HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – An important consumer alert for anyone buying a used car from a private seller: A Kaneohe man was recently scammed out of nearly $10,000 after being duped with a forged title.
Now he’s stuck with a truck he can’t legally drive.
When Greyson Lee first bought himself the 2005 Toyota Tacoma he was excited about finally having a reliable ride to work. But since he drove the truck home back in May, it hasn’t gone much farther than his parking space.
That’s because the registration is expired and the city Motor Vehicles Division won’t allow him to transfer the truck into his name so he can make it street legal.
Lee says he found the vehicle online and met the man who sold it to him at Temple Valley Shopping Center.
After taking it for a test drive and settling on the price, he says the seller gave him the title but told him he didn’t have a copy of the registration.
“He said it wouldn’t be too hard. He’s got all the documents for me to transfer it over,” said Lee.
“But it wasn’t as simple as that.”
It wasn’t until the deal was done that he realized the name on the title wasn’t the person who sold him the truck.
“The signature was not accurate. It was forged,” Lee said.
Retired HPD Deputy Chief John McCarthy said it’s a crime that has several different variations. “We’ll see forged titles. Sometimes non-existing titles. They’ll tell you, you got to go here, you got to go there,” he said.
HNN confirmed the truck isn’t…
