Now Car Dealerships Are Getting in on the Call Spoofing Game

[mahatmakanejeeves]

CAR BUYING
Now Car Dealerships Are Getting in on the Call Spoofing Game

Tom McParland
Yesterday 7:00pm

One of the more frustrating spam calling tricks is when telemarketers, scammers, and other characters “spoof” an outgoing number to make it seem like their calls are local. Now, car dealerships have joined the fray.

As a professional car shopper, I probably field way more calls from dealerships than the average person. In any given month I may get upwards of 100 phone calls from various dealers across the country and I’ve noticed a new alarming trend. Some dealerships are using call spoofing tactics to make it seem like they are contacting you from a local number.

In case you aren’t familiar with this tool, it’s when a company who is not in your vicinity masks the outgoing number so that your caller ID displays it as a local phone call. The play here is that most people are trained to ignore calls that don’t look familiar especially if they are coming from outside their area, but some folks might be more likely to answer a call that seems local.
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As you already know, when car shopping it’s critical to shop around to multiple dealers in order to find the best price and often it’s worth casting a net beyond your immediate area for some potential savings. If a dealer or a manufacturer calls you and spoofs their number, you can and should file a complaint with the FCC here.