Does the Department of Motor Vehicles for your state or country sell your info to car warranty phone scammers?

The IRS, of all entities, sells your info.

@Dutchess_III Do you have a source that says that?

@LuckyGuy I get a whole rash of them all the time. Just the latest scam, I assume.

I’m sure they do.

Just like the County where I live sells a list of all new businesses incorporated in the county, and all new car registrations where people apply for titles and license plates.

It’s the American way!

Yesterday, I went to the DMV website and wrote a complaint. I followed it up with an email.

Here is my letter:
“How do I report a misuse of my DMV information? Warranty sales scammers are using information YOU provided to them! You have spread so much grief for, (according to your site) $2,000,000. That is unconscionable. If figure you made $1 by selling my registration info. Can I pay to have my information “unlisted”? It is worth it to me to not be bothered by your “customers”.
Please don’t force me to lie on my registration and give false information so I won’t be bothered by scammers using the info you provide to them.”

And here is their canned response, today, one day later.

“Thanks for contacting the DMV! We wanted to let you know that your question needs more extensive research than most, so it may take us longer to respond than usual.
We want to make sure we provide you with the correct information, and we thank you for your patience. Please update your question if you need to provide additional information.

New York State DMV”

I’ll let you know if anything happens. I won’t hold my breath.
In the future I will give them an old phone number.

I get random calls on my mobile for “Auto warranty”, with area code or same state area codes as my mobile, except I no longer live in that state. The home phone get 2 to 7 calls a day, with Make, Model and Year of my auto maybe from CARFAX? or DMV ?

Oh my auto is too old to be considered for a warranty also too many miles.

@janbb….valid request. I was told this about 10 years ago. I forget who told me. They told me to call the IRS and ask to be removed, so I did. Can’t find anything on it now.

^^ Thanks.

I think not.
Because the back says “Machine readable bar codes contain no personal information other than the full legal name and human readable information printed on the card.”

@LuckyGuy I believe they do. I had a very unpleasant experience with a guy who wanted to sell me an everything that happens to your vehicle in the next five years is covered if I bought his offer.. He said for $280.it would be covered. I said I’ll take it. Oh, there’s also a monthly fee of $170. I said forget it. The name of this outfit is “Endure”. When tallied it up it was about 50000! Very pushy guy. Don’t be fooled.

I certainly have received constant car warranty offers from people who seem to know about the last car I bought, which started right after I bought a car, and didn’t ever stop. I even bought a car warranty… and quickly dropped it, after I found out how worthless it was.

I’m fairly certain that we are not required to provide a phone number to the DMV. unless we call them for some reason, and leave a call back number to avoid agonizing hold times.

The next time I need to renew I will put in a fake phone number. In fact, I might put in the number of the guy responsible for a call center making millions of calls. I have his (probably outdated) personal number if anyone want it.
PM me.

@si3tech @Zaku I have no intention of buying anything. The calls are just annoying. And they are even more annoying when I hear that NY DMV is complicit. I wonder who got paid off to agree to that arrangement?

I’m pretty sure the car warranty scammers are calling random numbers.

They couldn’t use my info because my truck is 30 years old…

@Call_Me_Jay That’s my impression too.

Supposedly, the DMV in Florida can sell my data, but not for marketing. I looked it up to a Q a while back. So, I guess politicians can buy it? My guess is it does get used for marketing and sales even if it isn’t supposed to be used that way.

The car warranty people call me and my three vehicles are all less than a year old! So, if they are getting data from the DMV they certainly aren’t analyzing the data in any way.

@Call_Me_Jay @kritiper Well my car is 20 years old, bought close to 10 years ago, and it’s not just a random call because they know about the car.

@JLeslie Yeah, quite. And in my case, why do they think someone would try to get someone with a 20-year-old car to buy a worthless warranty? I have asked them directly when they call, where they got their info, and if they know about my car’s age, why they’re calling, but the people calling don’t seem to be the people who know or are alowed to talk about those things. I expect it’s because the people who do know and choose whom to call are are annoying idiot scammers – that’s their m.o.. Maybe it’s also that I’m now on a list of “suckers who actually once paid directly for a warranty”.

I would imagine it may be dealers selling the info since the DMV has no knowledge of your warranty status if it’s not just random calls. Why does anyone even engage with these people? I have Caller ID and I don’t pick up if I don’t recognize the number. The constant ringing is annoying though. On occasion a VM message is left and they don’t say anything about my specific cars but just offer a warranty.

I’ve gotten so I often won’t even check my landline when it rings, thinking if it’s someone important, they’ll leave a message.

I get calls about my student loan. Neither my husband nor I ever had a student loan. I get calls about paying off my credit cards. I have never not paid my credit card bill in full. It’s just random.

I got a call two weeks ago about my internet connection, someone with an Indian accent calling from a call center. My internet company I have always talked to North America. I said to him directly “I’ve never talked to someone in India for Century Link.” He said he lives in America, like I offended him or something. There was a delay on the call like it was out of country. I told him if this is a scam just hang up now because I’m not going to give him any information. He said he’s just trying to help me. Then he told me to log into my Century Link account. At that point I said too much trouble to turn on my computer I’ll call Century Link later. When I called Century Link they confirmed it’s a scam.

The same people called me again a week later and I told them I checked with Century Link and they said they are not calling customers about their modems and she hung up on me.

I don’t get those calls any more. Rick gets them incessantly. He just can’t resist answering the phone.

If I get a spam call, which I almost will never answer, but if I hear a spam message, I’ll immediately block the number so they can’t call me ever again.

They just change their number.

It is not just random. They know that I have a car 5 years old.

@Dutchess_III: Of course they change their number, but I’m not going to enable them to use the same number. They’re going to have to do a little work if they want to call me repeatedly or sell my number to another place.