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2020 was a year that offered countless delights, economic prosperity, and an increase in overall societal harmony. Social media was flooded with people sharing uplifting messages, pictures of time spent with friends, and — oh, that’s right, it was actually the calendar equivalent of someone stealing your Chevy and using it to run you over.
But, among all of the other semi-apocalyptic problems last year introduced into our lives, one inconvenience managed to become almost as widespread as the pandemic: scam-based robocalls about your car’s warranty.
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If you’ve been getting calls from a friendly sounding voice cordially telling you that your vehicle’s warranty is about to expire, you’re far from alone. The scam may not be new, but it reached an incredible high in 2020. According to Money.com’s Martha C. White, the Federal Trade Commission received nearly 200,000 Do Not Call tickets for auto warranty calls — and that was just in the last half of the year.
The problem has gotten so bad that the FTC lists “warranty & protection plans” as the third-largest source of Do Not Call complaints. At the time of writing, the total is at 881,548, but White says, “the actual number is almost certainly higher, since most people don’t drop what they’re doing every time they get one of these calls and file an FTC complaint.”
What can you do?
Given the fact that the issue is so widespread, it’s important to make sure you aren’t taken advantage of. The best course of action is to avoid answering these calls altogether — be it in-person or through a digital assistant — so that the scammers think they can’t get to you. Do note, though, that White says many of them use ID spoofing “to fake who they are and where they’re calling from” and can even make it seem like you’re being contacted by the brand that built your vehicle.
Any questions about the status of your vehicle’s warranty should be directed towards the manufacturer’s official helpline or experts at a trusted local dealership. If you answer a call and can’t tell whether it’s real or fake, don’t reveal any personal information, and check the claims made on the phone with a company that you know has files on your warranty.
You can also file a complaint with the FTC, which won’t stop the calls from coming, but will give the authorities more information they can use to crack down on this type of grift.
For more information, check out the FTC’s page on how to avoid auto warranty scams.
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