[veyron999]

This has been bugging me for quite some time now, thought of sharing it with BHPians to find out if anyone else has experienced the same.

So, here goes -

I purchased a VW GT TSI in 2019 January.
A week or so later, I got a call from a woman from "The road side assistance department", telling me that for getting RSA enabled for my VW Polo, I need to have a RSA card delivered to my home, and that she wanted some details for the same. I was driving at the time, so I brushed it off and ask them to call me later.
A week passes by, and I get a call from them again. They repeat the same story, that I would need to "enable" RSA. This time they were more upfront, asking me to pay INR200 by cash when the card is delivered at home. And went ahead and asked me to share the address to which this card is to be delivered.
This is when I sensed the ominous stench of fraud through the phone.




I entertained them a bit longer, asking them where they were calling from. From Volkswagen? I asked.
I told them that I had made all payments already.
They insisted that on delivery, I would have to pay some x amount, and asked me for my address again.
This is where I drew the line. I simply told them to contact the SA, and if there's any such thing he can contact me directly, and left it at that.

I never received any more calls from them after that. This incident however was weighing on my mind, and I contacted my SA (Viraj Volkswagen Noida), and enquired about the same. He mentioned that there's no such activation required. I asked them to be vigilant as it was disconcerting that the caller knew the exact model, and colour of car I had purchased. I had a feeling that there was a data leak on the dealership level itself. I did not follow up much more after that though

Fast forwarding to 2020 October, when I purchased another car. This time a Jeep Compass.
Surprise, surprise! I got a call from the scammers again.
Woman: Sir, am I talking to Mr. X (my full name) ?
(already apprehensive)
Me: What do you want?
Woman: I am calling from the "breakdown department"
Me: ...
Woman: You recently purchased a Compass na sir?
Me: Nope, why do you ask?
Woman: Sir, you didn't purchase a Jeep Compass?
Me: NO.
Woman: Okay, sorry sir.
-hangs up-

I got another call again today which went exactly like the one above. I denied having purchased the vehicle, and asked her from where she got my number. She just hung up.

I got the Jeep from a dealership part of the Landmark group, which is quite reputable, and caters to multiple brands in multiple states, cities.
Keeping these things in mind, it's likely to conclude that the data leak is not at the dealership level.
Considering that both the cars were registered in Delhi (at different RTOs though), I have an inclination to think that the leak would be at some point int he RTO process only.

Has anyone received similar calls after purchasing a new car? Is this limited to Delhi or is it across India? The fact that I got similar calls almost 2 years apart means that these scammers are doing good business at the cost of innocent car buyers.

[GTO]

It's amazing how easy it is for telemarketers to buy databases from car showrooms. Luxury car databases are available for a few thousand bucks in Bombay. I know they are accurate because I've seen known people & numbers on them.

Your best line of defence is TrueCaller (Truecaller identifies 29.7 billion spam calls, 8.5 billion spam SMS for Indian users in '19). It has taken the spam / scam out of my life .

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by GTO

It's amazing how easy it is for telemarketers to buy databases from car showrooms. Luxury car databases are available for a few thousand bucks in Bombay. I know they are accurate because I've seen known people & numbers on them. .

And showroom for pre-owned / service centers buys your data from RTO.

Got a call from about to be opened outlet, asked him from where he got my number, his answer = RTO, Except , could not do a thing. Privacy etc is a joke.

Had all details of my car etc, where I live, phone no [of-course].

[Candy$Cars]

I remember that in 2019, it was in news that the government had sold Driving license and vehicle registration data to private and commercial firms for some 65 crore. There's no doubt that it govt continued to sell in coming years as well.

Here's the link to the article (was covered by a lot news sites):
https://thelogicalindian.com/amp/new...iving-license/

It mentions that the data in bulk will be released in an encrypted format and will have the public key of the nodal person of the purchasing organization who will manage the data securely. But we don't know exactly how well this was implemented and if the buyer could access individual data or not.
Pretty sure this is how the scamers are able to get extremely accurate data about our purchases and the leak of data could be from a legitimate buyer as well.
Plus, with the data being sold openly, there can obviously be chances of leak from the RTO end as well, the current govt so favorable to capitalists doesn't help in reducing the suspicions either.

