👉 La concesionaria Central Automotores -situada estratégicamente frente al Estadio Monumental, en el barrio porteño de Núñez- es el centro de un escándalo de estafa y fraude automotriz destapado por América Noticias y el periodista Gonzalito Rodríguez
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00:00We have been working for a while now and it has to do with a huge scam of a concessionary in Núñez,
00:05located very close to the River Stadium, surrounded by two other concessionaries that do work and do it well,
00:12and thus generating the confidence for many to try to buy a vehicle,
00:18to deliver their own vehicle to be able to make the transaction,
00:22and it is the neighbors who denounce what happened and those who have also caused in recent hours
00:28We are working live with Paula Wilberger. Paula, good morning, how are you?
00:34How are you? Very good morning. This is the agency that, as you can see at this time, does not have cars inside.
00:41What the denouncers, the victims, the mouse operandi of these people told us,
00:47as they realized what was happening,
00:51this is not the only agency that the owners have.
00:53They have another one in Puerto Madero and another one on Libertador Avenue, very close from here.
00:58They are the same cars that are on display, which are changing from agency to agency.
01:04They are rotating them.
01:06They are rotating them from one to the other.
01:08They are rotating them and thus, of course, as a call for future victims of fraud.
01:17We talk about fraud because the truth is that there are approximately 400 families
01:21that have been damaged by this agency because they have put money,
01:28they have paid, in some cases they have delivered their used cars,
01:32and they have neither the money nor the car.
01:35And they have been in this situation for several months.
01:39The contact with the employees and managers never ceased,
01:46because they are always changing employees.
01:48They resume the conversation with other people,
01:51but now it has been cut because they no longer respond,
01:55because of the ways they used to do it.
01:58Now, if you approach the agency directly,
02:01there are e-mails where you can start a conversation and wait for them to answer you.
02:08All corporate e-mails, legal, customer care.
02:13What happens is that the façade of the place generated, in a way, confidence.
02:19The place in which it was located.
02:20Many times you don't have to be guided by appearances,
02:22but the place in which it was located, surrounded by things that did work.
02:26Confidence is also given by delivering the car in consignation.
02:29That is one of the greatest aspects.
02:33Many have delivered the car in consignation and have not paid for it.
02:37And those cars have also been sold.
02:39The scam is impressive.
02:42That is why we are trying to intervene with justice.
02:46In what situation is this cause?
02:49Because it comes from many months ago.
02:52It is strange that there is no longer a request for detention by the authorities of this dealership.
02:58They have two more dealerships and the situation would repeat itself.
03:02But there are cases of 80-year-old grandparents
03:04who practically had that money to continue living in this critical situation that the retirees are going through.
03:10There is a story that we heard this morning.
03:12It was about an 82-year-old grandfather who sent his granddaughter a photo of the vehicle that was there.
03:19And he said, this vehicle, I don't remember if it was a Volvo, I think.
03:22This Volvo is for you, I'm going to use it.
03:24But at some point you are going to inherit it.
03:27And that Volvo disappeared.
03:28In fact, it disappeared from the same place.
03:31In the case of Salta, a neighbor of Salta,
03:34who came from there to deliver the car,
03:37practically with 100 kilometers, a zero kilometer.
03:40The biggest scam is in this, not in the consignation.
03:43When you deliver the car as part of payment to get another one,
03:47which then they don't give it to you either.
03:48Let's see, the modality of scams is wide in this dealership.
03:52It's not that you paid for a car and they kept the fee and didn't give it to you.
03:56Let's say, the fan is very big, that's why there are more than 400 people.
04:00They kept the car and kept your money.
04:02They kept your car that you delivered and your money too.
04:04They talk about situations in which they sold your car,
04:08they worked that money.
04:10Let's think about times of tremendous inflation,
04:13in which, month by month, your money, if you didn't work it, lost value.
04:17And apparently when some went to claim,
04:19they were returning that money, but a money that was no longer useful.
04:24Financial secrets are pyramid scams.
04:26We can link it directly, let's say.
04:29Extending the delivery of the money received,
04:32or the vehicles themselves, or selling them,
04:34comes from the hand, that's why the investigation,
04:36and there is a lot of hermeticism on the part of Pulgado,
04:39is wide in terms of what was done with that money,
04:42especially, not only the scam,
04:44but also the investment that these criminals made.
