“Scratchbait Scam” Makes A Reappearance In Rockland County
by Monsey.info
A “Scratchbait Scam” has made an ugly reappearance in Rockland County targeting unsuspecting car owners, including one who was targeted at the Palisades Mall.
The scam goes like this.
The scammers find an unattended car in a parking area and slip a note under the windshield wiper. The note apologizes profusely for scratching your car and leaves an email for you to contact. When you do call, the person on the other end of the line just wants to pay you for the damages and asks for your car information, such as your name, insurance, and license plate.
Then you start getting the phone calls from your “insurance agency”.
“My car already has some scratches, so when I saw the note, I couldn’t have known it was made up,” Rabbi Clark told Monsey.info. “I emailed them to exchange information and in hindsight, they we’re careful to make sure I give up my info before they give theirs (which I guess was fake anyway).”
Rabbi Clark, whose car was parked in the Palisades Parkin Lot when it was targeted, was ignorant of the scam before nearly falling victim.
“I wanted to discuss it over the phone, so I gave them my number. The next day I started getting calls from people pretending to be Geico,” he explained. “It seemed very legitimate being they were able to reference my license plate, car make and model, name, and cell phone “on record”. It was an American voice, unlike a lot of scam callers, and I believed it.”
By Devine Providence, Rabbi Clark’s wife called about something urgent while he was on the phone with them, so he told them he would call them back later and hung up.
“I later call up Geico (the real one) and they tell me they have no idea what I’m talking about and that they’ve been getting reports of this “scratchbait scam” lately and I should disregard. I’m still nervous that my info is out there but at least I’ll be cautious,” Clark said.
For Rabbi Clark, spreading the knowledge of the scam is very important, as few people seemed to be aware that it was happening.
“I asked around in shul and nobody was aware of this,” he said. “Even just helping one person would make this worth it.”
A subreddit thread also appeared online in an attempt to share knowledge of scam, warning that people should stay vigilant and not share their personal information with anybody.