[Samurai]

Privacy as a concept doesn't exist in India. I had mentioned on the forum that my i10 was serviced in one service center. One fellow called that service center, got my number from them using my car registration number, and called me regarding a problem in his i10.

[RedTerrano]

Been there, suffered that.
Open a new bank account, get spammed.
Buy new car, get spammed.
Purchase new laptop, get spammed.
Register number for DnD on the official Govt site....get spammed event more!
I used to get worked up about this nuisance till the day I realized the Govt itself is spamming me! (LIC spam).
Nowadays I disconnect, block and move on.

On a related note, after spending 20 odd years in IT I thought I knew a thing or two about cloud computing.
Till I saw this video.

https://youtu.be/AnxrJiS5uKU

So I appeal to everyone, to stop blaming the Govt. As the gentleman in the video said, the data is stored in the cloud. And it rains. Thats how spammers get access to that data. By collecting all the rain water.

[Researcher]

I have faced this twice, with two different numbers and with the same entities involved! I even had to discard one number due to this reason. With no intentions to offend any Hyundai fan or owner, the way the Hyundai side dealt with the issue, or may I say 'is yet to deal with it since 3 years', made me promise myself not to get into the Hyundai ecosystem ever.

The entities involved are a Maruti showroom and a Hyundai showroom which is around 50 metres from the Maruti showroom but on the opposite side of the road. For people familiar with Bhubaneswar, I am referring to Jyote Motors and Aditya Hyundai on Lewis Road.

Incident 1: Back in 2015-16, we were scouting for an automatic car to replace our ageing manual Alto so that my old parents could drive a bit easier. To check the size of the cars, I landed up at the Maruti showroom as it was a 10 minute ride from my home then. Everything was attended to very well and I gave my details unaware of the consequences that I am about to face.

By the time I reach my home, I get a couple of texts from Aditya Hyundai, stating that I registered interest in a vehicle and some offer they were giving. Furious, I called the number mentioned in the text and gave them a piece of my mind, assuming it to be over. However I keep receiving those texts. I storm into the Hyundai showroom, warn them sternly for action but they sheepishly tell me to take it up with Hyundai by mail and they will do as instructed. Next, I go to the Maruti showroom to repeat this. But they were very cordial, took all details and assured me of action within a few days. True to their words, I never received any text from Maruti again. Wish I could say the same about Hyundai.

Incident 2: In 2018, I decided to gift myself a new car to replace my SX4. I was smitten by the Gypsy. I contacted for a test drive through the toll free and was again assigned to the same Maruti showroom as it was the nearest showroom then. I was about to finalise the deal when the dealer confirmed that they will not be able to install an AC no matter what and warranty will be voided if I do it outside. This was a deal-breaker as this was supposed to be my daily driver in Jamshedpur and needed an AC for those trips to Bhubaneswar. I did not finalise then but thanked them and left for home.

The same story repeated again. I started getting texts from Aditya Hyundai. The same action but this time I (with my newfound corporate knowledge and experience ) complained Maruti that someone is deliberately leaking the data so that is how you (Maruti) are losing market share to Hyundai and you will lose sales further. This worked them up and they promised some action. But Hyundai? Same attitude and story as if they are doing me some favour. I was considering the Creta but dropped it after this incident reminded me of the old wounds. I mailed Maruti and Hyundai regarding this, but I still receive texts from Hyundai. In fact in the upcoming festive season, I am sort of expecting that! The way this entire episode was royally ignored by Hyundai made me totally ignore the brand for any subsequent purchase.



I was very paranoid and angry about these spam messages and calls, but some apps and even enhancements to default dialling apps have made my life easier, but slightly.

Slightly off topic, but the same happened with a colleague who was checking a Creta and got texts from Kia. By the time he had forgotten this, we went to the Kia showroom a few weeks later. The guy there, bombarded him with information like his mail, phone number, when he visited, etc. He was shocked and angry. We simply left the place immediately.

Brands should understand that dealerships are the place where people get the idea of a brand in-person. Dealerships can easily change the logos from one brand to another (the same Aditya Hyundai was a Bajaj showroom in my college days if I recall correctly), but the beating that a brand takes will not be easy to reverse. Such issues with points of contacts have marred Tata's reputation so badly that they are yet to recover completely no matter what their efforts are.

