North Carolina Auto Shops Targeted By Tire Purchasing Scam, Costing Them Thousands

Auto repair shops across Craven and Pamlico counties in North Carolina have been the recent target of a scam involving tire purchases, reports WITN.

Around two weeks ago, Diversified Auto & Tire owner David Drexler got a call from someone named Ken Wolf, asking to purchase eight tires. He provided credit card info over the phone and completed the purchase, but called back a few days later to purchase eight more tires.

When a van came by to pick up the tires, Drexler said something felt wrong about it.

“I kinda just had that sinking feeling,” said Drexler.

Afterward, Drexler discovered that the cards used to purchase the tires were fake. The shop lost $5,800 as a result of the ordeal.

Diversified Auto was far from the only shop to be targeted by the scam, though—upon speaking with other shops in the area to warn them, Drexler found that all of them had been contacted by the same person.

Blake Frames at Craven Tire and Automotive Repair shared that someone using the same name had called them too, trying to purchase 28 tires.

“It was kinda suspicious buying that many tires at one time so I wanted to look into it,” Frames said.

When Frames asked the man to come by the shop and present identification, he refused, confirming to Frames that it was a scam. If they had gone through with the transaction, it would have lost them $7,500.

Now, auto shops in the area are coming together to warn one another and prepare against future scam attempts. These proactive measures have included working with bank and credit card companies, requiring more identification, and making changes to the credit card machine to ask for more information on a phone sale.