Garages urged to be wary amid fresh wave of ‘card not present’ tyre scams

Parts are being purchased over the phone using stolen card details before being collected and payment reversed by card company

Mike Ruff, GW editor watch_laterMay 14, 2021 comment 11 Comments 0 likes

Garages urged to be wary amid fresh wave of ‘card not present’ tyre scams

Image: Bigstock.

Scammers are continuing to target independent garages using a ‘card not present’ method in which parts, often tyres, are purchased over the phone using stolen credit card details, the Independent Garage Association (IGA) has said.

The IGA has received multiple new reports from members across the country.

An IGA spokesperson said: “This is a very common scam which happens nationwide on both credit and debit cards, and the RMI Legal team advised that they are continuing to receive queries regarding businesses losses due to tyres purchased with stolen credit card details.

“In previous attempts at defrauding garages, goods such as vehicles have been collected within 24 hours of the fraudulent purchase.

“Further purchases are also attempted before the credit card company charges back the outstanding balance, leaving the trader with no goods/vehicles and no payment.

Related: Rogue car dealer avoids jail despite £190,000 in fraudulent sales

“A new development in a recent instance is that the card details used to conduct the purchase have been stolen from another garage business, who shared them via an online transaction to purchase parts.”

Garages are urged to remain vigilant when conducting card transactions in person, online and via phone.

Where transactions over the phone are necessary, Barclays bank recommends businesses obtain the card number, card expiry date, card security code, cardholders full name, address and phone number.

In addition, the delivery address and name of the person receiving the goods should be noted, along with the gross transaction amount.

Related: New tyre labelling to be introduced from May

Commenting on Garage Wire recently, reader Brian Waite said: “They got my garage about five years ago, some guy in London bought some electrical goods and paid by card.

“A Local courier to me picked up the stuff to deliver to London, before the driver got there he got a call to say the shop was closing and could he deliver to a block of flats.

“As he arrived at the flats a guy came out and signed for them and then put it in his car and drove away.

“The driver thought it was odd so he took the reg number.

“I got stung for £1700 and the courier got stung for the delivery.

Related: Tyre fitter caught driving car with bald tyre banned from roads

“We called the police with the reg number but the guy said lots of people use the car and it wasn’t him, so no action taken.

“I lost my goods and then got the charge back from the credit card company for the goods.

“Don’t allow card purchases now unless the person is on site with the pin number for their card.”

The IGA recommends garages do not proceed with any transactions that seem suspicious, either in person, online or via telephone.

IGA members can report suspicious activity, to the IGA member helpline on 0845 305 4230.

Have you been hit by this scam? Share your comments and experiences below.

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This topic has 11 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 3 years, 6 months ago by Lydia Leighfield.

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May 14, 2021 at 7:21 am #212333 Reply

Mike Ruff, GW editor
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Scammers are continuing to target independent garages using a ‘card not present’ method in which parts, often tyres, are purchased over the phone usin
[See the full post at: Garages urged to be wary amid fresh wave of ‘card not present’ tyre scams]

May 14, 2021 at 7:47 am #212335 Reply

Bob Bowditch
Guest

The tyre scam happened to us, £700 loss. The card was cloned from someone in Italy.
We gave the police very clear CCTV images of persons involved and car reg etc, to be told that there was nothing they could do !
Why ?

May 14, 2021 at 7:53 am #212337 Reply

Khalid Bibi
Guest

We got caught out by a tyre scam about 5 years ago someone who wanted us to order specific 4×4 tyres and was to be collected by courier. Seemed legit when phoning up but details of the cardholder didn’t seem to match the card details. We got stung for around £1100. Regret my decision then.

May 14, 2021 at 8:27 am #212341 Reply

Andrew
Guest

i received an email regarding a damaged car through my usual channel with Yell, she needed a quote as usual which i did then emailed it to her, she then sent an email back with her address which was local and a nice area that i knew, next i got card details emailed through asking if i could pay the recovery fees from storage to our garage because she had a hearing problem and then carry out the work, they were £1000 and she would give me £300 deposit. I put the card through and then waited 3 days for it to fully clear, after a couple more emails i paid by Bacs £1000 into the account she asked me to, she then came up with a story that she needed me to do another transaction for £4000! this made me realise what had happend and told her what i thought, i regard myself as good with this type of thing but they still caught me out and i got a chargeback and lost the money

May 14, 2021 at 8:34 am #212342 Reply

Zoe Parton
Guest

Ive received two calls off the scammers, one two occasions. I kept them talking, did 1471 got them to call me back several times, saying I was working on it. Then when I called them they where aggressive and questioning me as to where I got their number. Eventually after a couple of hours of them calling, I said ‘No’ I cant get the spec’d tyres. At least me leading them along kept them from scamming another garage…..

