I have been contacted various times through a relay service, mostly AT&T relay service. The relay service is legimate, but scammers are taking advantage of a good service to scam businesses and the caller cannot be traced. This service is for people who cannot speak English or who is deaf The caller types and says he has a vehicle he wants towed to our shop for repairs. He then gives us a credit card and wants us to run his credit card through as a deposit. Since we only have one phone line I cannot run credit cards while I am on the phone so told the customer to call back. Of course, I did not run the credit card though. When the caller calls back, he wants to know if we ran the credit card. Of course I tell him that we do not accept upfront fees or deposits, when the vehicle is finished is when we collect payment. He then gives me his email address and wants me to contact him. I do. He then explains that I need to contact the tow truck business. He explains that he wants this vehicle to be towed to us however the tow truck company does not accept credit cards (my thought, find another company that does) and we need to contact him, so he gives us another name. I then contact the towing service. The vehicle, a 2007 Cadillac Escalade is in Illinois, so I question to the tow truck company and ask whey he would want his escalade brought from Illinois to Ne. I get and email but doesn't give me an answer. The tow truck company needs 1500.00 either by western union or money gram and as soon as he receives his money he will drive from Illinois to Ne. To deliver the vehicle. Out of curiosity, I call our credit card card people and explain the circumstances, they in return contac the issure of the credit card and give him all the information. Pike Smith, the supposed owner of the credit card, is not the owner and the I give all the info and the card issurer is going to contact the credit card holder to check on activity. Of course the issurer of the credit card doesn't give me any personal info, name, state and of course I would only expect that they wouldn't, I finally emailed the towing company and said that I have found that Mr. Smith is using a fradulent credit card, and if I would have went and got a western union I would be out 1500.00 or if I would have ran the credit card, I would be sitting hold the bag, the money would have been collected and charges more than likely files against our company. I was too smart to fall for this scam, however I now will no longer talk to anyone via relay services. It is a shame, the relay service people do not know that this is a scam and just deliver messages between two parties and now if anyone truly is deaf and would want to use our services they will not be able to unless they write us a letter or show up in person. Oh by the way, I am sure Pike Smith and Eric Williams are false names as well. Thankyou, Karen Reinhardt from GI Body Shop
0 comments