[batladanny]

This is a big issue plaguing everyone. Faced the same when I took test drives of a few vehicles recently. Random people calling me for insurance, accessories, etc.

In addition to Truecaller that GTO mentioned, you can also check out Doosra. It is basically a doosra number you can give out to random people and their calls then go to a voicemail in the app. Also, spammers don't get linked to your primary number. Haven't used it myself but found out about it a few days ago and intend on using it. Concept seemed interesting.

Not plugging for it. But if this violates rule, please remove.

[Fernang]

Recently purchased a Skoda in Bangalore, haven't yet received any calls like these. Previously my number was used to register a Ford vehicle in 2014, didn't get any calls regarding this then as well.

Could this be a sales person level leak in a specific area from multiple manufacturers rather than a dealership level leak. (Based entirely on the assumption that you've not switched cities between your purchases.)

Or as RedTerrano posted, maybe the scammer walked into the dealership within one hour of your conversation and used sophisticated American machinery to get your number which was floating in the air after you gave your details over the phone. (insert appropriate emoticon)

[jeganatu]

Way back in 2011 when I got my Chevy beat I received calls and postal brochures to my home address from many accessory dealers in my City of Madurai. I am sure the data leak was from the RTO. I found this because, I bought the car from my friend's Chevy showroom at Trichy which is 120 km from Madurai. I got temporary registration done there and permanent after a week in Madurai.

Soon after the permanent registration was done, I started getting marketing calls from many accessory dealers from the city. A few went ahead sending brochures to my home via posts.

Fast forward to Feb 2019, during my Nissan Kicks Purchase, the scenario was the same!

[Sounak04]

I'm glad that finally someone spoke about this topic.

This scamming thing has happened with me as well. After i bought my Grand I10 in 2017, I started receiving these calls from various so-called Financial Institutions, who were offering me on the basis on my Car's purchase value. Infact, they knew the exact same colour and Variant of my Vehicle.

In 2018, when i Exchanged my Grand i10 for a Dzire, i never received any such calls for my Dzire. But still once in a blue moon, I ll receive a call offering me loans on the Grand I10 even though i have sold it almost 2 years back.

How it it that I never received a Call offering me a Loan on Dzire but i still get a Call for the Grand I10? I might be wrong but does Hyundai willing give their customer's information to 3rd Party? I do know that providing all these information to the outsiders is a easy way of making money, but is customer satisfaction/safety holds no regards to these greedy Dealers?

[J4J]

Not only cars, anything you register yourself into can give away your information to these agents.
I first faced this during my placement time. My college published a list online with all information of candidates along with their e-mails. Its been > 5 years and I still receive spam mails. Initially it was a lot but as soon as I started ignoring them the count went down.

Got a new RO system in my house and after a few months, I was constantly getting calls for its service. In the end, I had to deny having such an equipment in my house. After this, the calls stopped.

My family purchased a car on 2016. After a few months, my dad received a call. They said that my car manufacturer is giving some kind of gift for my car model. Later on I found out that it was a new travel/holiday company and were collecting funds for their holiday packages.

Quoting a line I heard in the game Watch Dogs2 : "Now a days you are less valuable than the data you produce".

[jasjotbains]

As GTO rightly mentioned, Truecaller has made life much easier by identifying the callers. Truecaller also adds a slight dose of humor since many-a-times these caller ID's have choicest of abuses displayed as their name.

Text messages are a questionmark area though. I get messages from a Honda dealership in Chandigarh (no sir, I dont care about your Honda cars) even though I visited them 8 years back for an enquiry (they didnt contact me till now which is funny).

Credit card spam from HDFC and ICICI is a bit more fun. Being an SBI'an, it gets interesting when I do some counter-selling to them. You want to sell me a Credit Card? I have a better offer for you

[Tomthumb]

Would highly recommend the trai dnd app to report callers, it much simpler than the sms option to report numbers. There is a verification call that you have reported this and the number is supposed to get disconnected , works like a charm never get call from that source again. I do give the person calling fair warning that if they call again I will report them and ask them to remove me from their list if they don't.

[Thilak29]

Truecaller is savior in most cases, recently I have started giving number that I use in my 4G modem, I am happy to report that this has given good peace of mind!
Data theft is rampant in this country. Back in March I had an incident involving miscreants and I was amused by the number of jurnos who got hold of my primary contact number and ended up calling/texting.