We’ve been getting a lot of emails from people saying that a company is using a robocaller to call their cellphones and pretend that their car warranty is expiring. Too bad that some of these readers don’t even have a car. Has happened to you? Do you know who is behind it?
Here is one such email from reader Jamie:
Have you guys heard anything about the telemarketers calling cell phones wanting to sign you up for an extended car warranty?
It is ridiculous the amount I’m getting on both my personal cell phone and work cell phone. I Google the phone number, different each time, and find that others are getting the same calls. They never leave a message and there IS someone there to answer if you choose to talk with someone.
It appears that it doesn’t matter if you are on the Do-Not-Call list or ask them to take you off their list, they keep calling.
Have you heard of this?
Yes, in fact, we wrote about AT&T’s attempt to sue the people behind these calls, but no one seems to know who they are because they spoof their phone numbers— and the government doesn’t seem to care. We also asked the BBB if they knew who was behind this robot army and they didn’t. It is a total mystery.
If you know who they are, tell us about it at tips@consumerist.com. Put “Car Warranty Robocaller” in the subject.
(Photo:dancoulter)
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YES! I got some crap in the mail and then a voicemail right after I purchased a new car WITH a warranty. Um, these people had NOTHING to do with the actual warranty I purchased.
But what’s the scam?
I’ve TRIED to get them to bite just to see how far down the rabbit hole goes and every time I just get hung up on. It doesn’t matter what kind of car I tell them I have, I just get hung up on. You can’t scam me if you don’t talk to me!
Maybe they are just super cautious?
I filed a complain back in October? of 2008 with the FTC. I received two of these phone calls within 30 minutes of each other…..and this is after these asshole called me (I’m with AT&T Wireless) no less than 20 times in a matter of 1 month.
I had numbers, times and dates and when I “pressed the key to speak to learn more” (I forgot the exact lingo they used) I got a live human being. I used social engineering to get enough identifiable information about the company calling and I also recorded the phone call.
When I called the FTC I made a huge deal about it and escalated got some department head. She had me FedEx her the call recordings and all information. Had to sign an affidavit as well.
I forgot to check up on the outcome of the complaint, but I think I have an (unopened) official letter from the FTC somewhere in the pile of mail that has been collecting on my table now for the past 8 months. Snail mail is for the 1990′s….I do all my business/transactions/etc online….so if the FTC is reading this post, sorry !! You people need to update your communications methods to email and stop using snail mail as it is outdated and inefficient.
Anyways, when it comes to unsolicited telephone calls coming into my cell phone (even though I am on the “do not call” list)
Call me “Herr Fuhrer” and these asshole telemarketers are….
; )
If you call my phone and start to solicit your products/wares I CAN and WILL find out who you are and I will go out of my way to get payback.
Achtung suckers, I will find out who you are. Do you honestly think your $10 an hour Midwestern trailer park living employee has an IQ higher than mine and can prevent me from getting whatever information I need about your company in order to pursue legal charges ????
Oh man, I get about 2 a day, everday. It so bad that I’ve stopped answering my calls when I don’t recognize the area code. They’ve used area codes from all over the country.
I’m in college, and when I was at home with my parents over winter break, we got several of these, and each time my Mom said “just hang up” to me. Then just 2 days ago I got one on my cell, which irked me because I thought there was some advantage in having a cell phone since they’re not attached to property as easily as a land line.
Arrgh. And I hit #2 for the “If you would like to speak to a representative” option. Got some woman, said “I don’t have a car. Why are you calling me?!?” Without a change in tone, she just said, Alright we’ll take you off the list. I started yelling Hey hey wait where did you get my number??!!! But she had already hung up.
Way too creepy.
If she’s trying to scam me, she sure as hell sucked at selling me a warranty on my non-existent car.
It got so bad on my phone, I had my provider disable my voice mail. The bastards can’t leave a message. I don’t need messaging anyway. If someone I want to talk to calls when I’m not available, I just check my call list and return the call.
I used to get these calls a few times a week, but none in the last few months. Wonder why…. I kept trying to get them to write a policy for my 72 Ford Ranchero with 300k miles on it….. but they dont call any more.
They called me the other day on my cell number too. This is 100% illegal and the government SHOULD care. If they want to take all my tax dollars to so-call “spread the wealth,” why don’t they first fine the crap out of these criminals?
