Business Name Used:
None
Date Reported:
2024-05-10
Victim Postal Code:
00000
Total Dollars Lost:
$ 200
Scam Description:
I spoke with my mom, and she is anxious. When she went for groceries, two men approached her and offered to remove dents on the car and scratches. My mom isn’t a great driver, but the car is like 15 years old so there was no need to fix these minor dents as the car worked functionally. They offered to fix it in the lot for $1000 dollars and be done by the time she got groceries and said they worked at the local dealer and it’s a deal since she doesn’t have to pay for labor. She accepted, (she complained about the dents in her car in the past) gave her their number and when to get groceries. She comes back and she sees they have a pick axe and crowbaw to undo the dent and there is this green substance (looks like bad polish on the scratches and also messes up the paint, and the undent work is just a pickaxe pried onto the body panel so it is still a bit dent, but now the paint is kind of messed up cause they used the sharp end of the pick axe and gouged some of the panel). She didn’t want to argue with two men in the parking lot, so she paid and Venmo’ed them so that she could leave. No receipts, no texts, just venmo transaction to someone who looks like a scam model’s personal account, and she could only recall one of them was named Tony. Now one of the men is texting/calling her saying his boss is mad at him for doing “unsanctioned” and she owes him 200 dollars to Venmo. And another number is calling her saying he is his boss and in trouble and she needs to pay up. In text they say the above and keep asking for the make and model of the car for a “receipt” and threaten the lien her car. She asked me to help resolve it. I told her she got scammed and shouldn’t accept jobs randomly from a parking lot. I told her she should delete Venmo and/or remove it from her checking account. I filed a scam report with Venmo and told her to not expect the money back. I’m wondering if I should file a police report for her or just be done with it have her block the numbers (and future numbers)
