An Auto-Warranty Scam Leads to a Solicitation Pileup

It may be more than an annoyance. Allen is likely the target of a scam that began to hit Washington a few weeks ago. According to Marcella Kallmann, spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau of Alaska, Oregon, and Western Washington, scam artists are calling, or mailing postcards to, drivers telling them their car's warranty is about to expire and offering an extended warranty. It's unclear whether the object is to collect money for a bogus service or to simply steal the driver's identity, or both. The calling has become so widespread, one of Kallmann's colleagues was even contacted at work with a car warranty offer. When informed that she had reached the Better Business Bureau, Kallmann says, "the person on the other end basically paused for a long time."

The sale of extended car warranties is a legitimate business, but Kallmann believes the current wave of solicitations has the earmarks of a scam in part because when the recipient of a call requests a supervisor, they are either told no such person is available or the caller hangs up. There is also the harassing nature of the calls, Kallmann says. People lodging complaints with the Bureau's Seattle location say they have received solicitations as early as 3 a.m. and as late as 10 p.m.

Kallmann says the Bureau isn't sure if the calls are coming from one place or several. Some of them are just computer recordings, Kallmann says, and often include an option to get off the calling list by giving a little bit of information. It's better to just hang up, she says, even if the calls continue.

Ted Klarich, general manager of Burien Toyota, says warranty solicitations include accurate information about the customers and their cars—such as the model and make of the car they recently purchased—which leads customers to assume he sold sales information to solicitors. And they aren't happy about it. But Klarich insists that the only people who receive registration data from him are the Toyota corporate office and the state Department of Licensing. He adds that it's become such a problem, he used up valuable space in his recent mailer, called "Inside Edge," to warn customers about the scam. "It was so frustrating to watch," he says.

So, where are the scammers getting personal car data? The Department of Licensing only gives out registration information to certain companies, and never for product solicitation, according to DOL spokesperson Brad Benfield. Parking lot operators, for instance, can use the info to ticket violators. Credit agencies and insurance companies also have access, as do data miners that provide market information to carmakers and dealers.

The DOL currently has contracts with about 140 banks, lenders, and other agencies to provide all new-registration information on a regular basis. Benfield says these recipients are bound by the same state laws disallowing use of the information for solicitation or selling it to others who will use it for that purpose. But, he adds, in light of the current surge of calls from solicitors, the DOL is reviewing all the contracts.

Figuring out who is behind the calls is difficult. The numbers showing up on Allen's caller ID are located across the country; recently Georgia, New Jersey, Michigan, and Colorado area codes have popped up. Allen began looking up the numbers on Web sites like www.whocalled.us and found other people reporting similar problems from solicitors calling from the same numbers. I called back all the ones still stored in Allen's caller ID. One led to a busy signal, another to a subprime mortgage lender that asked me to leave a message. Two went to a service that began by offering me the option to push 2 to be removed from their calling list. That, Kallmann warns, is the hallmark of a "vishing" scam, or identity theft by phone.