[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by Delgar

As per the statute you quoted, fraud is depriving someone of property. No case law needed.

Even assume the story is true (and its not), asking a higher price and posting fake ads to support it does not constitute fraud. Dishonest, probably, but not fraud. Its not really conceivable that the adjuster relied on the fake ads, but lets assume they did, even then, caveat emptor. Cars are of variable value to different people. If someone agrees to buy the car for X and there's an exchange, it doesn't matter from a criminal perspective if they paid too much. Kijiji is not a regulated market and anyone can post anything for any price. It may set a market over time but at any given instance, buyer beware, and there are over and under exaggerations in almost every ad.

Look at some dealerships they do the opposite... advertise low to get you in the door, then you can't buy the car in the ad, its "not available". That's not fraud but there's a pretty good W5 episode about it...and consumer protection legislation probably comes into play there.

Compare to a stock transaction... lets say posting sale of stock at a high price you don't own just to make your own stock look attractive... well, if someone was so silly, so be it, but at least in that example, every stock certificate is the exact same and has a market value. Posting whether you own it or not at a high price is not fraud unless you aren't able to cover your sale by actually closing the deal...which means you might be forced to buy at an even higher price. Either way you face a regulator, bad move, and lots of examples in Alberta and BC on that front. The only point being stock sales are regulated and you'd need a margin account; for cars, its the wild west and not regulated in the same manner.

100% a true story. Can't believe you'd call me out like that. If you're interested PM me and I'll forward you the emails between me and the adjuster and then you can apologize.