contact the attorney general's regional office at (516) 248-3301 until the Aug. 5 deadline.
"This dealership lured consumers to their business through a bogus offer but didn't stop there," Cuomo said on Monday, when he revealed the details of the scam. "The business continued deceiving customers during their vehicle purchasing process. These acts defrauded hard-working Long Island residents who were only trying to get a good deal on a car. My office has secured restitution for wronged consumers and put strong preventions in place to keep the company from ripping off any more Long Island consumers."
Five Towns Mitsubishi, which is owned by principals Lester Wu, Vladimir Zana and Clara Shvartser, mailed advertisements to thousands of Nassau County residents featuring a scratch-off ticket called "Dash for Cash" in which a consumer could win a cash prize, a free vehicle, a vacation, a free gas voucher or a $1,000 shopping spree, Cuomo said.
A winning ticket did not specify what, if anything, its holder had won. "Winners" were told to bring their tickets to the dealership to claim their prizes, Cuomo said. When they arrived, nearly all of them found out that they had won vacations or $1,000 shopping sprees, but the prizes had minimal value because they were subject to either blackout periods or expenditure requirements, including shipping and handling costs, state investigators said.
According to the attorney general, the Inwood dealership also deceived consumers by:
- Obtaining signatures on contracts and finance agreements from victims who believed that they were filling out paperwork for vehicles they had won as part of "Dash for Cash."
- Offering false discounts for vehicles by selling them at higher retail prices, nullifying the value of the discounts.
- Having consumers sign documents with blank sections for figures and terms, and then later filling them out with terms that were not agreed on.
- Failing to give all necessary documents to consumers at the time of purchase.
- Promising consumers that they could refinance at better interest rates after making several car payments, or promising to pay for one or more months of insurance for vehicles, and then reneging on those agreements.
- Inserting additional cost items without consumers' knowledge or consent, including vehicle identification number etching, service warranties, theft-deterrence systems, GPS devices and other expensive options.
In addition, Cuomo said, Five Towns Mitsubishi repeatedly sold consumers used cars that had previously been used as rental cars without informing them of their prior use.
Comments about this story? JLipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