04:47Paula, if you agree, we'll come back and you'll tell us,
04:50and you'll show us how the place turned out.
04:52Let's see a brief report to finish understanding
04:55what this scam has been for a while.
04:59Son of a bitch!
05:02Son of a bitch!
05:04Son of a bitch!
05:06Son of a bitch!
05:10Son of a bitch!
05:12Son of a bitch!
05:15Son of a bitch!
05:17Son of a bitch!
05:20What do you want me to do with your face, policeman?
05:26An empty agency,
05:27Some violent events where the door was almost broken, I would tell you.
05:34There are people who have been damaged, who have broken their vision and they are trapped.
05:38I don't want a phone, or a compromise of payment.
05:41I want someone to come with the money.
05:44My grandfather, through Marketplace, deals with a man for a Volvo.
05:48He loved it, he bought it.
05:50How much did they give you?
05:519,800 dollars.
05:52It is assumed that if you pay for it, the car is here, you can see it, you can take it.
05:55Nothing.
05:56They told us that between 12 and 15 days they were going to give it to us.
05:59Everything is a lie, and that's when it all starts.
06:01I propose to them to give me the money, and bye, and I'm leaving.
06:04And I leave ready.
06:05Everything is finished.
06:06That's it.
06:07Then they tell me, no, no, no, there is no problem.
06:09I'm going to give you three checks.
06:11This is one of so many, bounced by the bank.
06:15Bounced check that says 8,500,000 pesos.
06:19Well, that situation that you just saw, that claim, that story of the Volvo that we told,
06:24the appearance, I did not understand the appearance of Marketplace,
06:27which unfortunately whenever there are criminal acts we have to comment on,
06:30not only on Marketplace.
06:31Sure, I was looking at the pages they had, the dot com, dot bar,
06:35which divided them into models, into brands.
06:39Fiat Group Central, Citroën Group Central, they are all down now, obviously.
06:45There is no answer anymore, because the answer was, Paula said,
06:49in a poster they put out that they were going to continue contacting via email.
06:53That doesn't even exist anymore.
06:55But obviously the mechanism of sales through Marketplace is an absolutely legal vacuum.
07:01Let's tell you what Marketplace is.
07:03Marketplace is the Facebook platform generated to market goods, not services, but goods.
07:10This is born from the fact that many people formed groups on Facebook,
07:15closed groups and open groups as well, in which they negotiated products.
07:20Which is what Facebook says, let's order it a little more and let's form Marketplace,
07:23which has a particularity, there are no commissions.
07:26It's a trick, man.
07:27Of course, not having commissions generates an attraction, in a way,
07:31for those who want to sell something, because that historical platform
07:35has already become a professional sales platform,
07:38a free market platform.
07:39It's no longer useful.
07:40It's not that I have a cell phone and I want to sell it as a private one.
07:43It's no longer convenient.
07:44What we are going to see now is what Germán was just telling us.
07:48Grupocentralcitroen.com.ar was one of the micro-sites that this central group had,
07:54which separated it by brands, and which at this moment speaks of a connection error.
07:58Do you know that this is thrown under the database?
08:01Yes.
08:02It's not a collapse problem.
08:04No, the home page is unlinked, the home page.
08:07Of course, but they did it, brutally.
08:09So that it can't be accessed.
08:10They threw it away.
08:11Obviously, the purchase in Marketplace, I, not to be self-referential,
08:14but the last car I buy is by Facebook, by MercadoLibre.
08:18It was a guarantee to MercadoLibre.
08:21First of all, the dealerships that are working in MercadoLibre have a rename.
08:24Also official stores.
08:25Official stores, and any inconvenience, MercadoLibre interacts with Intermedia.
08:30It is also a legal base for any complaints that can be made.
08:35Marketplace does not exist legally.
08:37No.
08:38There is no legal support for any kind of illegal activity.
08:43Especially cell phones, which is what is most used to sell.
08:47Stolen cell phones.
08:48Motorcycles.
08:49Cars.
08:50Cars.
08:51Cars too.
08:52What I think is that the birth of Marketplace came from the use and custom of the user
08:58to sell via Facebook, trying to avoid commissions.
09:00Of course.
09:01But many times paying a commission, which sometimes are high, but paying a commission
09:06or paying through a digital means gives you a certain guarantee.
09:09Which is something that they have also taken out.
09:12Let's see, cash payment can even generate a situation where they go to look for you
09:16at the place where you fixed the meeting.
