21/05/2015

PLEASE PASS THIS WARNING ON TO ALL PARTS & SERVICE STAFF

Tyre Scam - Beware
The IGA has recently been made aware that a number of members lost money through a tyre purchase scam. It is important that members make their staff aware and prevent themselves from losing money.

How does the scam work?
You will get a call from an individual requesting to order a number of tyres for a high-end vehicle - usually BMW or Mercedes - these will be top brand tyres valued in excess of £1000. The tyres are purchased and paid for by credit card over the phone and, generally, they will book the vehicle in for fitting so the transaction doesn’t raise any concerns and appears to provide a good mark up on the job.

The same individual or a person stating they are a colleague will then ring you on the day to cancel the booking, usually explaining that they have been called away. At this point, they explain that they are sending a taxi to collect the tyres they have paid for. This will almost certainly be a local taxi company known to you.

The credit card used will have been scammed and once the card owner receives their statement, they will report the fraud and the card provider will re-call the money from your account as it’s a fraudulent transaction.
In previous reports of this from members, they have been unable to recoup the money lost or trace the tyres via the police.

Please be careful and be aware of over the telephone credit card transactions, and don’t allow tyres to be collected from unknown customers. 

Tyre Scam Update
The IGA recently warned its members about a ‘tyre scam’ in which members have lost vast sums of money. Don’t get caught out.
We have had reports of the scams recently operating in the areas of Surrey, West Midlands and Warrington. Previously we warned that the scammers use a local taxi firm to collect the tyres, but now they have started to use couriers. You need to be careful and aware of telephone credit card transactions from unknown customers.

In one case we were told that an unknown customer attempted to make a telephone payment which was declined after they were asked to provide a post code to verify the payment. The customer then used a business credit card with a different post code which was ‘authorised’ by the terminal.

To clarify ’authorised’ simply means the card being used has enough funds available for the transaction. It does not mean that the payment has been authorised - this in the Terms and Conditions for every card provider. Therefore you will be unable to retrieve the money lost if the card has been stolen and you have not followed  the correct procedures for a ‘Customer Not Present’ transaction. You must carefully check the terms and conditions of your Merchant Agreement before accepting these transactions.

We have been talking to the Police to highlight the scale of the problem and prevent others from falling into the trap.

Please be careful and be aware of over the telephone credit card transactions, and don’t allow tyres to be collected from unknown customers.