The pandemic changed many things, but in terms of fraud and scandal, it changed little. As a business ethics speaker and business ethics consultant, I have long been “fascinated” at how fraudsters take advantage of situations to appeal to the greed of those who believe there are no consequences to choices.
The Used Car King of New York
Octavian Ocasio billed himself as the Used Car King of New York, which kicks off this rather bizarre fraud. Ocasio and his co-conspirators lived in the Houston-area. They hatched a scheme to buy and sell used temporary vehicle tags on a nationwide basis.
Registering a vehicle can be an expensive proposition; up to thousands of dollars along with license plates, of course. Using temporary, expired tags from the alleged Used Car King, it was possible for buyers to appear to register virtually any clunker and – after a lengthy grace period, to purchase another tag for a pittance to perpetuate the scam.
Ocasio and his co-conspirators offered temporary vehicle tags at bargain basement prices. The scam was so successful, he sold Texas temporary tags throughout the United States including New York, Washington D.C. and Florida.
His scam was perpetrated using the internet and while he and his co-conspirators appeared to operate out of New York, they were based in Texas. The mechanics of the fraud were rather simple. He advertised on social media platforms such as Facebook and took payment through Cash App or Zelle. The fraudsters communicated with buyers through Gmail, Facebook and Instagram.
Temporary tags are often stolen, or given up or are found in junk yards or impound lots. It is, of course, illegal to buy or sell them outside of controlled channels. It is obvious that this kind of case requires complicity all around. Virtually anyone buying these tags – or selling them for sizable fees – understands that what they are doing is illegal.
The illegality of the transactions not only rob states from revenues, but make stolen vehicle identification difficult and also allows vehicles and drivers that should not be on the road, to be on the road.
On the run
While Ocasio was caught and brought to justice, his co-conspirators are still on the run. Ocasio faces up to 20 years in jail and a fine of $250,000.
However, the much bigger question that is begged here is the mindset of those who believed there would be no legal repercussions. As a business ethics speaker and business ethics consultant who has recently tracked similar cases of fraud e.g., those who purchased fake COVID vaccination cards, it was determined that in their complicity they are almost as guilty as the fraudsters themselves.
When drivers using the fake tags are caught, they will all face penalties.
There are, unfortunately, many individuals who like to have a taste of being outside of the law. In this case, they must have felt a certain sense of empowerment, maybe even a need, believing the government was so distracted through the pandemic that they wouldn’t care or look at the tags. It was a rationalization of rather ridiculous logic.
Then, there are the rather anonymous aspects of the internet and social media where people believe they are operating in a gray area rather than on a personal basis. The internet has become a hotbed of online fraud be it cases such as this, phony charities and huge crowd-sourcing schemes.
The seriousness of this case is that by and large decent people thought they were getting away with something. What they ultimately achieved was failed ethics and legal actions.
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