The BBB serving Central California has been contacted again by several local towing businesses alerting us they have received phone calls from scam artists abusing the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS).
The Telecommunications Relay Service is a telephone service that allows persons with hearing or speech disabilities to place and receive telephone calls. TRS communications assistants serve as a link for the call, relaying the text of the calling party in voice to the called party, and converting to text what the called party voices back to the calling party.
The scam artist places a call through TRS to a local auto repair business stating they want to send their vehicle to the shop for repairs. The scammer then gives the shop a credit card (in some cases, up to three credit card numbers) to charge repairs and shipping fees. The scammer asks the company to wire the shipping amount to the “towing company” that will be delivering the vehicle. The money is actually being wired to the scam artist. Later, the shop receives a call from their credit card processor informing them the card was a stolen card and charges will be reversed on the shop’s merchant account. The shop has been scammed and is unable to recover funds.
One local variation on the story had the repair shop owner being told that he should process the credit card for $2,000 and then someone would actually bring the vehicle to him and the shop owner should give the driver a check for $1,000 and keep the other $1,000 for the repairs.
This scam currently appears to be heavily targeting businesses in the major automotive repair industry; however, the wire money scam has been around for a long time and can easily be altered to target other business types.
The Better Business Bureau reminds ALL businesses:
- To keep their guard up and never wire money to any unknown person(s) regardless of whether they have given you a credit card to cover the cost
- Inform all of your employees to beware of similar phone calls
- Make policies about payment processes and make sure all employees follow protocol regardless of whom the individual is making the purchase
Individuals who receive a TRS/towing request communication, such as the one described above, are encouraged to file a complaint at www.fcc.gov reporting the incident.
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