May 14, 2021 at 3:30 pm #212348 Reply

Andy Parvin
Guest

Had this a couple of months ago, ordered £865 worth of tyres over the phone, paid deposit, paid in full over the phone his “friend” picked up the tyres 2 weeks later charge back. Gave police all relavent information but didnt really want to help.

May 17, 2021 at 12:09 pm #212369 Reply

Lorraine Amor
Guest

We got stung by this scam. We took an order and payment over the phone during lock down which had become common practice because of the pandemic! The order was for 4 very expensive tyres. Spoke to the customer several times on the same mobile number over a 2 day period so didn’t seem suspicious at all when the customer said he would send someone else to collect the tyres as he was tied up. Seemed all very genuine until a month or so later when the card payment was recalled. Had the police involved, as we had the vehicle registration number and clear cctv images of persons involved but it got us no where police weren’t interested. A costly error for us in respect of £1000.00 we no longer take card payments over the phone unless its a long standing customer of ours.

May 17, 2021 at 9:50 pm #212481 Reply

Louise thomas
Guest

Happened to us and got stung of £900,
Seemed genuine and then got his friend to get tyres. Lost all the money, no support from our card provider either.
We now only do bank transfers and only take long standing customers payments over the phone. So bad how many people are getting scammed, well done on making more garages aware!

May 18, 2021 at 12:20 pm #212508 Reply

Lawrence Wells
Guest

Got caught for about £3500 by this scam, picked up on it when our tyre supplier phoned requesting early payment as we had reached our credit limit, found that the workshop manager was under the impression that when a payment by card was authorised all was ok!!. There were a further £600 of tyres awaiting collection the next day so i phoned the card company and found the card was not reported stolen (yet) but not registered to the address supplied. I went straight to the police as we were in a position to catch the scum and they were not interested, told me i would have to wait 5 weeks to see if the payment was taken back by the card company and if it was they would then investigate. of course by then the low lifes would be long gone. I then did the polices job for them and phoned round all the other garages in the area. Three were being scammed total over all was about 10k. So when the cab company called to get the tyres i phoned 999 and said we were being robbed. A traffic car turned up with 2 plod who listened to my story, said as it was 20 miles away the cab was going it was off their patch, got back in the car and drove off. Not surprising crime goes on when even when handed criminals on a plate the plod arent intrested. Needless to say we now no longer accept telephone payments

May 18, 2021 at 3:46 pm #212510 Reply

Lily
Guest

We got caught last year for a very large sum. Very slick story about girlfriend trouble, she had slashed his tyres, friend will collect them for him, he passes our door hence using us rather than a tyre centre etc etc. Paid over the phone by card with all the details for the purchase including passing the house number and postcode checks, the tyres were collected. When the same person called to buy more tyres we became suspicious and actually had the police here when they arrived. But the ‘friend” was allowed to leave though the police took details, we have never heard if more became of it. Had a call from the genuine card holder asking about the transaction and of course did a charge back so we were left out of pocket. So now we only accept cards over the phone from long standing customers.

May 26, 2021 at 9:18 am #212745 Reply

Lynn
Guest

This scam also happened to us, to a relatively new member of staff who was unaware that this seemed an ‘odd’ transaction to us. Most of our customers are local so the transaction rang alarm bells with me. When I called the police to say I think this was a scam, they informed me that I was just a law abiding citizen with a conscience! Barclaycard were of no use at all, in fact I couldn’t even get through to anybody who could help and Crimestoppers did not even answer their phones. It is so frustrating, the only ones who miss out are the companies ordering the goods, so really nobody else gives a damn. Something should be done to catch these scammers, they seem to have no end of stolen card details.

May 28, 2021 at 10:19 am #212845 Reply

Lydia Leighfield
Guest

This literally just happened to us. If only you published your article earlier, I hadn’t even realised this was a ‘thing’. 4th May I had a call from, what appeared, to be a very friendly genuine chap who wanted us to supply him some tyres. Spoke to him several times with various estimates before taking payment. Card details and address all verified through the card machine and the address was 20 miles from our business. We have some regulars that do travel that far, so there were no alarm bells. Even gave me a vehicle reg number! My business partner thought it was odd when a courier collected them the next day, so took a photo of the van/reg. Currently going through the 14 day chargeback dispute procedure. Even though we have also been victims of fraud, there is no support, as a business, in claiming our losses back like the consumer! I was considering informing the police but appears from other peoples comments that its a waste of time. Card not present transactions have been common for us during lockdown as its allowed us to provide a contactless service. We are always so vigilant. Struggling to remain trading through such a difficult time and we are now an additional £1000 down. We work soooo hard, there is just no justice!
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