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The scam in all of its variations involves a customer requesting that a dealer write a check back. The new twist is that scammers are using hearing-impaired services to perpetrate the scam.
A typical example....
The dealerships receives a call from a hearing-impaired telephone service (TTY). The request comes though in a disjointed manner. The hearing-impaired person has to type in his request and a live person or computer generated voice "reads" what the hearing-impaired person typed. The dealership responds verbally and the computer (or person) provides text back to the hearing-impaired caller.
Because TTY conversations can sometimes be difficult to conduct, dealers may be more willing to go further along with the transaction with less information. -- At least that may be the scammer's thought.
The Wisconsin dealer who reported the scam said that the caller requested that the dealer switch to email communication and was reluctant to divulge his location. The caller tried to control the conversation by providing a lot of instructions to the dealer without giving the dealer an opportunity to respond.
The instructions were classic scam material:
- I will give you a credit card number to hold the vehicle.
- Please charge the credit card an additional $2000 and pay it to the shipper for transporting the vehicle.
- The shipper will give you a cashier's check for the remainder when he comes to pick up the car.
In the end, the card is bad and the cashier's check is bad. The only good money in the deal is the check that the dealer writes to the shipper so the dealer loses both the vehicle and the amount refunded.
Please don't take this notice to mean that you should be cautious of all calls from hearing-impaired services. TTY providers are legitimate companies that offer an important service to people who otherwise would be limited to written communication. The key aspect of the scam isn't the use of a TTY service it is the request that a dealer return funds as part of the transaction.
What you can do to fight these scammers...
When scams are initiated through an Internet contact, (as in these callers switching to email) the U.S. Government has set up a website where Internet crime victims can report a crime and alert an appropriate agency. This website is www.iC3.gov.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is an alliance between the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). IC3's mission is to address crime committed over the Internet. For victims of Internet crime, IC3 provides a convenient and easy way to alert authorities of a suspected violation. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies, IC3 offers a central repository for complaints related to Internet crime, uses the information to quantify patterns and provides timely statistical data of current trends.
When you are the victim, or target, of an Internet scam you help everyone by reporting your experience to the IC3.
If you have additional questions about this subject please contact the WATDA Answer Place team at (608)251-5577
Mary Ann Gerrard, Chris Snyder, Jim Neustadt, Sue Miller, Bob Foulks
This article was authored by Sue Miller.
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