Money-moving scam targets automotive businesses

Automotive repair shops across Montana have become the target of a scam using stolen credit card numbers.

In the last week, state officials have received reports of the scam from approximately 10 businesses in Billings, Missoula, Helena, and Kalispell, said Montana Office of Consumer Protection investigator Donna Doney.

In Flathead County, one automotive repair shop on U.S. north of Evergreen is out thousands of dollars.

Advance Auto Repair received a call, via text telephone and operator for the deaf, from someone asking the shop for an estimate to ship in and fix a recently purchased car.

But the down payment for the work was supplied with what later turned out to be a stolen credit card number, according to Advance Auto Repair owner Frank Anderson.

The person running the scam had convinced Anderson to wire a portion of that down payment to pay a fictional shipping company, which conveniently didn't accept credit cards.

After wiring money out of state, Anderson learned the credit card number was stolen and the credit card company voided the charges on it made to his shop - leaving him short the hundreds of dollars he wired to the scammer.

Anderson said the scam took advantage of his willingness to help an apparently disabled person and go the extra distance for his customers.

Doney said each report of the scam received by the state had similar elements - including the use of a text telephone or operator for the deaf, a request that the target business pay what turns out to be the scammer to ship the vehicle, and the use of stolen credit card numbers.

Flathead County Sheriff's Detective Pat Walsh said Advance Auto Repair is the first Kalispell-area business to report this specific variation of what is a commonly perpetrated scam to his office.

Investigators, however, receive several complaints each week about various other scams in and around the Flathead Valley, he said. They include:

n Re-shipping scams, where victims are enlisted to receive items purchased with stolen credit card numbers and then send them to another address. Victims, who are often lured in with promises of making money from home using only their computer, are rarely paid themselves but can be held liable for repaying the credit card companies.

n Phishing scams, where victims are solicited for personal bank account and credit card information, usually under the guise of an official-looking request.

In a scheme that recently hit Flathead County, the request came in the form of a fake letter or phone call from a legitimate financial institution asking for personal information to "unfreeze" accounts. Detectives in Flathead County have investigated two cases this year where area businesses received official-looking but fraudulent letters from a federal agency asking for personal information so officials could credit the recipient's bank accounts.

With that information, large sums of money were transferred out of those accounts to Russia.

n Other scams similar to the one perpetrated against Advance Auto Repair, where victims selling an item, sometimes in classified ads, are used to cash forged traveler's or cashier's checks written for well above the price of the property being sold. Victims, who are given some excuse to explain the overpayment, are then asked to send the remaining money back to the person running the scam.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com