Freaking Obama man! He doesn’t even care.
ugh, i’ve been getting these calls for over a year now. how the HELL did they get my number. why do i think sprint had some shady deal to make some money and sell their phone lists? or perhaps a disgruntled employee?
I played dumb for a really long time the other day with one of the operators. Then I tried to dig a little deeper for some info. Things got a little heated on both ends…. Then I informed the operator that I lived in a single party state and that I had been recording the call from the start. I told him I was going to report him to his supervisor, FCC, FTC….. I think that got me taken off the list. Not one phone call since.
Excuse me, but i’m pretty darn sure that SHOVING is the answer. >:(
I first started getting these at work, along with a few co-workers. Now I get them at home too!
These people need to be shot. I’m not kidding. Shot with a 12-gauge.
Go off on them. I got tired of them calling, hit 1 to speak with someone and never gave her a chance to speak. I went off and told her first I wanted to know who the F@#$# they were and they the f@#$# they keep calling me.
When I stopped for a second she said I will be removed from their calling list and I have not gotten another phone call since.
For the first two months I was getting these calls, I asked to be taken off of the list. Then I started playing dumb to try and find out where they were or if they could call me back later. These people are not in India. I read an article who tracked them down to California. They want your name and address before they can do anything. Everyone should stay on the line until they get an operator.
The company that is behind this is Dealer Warranty Services out of St. Louis, MO. They also go by the name Vehicle Warranty Services. I have received several of these calls. On two occasions, I decided to play the game an find out who it was that was behind this. I was very polite and asked them for the company’s information before I would make a purchase. Once I had that information, I told them to take my name off their list. I then contacted the attorney general’s office for Missouri as well as the AG for Texas and reported this company. I just setup two Vonage accounts. Both phone numbers have received these stupid warranty scam calls. This crap has been going on for over a year. When in the hell is someone going to shut these people down?
More info in this article: [www.msnbc.msn.com]
Between these guys, the “lower your credit card interest” people, and the latest “fix your mortgage” calls, the Do Not Call list is close to becoming a failed law. Reputable companies respect it, scammers ignore it with impunity.
Seriously — is there *anybody* at the FTC working on DNC violations? The auto warranty calls have been going on for more than a year, they’re everywhere, what else is the FTC chasing that is a bigger deal than this?
There is some light at the end of the tunnel though — some states’ AGs are losing patience with the Feds and are going after these people on a state level.
I get these too. Scum of the earth. I realize it may not help, but everyone should file a complaint at https://donotcall.gov/ and maybe if they get enough it might get them to look into it.
Could it be that your cell phone company chooses to ignore the abusive calls because YOU GET CHARGED FOR EVERY CALL THAT GOES TO YOUR CELL PHONE.
The first time I got one of these calls, I was in my father’s hospital room waiting for him to be brought up from surgery. The *hospital phone* rang – I thought maybe they were letting me know he was going to a different room (they’d already changed it once). It was the car warranty robocall.
I get 2-3 of these a week as well – they are annoying as hell. I hate the dead-air calls worse. . .
My husband and I had been getting a lot of these calls (though not on our cell-phone).
He’s posted three blog posts about this:
[cnx.com] <—title of post is “Who the fuck is calling from 150622290344?”
[cnx.com] title of post is “Follow-up to those “Card Services” scam calls I posted about.”
[cnx.com] title of post is “Additional information on the “Heather From Card Services” scam”
We did a ton of google searching on the various phone numbers they used and found plenty of other articles citing the phone number, tracing it to at least one company and other complaints. Hopefully, you’ll all find this helpful (even if this is a NEW company doing this, you can see how to track them down).
For the record, I usually start at:
[www.411.com] (though it doesn’t help if they are spoofing their phone-number).
I’m beginning to wonder if the Do Not Call Registry actually sells our phone numbers once we register because I’ve gotten more calls since registering on the Do Not Call Registry. Also, when I get calls from the car warranty phonies and I ask the name of their company, they hang up on me. Likewise, with the “Consumer Services” company that calls about lowering my credit card balance (I don’t have any consumer debt at all), when I ask them where they’re based, they hang up on me.
I get these calls on my cell, home, & work. Nobody has all three of my numbers, well, my wife does. This is the number it’s coming from 1-866-209-7845. I thought it was just me. I googled it after seeing this, and I guess it’s wide spread
Anyone think that maybe this is a scam gone wrong and the hijacked pbx’s and random other lines are still running code to play a recording, yet the original perp is long gone?
