A cagey new credit card phishing scam has been targeting Twin Cities auto dealerships, and the state's Better Business Bureau said it fears con artists may expand the scheme to other businesses.
The scammers have tricked people into giving their credit card information over the telephone in part by flashing the name of the auto dealer where they've done business on the person's caller ID. The Minnesota Better Business Bureau (BBB) said it gets reports of all manner of phishing scams -- including the ubiquitous you've won the lottery! e-mails -- at least once a day. But the manipulation of caller ID numbers is a new one for them.
"This is the first really malicious use of it that we've seen locally," BBB spokesman Dan Hendrickson said. "It's pretty clever. To me, they've advanced the ball a little bit here. We're a little bit afraid of it."
So far the caller ID spoofing has hit three auto dealers, mostly in the west metro area, he said. The Golden Valley Police Department confirmed that it's investigating one of the credit card cases, at Carousel Audi. Police Chief Stacy Altonen said the dealership was hit in mid-December, but she couldn't discuss the ongoing investigation.
"Don't ever give your stuff out over the phone," she said.
Scott Lambert, executive vice president of the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association, said his group issued a fraud alert about the caller ID spoof in mid-December to all state car dealers, and contacted the BBB. He said he doubts that only car dealers are being hit. Lambert said he thinks any retail business that's large enough to have a servicing or bookkeeping department might be vulnerable.
According to the BBB, the scammers are calling the service departments of local dealerships, claiming to be from a credit card processing company. They say the latest customer transaction didn't process correctly and that they need the customer's information. To avoid raising red flags, they ask for only the last four digits of the customer's credit card.
They then call the customer directly, altering their phone number on caller ID so that it appears as though the dealership is making the call. Then they solicit the rest of the person's credit card number.
