True Story - Unusual Car Loan Scams

     I recently was told a story that I wanted to share. It has to do with one of the large auto financing companies here in the US. For legal reasons I'm not able to actually name the person or the company. So, to make it easier I'll be referring to the financing company as Moto and the source we'll just call Steve. 

     Steve is just like any average middle aged guy here in the US. He pays his taxes, bills, and even parking tickets on-time. He obeys the speed limit, wears his seatbelt, and has good to excellent credit. Last summer Steve needed a new car, so he did his research. He went online and compared prices and fuel economy on every make and model from old to new. Once he had made a decision and found the car he wanted to buy his next step was to decide on a finance company. Steve has good credit so he's not worried about getting financed as much as who can save him the most and has the best customer service. Finally he decides to go with Moto. Days later Steve signs a deal with Moto and drives home in his new car.

     With no complaints with the car or Moto after six months of making payment on time, Steve thinks he made the right decision with his financing company. One day about a week before his regularly scheduled payment to Moto, Steve gets a call from someone claiming to be from Moto and offering a special deal that Steve qualified for. Steve listened to the deal and didnt take long to decide to go ahead and authorize it. What Steve thought he was doing was making a double payment that month and Moto would pay (not skip) his next months payment. So really he was saving one whole payment off the total of his loan. Or so he thought. About 45 days went by and Steve got a phone call from a man stating that he was the Repo Man and had just repossessed Steve's car on behalf of Moto and hung up the phone. Steve was in shock, he didn't understand what was going on, his payment wasn't even due yet that month. A few minuets later Steve received a phone call from Moto. They explained that they had no record of any deal being offered to him and that his payment was 30 days past due which is why the repossessed the car. Steve is currently consulting with his attorney and undergoing negotiations with Moto to try and resolve this unfortunate mishap.

     Here's my take on it. I feel that some employee(s) at Moto was/were trying to make some extra cash that month. He or she called up some customers and got them to make a double payment and pretty much told them what they wanted to hear in order to convince them to do so. Making them-self or selves a nice commission. Steve, as well as anyone else that's been unfortunate enough to have something like this or similar happen, is going to have a hard time proving his story and I think is going to end up having to pay a bunch of extra fees as well as now a towing and repossession charge on top of it. What makes this an unusual scam is that I don't think Moto purposely put their customers in this kind of a situation. Their employee(s) did. Moto should be responsible for their employees actions and offer some sort of resolution to those that have been taken advantage, which they are not.  As with all my posts I'll be adding more to this story as new information come in.