These goons are calling me three times per week and I DON’T OWN A CAR.
I just ignore it and I get about a 20 second voice mail left on my phone. The only thing is, they keep saying “This is the last call before we remove you from our list.” LIARS! I’m waiting, geniuses. Remove me from your list. No, I’m not giving you my number. Just stop calling EVERYBODY.
I work for as a CSR for the local newspaper and we get these calls all day long on both company cell phones and the switchboard.
I haven’t gotten these calls on my cell phone. Yet. But I get them all the time at work. At work I always hit the “do not call” button. One of the times I did this, it thought I hit “connect to rep”. The conversation went a little like this…
“Thank you, may I have your vehicle’s registration number?”
“Sir, I need to tell you something.”
“I need your vehicle’s registration.”
“SIR, I’m trying to tell you something.”
“Ma’am, I just need some vital information.”
“I’m trying to give YOU some vital information! This is a business that HAS NO CAR. Put us on your do not call list!”
Then he insisted I hit the wrong button, and I “informed” him that I hit exactly what the message said to, and the error was still on their part. And I hung up on him.
I pressed “two” to opt out…and haven’t gotten called since.
Shrug.
The only way I see to really track this down is to have someone (Consumers Union?, AT&T?) actually buy one of the warranties and then carefully track the money trail to whoever is doing it. Spoofing number is easy in the age of VOIP and keeping them on the line is useless as it costs them nothing but the time of the “customer service rep”. Maybe you could also trick them into somehow giving up an address but they are probably very savvy given the number of people tracking them down.
Why can’t we use some of that Homeland Security Big Brother tech to track down things like this. After all, it could be a terrorist fund raising scam, right?
I used to get these calls frequently. What I decided to do was have some fun with them and push one to get the person, and then tell them I have some decrepit car.
I believe the past few have been:
1989 Dodge Spirit
1971 Ford Pinto. I asked if bondo is covered.
1985 Dodge Lancer
1984 Fiat Uno
Then I demand coverage.
This brings me much joy, and the call volume has gone down.
Waste their time, they’ll stop.
I got a land line with my dorm room for emergencies and we got at least 2 of these messages a day! It was ridiculous considering neither of us have a car.
Sometimes it was automated, and other times it was a real person. I hope no one actually fell for this …
I get this on my home phone and my cell phone. I just received one for a credit card and asked to be put on the do not call list and the woman said, I don’t understand, I thought you wanted to lower your interest rate. So I said where are you located? She replied in your backyard. I am sure it is a phishing scam.
I get mail from these guys all the time. I called once to see what these guys are talking about, as I got my first one a week after I got my car. Talk about high pressure:
“What do you mean it expired, I just got it”
“Well, give me your payment number and we can extend it.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, you’re telling me this is expired a week after I buy the damn thing.”
“Oh, no it hasn’t…but it will some day. Now give me your payment information.”
“No shit Sherlock…of course it will some day. If you’re not with Toyota don’t send me this shit again.”
*hang up*
Of course they did.
I get these on my home phone (a landline) a few times per week and have every week since we moved to this address last July.
It’s gotten so I don’t even answer the phone if I’m at all busy because there’s such a high likelihood it’s these people.
One time I pressed whatever I had to press to talk to them, got a rep, and demanded to be taken off their list. They hung up on me without another word.
I get an average of 4 a day on my land line, sometimes up to 6 times a day, and they always leave a message. I’ve tried every possible way to get these companies to stoop calling, including telling my phone carrier that these calls are harassing – to no avail. I’ve cursed at the moronic representatives when I actually DO get one on the line. They’ve called me as early as 6 AM in the morning and as late as 11 PM. I’m seriously considering changing my number, because it’s becoming unbearable.
These calls are so very annoying. I answer the phone at my church and I always speak to a representative. I just tell them right out that this is a church and we are not interested.
When I get the calls at home, I mess with them. *evil grin*
“Bud’s Spuds and Studs, how can I help you?”
“Madame Saffron’s Bordello.”
“Hank’s Horse Gelders.”
Or I just sing to them.
Rep: Hello, I can help you renew your-
Me: You spin me right round, baby, right round like a record baby, round, round, ro-
Rep: *click*
I get these calls pretty frequently. Usually I am able to spot them because the area code will be some random state that I don’t know anyone in.
I also get a lot of sports gambling calls.