09:18So many robberies have ended there, violent and armed episodes.
09:23Sold PlayStation, which were not PlayStation.
09:26Motorcycles.
09:28I remember a singer who went to look for a car, a motorcycle in Santa Fe.
09:32He was also murdered.
09:33Let's see, what is striking is that having a dealership that you go through
09:40by Nunez and you see how imposing that dealership is, you will not imagine that
09:45first these scams will be orchestrated and second that they also sell through Marketplace.
09:50Yes, because many police officers do it on Facebook too.
09:52You saw many incredible promotions with impossible prices that came out of there
09:57and surely later they transmitted you directly so that you continue the transaction through Marketplace.
10:01You should never blame the scammer.
10:03No, of course.
10:04No, but you have to raise awareness.
10:05Because the search is that, with incredible prices and quotas.
10:08Yes, raising awareness, yes.
10:09But it was easy, unfortunately, to fall into something like that when you see a structure
10:14in the middle of Nunez, surrounded by other agencies that do work well.
10:18Historical.
10:19You can say, this works well, this works well.
10:21Yes, they are in the place where the agencies are.
10:24Of course, but the possibility that two years later they still continue to commit these scams.
10:28Yes.
10:29The slowness of justice in that sense.
10:31Well, there is justice.
10:32And people's awareness so that they understand that Marketplace is not a reliable tool.
10:37There is no way they can find out when you go to buy a cell phone in Marketplace
10:42that it has not been stolen or that they are not criminals.
10:44It is very difficult.
10:46That will surely depend on Facebook in the future, to understand that situation.
10:51But awareness so that people realize that they cannot sign the 08 if they do not have
10:57the car delivered in a matter of minutes or hours.
10:59No, but because that is the situation that occurred.
11:01They had signed the 08, the transaction began, for which they were going to take a vehicle,
11:05they put extra money to be able to take it.
11:08You also have to see what is the responsibility of the Chinese company that sold the vehicles.
11:13Of course.
11:14First they said, well, no, stop, the company denounced, but today we had a denouncer,
11:19I think Sergio is his name, who told us, no, no, they denounced to cover themselves,
11:23but they are also accomplices of this situation that occurred.
11:26Well, we are going to see it.
11:27Let's navigate a little through Marketplace to see some things that can be found in this place.
11:34Look, these are motorcycles.
11:36There you have prices.
11:37What is that folder?
11:38Folder M are motorcycles that are considered stolen.
11:42They are advertised that way and they are sought for values.
11:45Genero Budge, Villa Madero, mostly the exchange areas are in La Matanza, Villa Lusuriaga,
11:53well, they are commonly areas where, let's see, without the mood to talk more about the areas
12:00or to stigmatize, these criminals operate mostly,
12:05and then they are fixed in a common area for delivery.
12:09These motorcycles, evidently, the majority, if I can not tell you 80%, are from the black market.
12:14Of course.
12:15There is an absolute legal vacuum regarding Marketplace.
12:20There is no other, I think you know, there is no other exchange tool as popular as Marketplace.
12:26No, it became popular, that's why I tell you, from the issue of commissions, not charging commissions.
12:33But sometimes you have to pay a certain commission and sometimes you have to pay by digital means.
12:37Beyond the commission, I think the most important thing is that one pays, on other platforms,
12:41with a wallet or transfers with a wallet.
12:43Sure.
12:44The possibility that there is a third party who is going to assess the situation.
12:47If tomorrow I say, well, Germán did not give me the product, or he says, he did not give me the money,
12:52no, wait, it is deposited and there is a third party who is going to do an analysis and assess what happens with the sale.
13:00But there is no such thing in Marketplace.
13:02That is why commissions do not appear.
13:04Anyway, I repeat, this was already happening.
13:07The difference between what we are seeing on the screen and this tour that we do for Marketplace
13:12and this scam is that this was a place, two or three actually, that had another structure in front of River.
13:20Let's go to the place, Paula is there.
13:22It is very different from this, but it goes hand in hand so that people know and are alert.
13:26You mentioned one of the damages, you mentioned Marketplace as a meeting place.
13:31Put that you go to Marketplace and you see that they sell something.
13:34And then you say, do they have a store on the street?
13:36Yes, of course.
13:37In the middle of Núñez.
13:38Sure.
13:39That gives you extra confidence.
