Steer clear of extended car warranty scam
Why is someone always trying to reach me about my car’s extended warranty?
It seems they never stop, no matter which car I’m driving, or whether my car was several years old and paid off or brand new and still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty.
It’s a tale as old as time, and it is still rampant today, which means scammers are still making money from it.
I’m confident most people are familiar with this scam, so I’ll spare you the details.
But in short, you receive an automated call warning that your car’s extended warranty has expired or will expire soon, so you must act fast or else any future repairs will not be covered.
In some cases you’ll be offered to purchase an all together fraudulent policy for somewhere averaging around a few thousand dollars.
In other cases you’ll be roped into a policy that is impossible to collect on and even harder to cancel. The car warranty scam is a classic robocall, which is why it seems almost impossible to stop them. As I mentioned, your car itself makes no difference. Everyone with any car anywhere is a target.
It is almost impossible to block these calls, because of the spoofing software used to generate fake, local-looking numbers that change each time you are called.
You can also forget about engaging in the call and pressing a number to be connected to an agent and put on the do-notcall list.
These calls are already illegal, so a donot-call list does not exist in this instance, and by pressing any number to be connected to an agent will only confirm that there is a live person answering your phone and listening to what is being said, so chances are this could increase the number of calls.
Of course always keep in mind that you should never share personal information with someone you don’t know, including your name, credit card or banking information, and Social Security number. In the event that you do need to make a purchase or are interested in a warranty for your car, be sure to verify who you are talking to, and check out their product and service reviews before doing business.
Your best bet in this situation is to screen all of your calls and not answer your phone for unknown callers. If it is important, they will leave a message and you can call back once you have verified who is calling and why.
Most cell phones have built-in features that help you screen calls from anyone not saved as a contact in your phone. On iPhones you have an options to go to Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers. Similarly, Android allows you to block unknown numbers all together by going to Phone > clicking the drop-down menu with the three dots and selecting Settings > Block Numbers > then turn on Block unknown/private numbers.
Keep in mind that Android options will block all numbers not saved in your phone, so you may opt for a call screening service that will screen callers and request their name so you can decide whether or not you want to answer instead.
While it may seem like our options are limited in fighting this scam, you can take a few extra minutes to report the calls you receive to the Federal Communications Commision at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov or the the Federal Trade Commision at reportfraud.ftc.gov to help officials in tracking down and stopping these fraudsters.
For more information , call the BBB Education Foundation at 713-341-6184.