I’m in Toronto, Ontario, and I received 3 of these calls over the course of about a week. The first two times, the automated message went to my voicemail. The third time, I managed to catch it and press a number to talk to a real person. I told the woman on the other end point-blank that I don’t own a vehicle, let alone know how to drive, and she quickly said ‘okay, I’ll take you off the list’ and hung up. I haven’t been bothered by their calls since.
Of course, I still get calls from ‘my’ credit card company about lowering my interest rate, as well as a call saying that I’ve won a trip to Cancun. The tip-off, of course, is that they do not identify their company name. If you were actually a customer of theirs, they would have no problem identifying themselves. Never trust a company that phones with an unsolicited offer that seems to only benefit you and not them.
With this economy, they’re all coming out of the woodwork to bait the gullible people, I tell ya.
Solution: have telecos allow you to add an additional 3 digit code at the end of your number so anyone who doesn’t know this code won’t get through. This would stop robo dialers completely. More than 3 attempts to get trough would block the originating caller from ever getting though. This is better than getting a new number since you would have control over your own number.
I get one of these every few days. My Subaru is 9 years old and definitely no longer under warranty (as I know quite well, having just spent $600 to repair some transmission damage due to some yahoo piling snow on top of a pile of gravel in front of his house… sigh).
I just hang up and ignore it, but it would be nice not to pay for someone to spam me.
As I read this, the phone rang and guess who was calling? (insert Twilight Theme Song). I pressed one at the prompt and a man came on the phone asking to verify my year, make and model of my vehicle. I replied “you called me so you have that information.” Silence. He hung up.
These calls have been bothering myself, as well as my girlfriend for weeks. I had some time to kill once when they called and acted like I was concerned and interested in their product (I don’t even own a car). I made them feel like they had another mark and asked them what company they represented. “THE CHOICE WARRANTY” They claimed they were based out of michigan.
I receive calls on my home phone about auto warranties. At first, a live person talks telling me to update my auto warranty info. I try to interrupt and tell him to stop calling, but he turns on the recording with a woman’s voice talking about updating our info concerning our auto warranty. The last call, I listened to the whole spiel and pressed whatever nunmber she said to shut her up and stop the calls. We’ll see. I reported the 2 numbers (702-520-1103 & 703-291-9045) to the Do Not Call Registry complaint section. Maybe if a lot of people report the intrusions, the feds will do something.
I get several telemarketing calls from these scam artists per week, sometimes per day … and bloody hate it they can’t be stopped.
I hope everybody takes 2 minutes of their time to report every telemarketing call with the Do Not Call registry. Spoofed number or not. That’s not our responsibility. Only when everybody complains will authorities be motivated to do something.
And, I don’t believe for a minute the calls can’t be traced and the callers can’t be located nor identified. With the # of calls these scammers make to everybody, they have to have a major telco contract. They don’t need to look far.
“and the government doesn’t seem to care”
maybe it IS the government
I kid you not – I swear I just got this new cell phone TODAY, after waiting patiently for my verizon contract from heck to expire. And while it was charging, BEFORE I had given my new number to ANYBODY, it rang and when I googled the number, it came up as this robocall scam. I find it hard to believe no one can trace the ownership of the number on the caller ID (which was 231-732-2338). Any hackers out there want to try it?
There are two different types of callers here:
1. phishers looking for credit card info. These
are probably offshore, set up with phony IDs
and sham companies – they get info, use or
sell the CC numbers. Abandon the setup and
do it again. By the time anyone can track them
down and start to go after them, they are gone.
2. “real” extended warranty companies. [I saw
an article on one of the operators - all claims
are denied or delayed as long as possible and if necessary
paid out at low amounts. Then the company
goes out of business leaving a shell with no assets.
New company is set up.]
These guys try to insulate themselves from the
callers through a series of companies and they
blame the “hired” marketing company. It takes
time to unravel the web of players with enough
proof to get the real culprits personally, not just
a judgment against the company [which never has
any assets].
There is a big difference between
tracking down the small players and building a legal case
against the top layer of operators.
The baffling thing about this whole scam is that I can’t find a way that this would be profitable for the fraudsters. I’ve gotten a ton of these calls over the past year of so, and have tried many different ways to try and actually get through to the originating party. Pushed 1, pushed 2, stayed on the line, called back, etc. just to figure out who it was, and not one time was I ever connected with a human being. How do these people make money? Has anyone actually made contact?
They’re the devil!
I always say, “which car? i have two.” and they hang up. I don’t even own a car.