13:40Paulita is in the place and she will surely show us something else.
13:45The place is empty, you said.
13:46Yes.
13:47There is nothing.
13:48At this time, of course, there are no cars on display.
13:51Only this truck, this utility vehicle that you see there.
13:56But there are no other cars on display.
13:59And it is a bit personal.
14:01There is only a security person from the security company and also the screen, right?
14:08With the person from the security company who is remotely.
14:13Only that, of course.
14:15But it is a place with a lot of movement.
14:17This almost always had cars inside the exhibition hall.
14:22The employees were there.
14:23There were people who also came in person.
14:26What is very striking is precisely analyzing the profile of the cases that have appeared.
14:33Vulnerable people, right?
14:35Above all, retirees, very trusted people.
14:39There are people from here, close to the agency,
14:42but also many people from other provinces who,
14:45not having the possibility to come and see and see,
14:50well, they also trusted each other.
14:52Just, for example, a girl came, the victim was her father, right?
14:57A 75-year-old person who recently stopped working.
15:01He was already retired, but recently left the activity.
15:05And it was the savings of his life.
15:07He put them all here.
15:08It was his first zero-kilometer truck.
15:11And he had bought it precisely to come to Buenos Aires, travel and meet his grandson.
15:17Sure.
15:18And he suffered this situation.
15:20Well, this man is devastated with the health problems he has had.
15:23Of course, imagine that this impacted his health as well.
15:26And that's why he can't come to face this problem here in person
15:32because he is addressing other health problems
15:35that generated this stress and this bad moment that he is suffering.
15:40Because he started to pay in March, he made several transfers.
15:43I understand that he was practically finishing the payment,
15:48but the car is not there, the truck is not there.
15:50And all the messages he had, no one else appears, let's say.
15:56He was blocked, he was attended by different employees here.
16:00He no longer has any contact, he is no longer attended by e-mails either.
16:04Well, now some of the families are going...
16:09Yes, not having an answer is the most desperate thing.
16:11Exactly, you are left without any contact.
16:13Yes, where are they going? Excuse me, Paula, I interrupted you.
16:16Where are the relatives going?
16:18Yes, to a prosecutor's office, here also located in the neighborhood of Núñez,
16:23to add to the complaints that are being presented in that place on a jurisdictional issue.
16:28Of course, he is running in the forum of the city of Buenos Aires,
16:31he is trying to talk there with the prosecutors,
16:33or at least with the prosecutor's table,
16:37so that they tell me what situation these complaints are in,
16:39which have been coming for a long time.
16:41What is good is that everyone gathers in the common man,
16:44because there must be complaints from one side and the other.
16:47And what Paula highlighted, which is the vulnerability of the swindler,
16:52who is the most frequent user of Facebook and consequently of Marketplace.
16:57There is also the triangulation of the arrival of the scams
17:01through the use of this social network
17:04and later this tool of exchange through Marketplace.
17:08Yes, and that in addition to that digital part, you had the real part,
17:13which was that concessionary that gave you the confidence that there was a physical place.
17:18When we go to buy something, any product, from a cell phone to a cable,
17:24we always ask many times, do you have a place, do you have a physical store?
17:27Because it gives you an extra security that we see that it was not such.
17:31Well, here too, there is a concessionary in a strategic place,
17:35for those who do not know, for those who are watching us from all over the country.
17:38It is a place, it is a place.
17:40Look, Paula, show us a little bit what is there, the neighborhood, the place.
17:43This is a place where a concessionary pole has been concentrated,
17:49because almost all the brands are there,
17:51about Figueroa Alcorta, about Avenida del Libertador.
17:54We speak of the neighborhood of Núñez, Libertador, Figueroa Alcorta, Ayuda Hondo, Monroe.
18:00Well, this is the place, at 7,000 approximately would be the height.
18:05And it is full of concessionaries that have, are places with many square meters,
18:10which are really very expensive to rent.
18:13When someone comes to a place like this,
18:16one imagines that it is a serious place.
18:19Well, this place has been here for several years,
18:23but also the support that one sees for the environment, for the brands,
18:27for the number of employees, for the movement.
18:30In other words, you will never imagine that it is a scam center.
18:34No, and that, precisely that confidence that the place provided,
18:39the place where it is located, the size of the place, as Paula told you,
18:43the key that it is a pole in which they are sold.
18:46There are different places in the city of Buenos Aires that we know that certain products are sold.
