DEAR SUN SPOTS: Heather keeps calling me about my car renewal. Some recent calls to my cell phone were from Bayonne, NJ; Avalon, CA; Orange Grove, CA; Clinton, MD; Cusseta, GA; Chicago, IL; Brookhaven, NY; and Santa Maria, CA. The calls are all from “Heather” wanting me to renew my car warranty. The number is visible, and since we have family and friends all over the U.S., I pick up. I always hang up after I hear “Heather” and block that number only to have a call from another city. One time I waited long enough to get a representative and requested my number be removed from their list. He said he would, but I keep getting these annoying calls. — No name, Poland.
ANSWER: Sun Spots recently answered a similar question on Jan. 21, 2017, but it sounds like you are following all of that advice already. After some research, Sun Spots discovered that warranty renewal calls like this are a well known scam being tracked by the Federal Communications Commission. Here is the information provided by the FCC:
Scammers pose as representatives of a car dealer, manufacturer or insurer telling you that your auto warranty or insurance is about to expire. The call will include some sort of pitch for renewing your warranty or policy. During the call – which often begins pre-recorded – you may be instructed to press a certain number or stay on the line, then asked to provide personal information, which potentially can be used to defraud you. The scammer may have specific information about your particular car and warranty that they use to deceive you into thinking they are a legitimate caller.
In order to protect yourself, first, do not provide any personal information unless you can verify you are dealing directly with a legitimate company with which you have an established business relationship. Telephone scammers are good at what they do and may imply that they work for a company you trust. Don’t fall for it. Be extremely cautious.
If you have caller ID you can screen incoming calls. Legitimate telemarketers are required to transmit or display a phone number that you can call during regular business hours to ask that the company no longer call you. But even if a number appears authentic, criminals may be engaging in caller ID “spoofing” – deliberately falsifying the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. (This sounds like what “Heather” is doing by using telephone numbers from all over the country.) Avoid answering any calls you suspect may be spoofed. (Hopefully any family or friends would leave a voicemail, then you could call them back safely, knowing it was really a call from someone you know.)
You can file a complaint with the FCC about suspected scam calls. In addition to being fraudulent in nature, these calls likely violate telemarketing and robocall rules. Your complaint may help identify scammers and, in some cases, the FCC can issue warning citations and impose fines against companies who are violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
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