18:50If one goes to Avenida Belgrano, he knows that there are furniture, for example.
18:53Well, in the middle of all the companies that do not scam you,
18:57because if they work well, there is one that scams you,
19:00and how do you know, how do you distinguish it and differentiate it?
19:04Well, Paula, we continue to work there live,
19:07surely soon more damaged people will appear in the place.
19:10We will see if they respond from the inside, beyond that paper stuck with the emails.
19:15And Germán, the websites that you showed us are all down.
19:21All down, yes.
19:22There I was seeing what the reviews of damaged people have been for years,
19:27writing in what is Google Maps.
19:30Yes, but there is a job of mapping reviews too.
19:32Of course.
19:33The digital reputation today is a lot when it comes to selling,
19:37that the digital reputation forms the opinion.
19:39Germán buys something in a place, Álvaro buys something in a place,
19:41Lucio buys something in a place, how many stars do they put and what comment do they make?
19:44But you know, Fer, that not everyone goes to see the reviews of Maps.
19:49There are people who fully trust what they see in Marketplace, directly.
19:53It depends on the social status.
19:55It is a reality, let's say, and again, it is not to stigmatize,
19:58but one has that criterion of going to see in Maps,
20:02which is going to give me security,
20:04because there is the review of the one who really bought
20:07and who knows the place,
20:09and another one trusts directly in what he sees in Marketplace
20:12or in commercial advertising.
20:13Or the price too.
20:15There are departments in each company
20:19in charge of improving the digital reputation.
20:22In charge of cleaning up the comments that are misleading or bad,
20:25to put more stars to those who are good and highlight them,
20:28and it is difficult to identify, unless you start looking,
20:32unless you start googling,
20:34if you google the name of the place,
20:36you will find someone who tells you that something happened to him,
20:40that he had a situation.
20:42Sure, but the marketing structure,
20:44when you have a corporate image,
20:47because it is difficult for a scam to go hand in hand
20:50with a corporate image,
20:52with a page designed in consonance with the image we see there in the place.
20:57It is very, very, very complicated, very dangerous,
21:00and it is difficult to perceive when a scam of this magnitude comes.
21:04Commonly, scams are stupid.
21:06I go to GrupoCentralFiat.com.ar,
21:08now it is down,
21:10but surely it is a well-armed, aesthetic page,
21:14with contact, with direction,
21:16because there was a physical place.
21:18In Google it already appears permanently closed.
21:20Grupo Central Fiat.
21:22The misleading name.
21:24They put the well-known, reliable brand,
21:27with many years of history,
21:29in the URL.
21:30In Grupo Central. What is Grupo Central?
21:32They are not official concessionaires.
21:34Actually, they are part of Grupo Estelantis,
21:36Fiat, Ujot, Jeep, for example, of all brands.
21:39But they are sold as official concessionaires.
21:41Located in that place, one imagines,
21:43this is an official concessionaire,
21:45in such a location, and in that strategic location,
21:48from the visual, and then accompanied by these websites,
21:51perfectly armed, unfortunately it is down,
21:53but surely we will enter WebArchive and we will find it.
21:56We imagine a page that gives absolute confidence.
22:00There they are telling me that this is a federal forum,
22:02so the city's justice intervened,
22:04if not federal justice,
22:06surely there will be, also a bit of media pressure,
22:09an advance in terms of the arrest of these criminals.
22:13Clearly.
22:14All the sites, Jairo, then, as we said,
22:17Grupo Central had microsites for each brand.
22:22Grupo Central Fiat, Grupo Central Citroën,
22:24and as Lucio said, the confidence it provides,
22:26the brand that does exist, obviously,
22:28and that makes you believe, when you see this,
22:31that it was an official concessionaire, and it wasn't.
22:34In a little while, we'll be back.
22:35Notice, Fer, that the concessionaires
22:37have the general name of their founder,
22:39the last name.
22:40The best known concessionaires are, for example, Dietrich,
22:43the father who was Minister of Transport.
22:46Serra Lima, that one goes,
22:48sees the rubber on the back that says SL, of course.
22:52The brand of the concessionaire you bought.
22:55Exactly.
22:56This didn't exist as such,
22:58but it gave the facade that it did.
23:00It gave full, structural confidence.
23:02The building, as a consequence, also the digital marketing.
23:05Very strategic, the scam,
23:08very detailed.