Victim Location 78704
Type of a scam Rental
We have uncovered a MASSIVE, illegal, con-artist scam of EPIC PROPORTIONS in Los Angeles. We have never seen anything like this before in our entire lives. By our rudimentary estimations, thousands of people have been affected by this scam in just the last 2 years alone.
However, this scam is a slow scam, which is one of the reasons why this scam is so effective. It takes approximately 3 months for the scam to fully play out on each person, so it will take some patience if you are interested in experiencing the scam for yourselves. Also, another one of the reasons why this scam is so effective is because it is really disguised car insurance fraud, and most people don’t care about getting scammed if it doesn’t personally affect their own pocketbooks.
The perpetrator of this scam in Los Angeles is:
Sixt Rental Car
9000 Bellanca Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(855) 471-2760
www.sixt.com
The Sixt National Headquarters mailing address is:
Sixt Rental Car
P.O. Box 460967
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316
This is the way the scam works:
1. The consumer rents a car from Sixt. In order for the consumer to fall into this trap, the consumer must DECLINE SIXT’S CAR INSURANCE. This lets Sixt Rental Car know that you have your own car insurance which they will try to scam later. Also, the consumer must make sure that Sixt Rental Car has a credit card or debit card on file for that consumer. This is how Sixt will scare the consumer later — by attempting to charge their credit card (or debit card) for $613 before telling the consumer to talk to their car insurance company instead.
2. The consumer drives away with a rental car. Most people that we have spoken to about this scam rented their car for at least 4 days. It is also important to note that everybody who was caught in this scam rented an older midsize car which already started off with damage & dents on the vehicle. The consumer didn’t request an older car with damage & dents on the vehicle, but that’s how the scam works. These dents were always fully documented at the time of rental by the consumer. Nobody that we spoke to about this scam received a new car with no dents on it. So the scam is set in place from the get-go, right from when the car is originally rented. The dented cars are part of the scam.
3. The consumer returns the car normally a few days later. Sometimes upon return, the Sixt employee will accuse the consumer of causing all the previous damage & dents to the car. Other times upon return, the Sixt employee will say nothing at all. In either case, the scam continues with step #4:
4. Approximately one month after the rental car has been returned (!!), Sixt will contact the consumer via email. The email will come from "Sixt Claims Management" and will accuse the consumer of damaging the rental car!!! That’s right — the rental car which the consumer rented one month prior! In the email, they will ask the consumer to fill out an online claims form to explain how all the dents and other damage occurred to the rental car. If the consumer fills out the form in a positive manner, then the consumer is trapped — they just inadvertently incriminated themselves in this fraud. However, even if a smart and aware consumer DENIES causing any damage to the car via this web form, it’s still not over yet.
5. No matter how the consumer fills out this form, TWO MONTHS AFTER FILLING OUT THE FORM is when the real scam begins. That’s right: 60 days later after filling out the form, which is a full 90 days since renting the car. So TWO MONTHS AFTER FILLING OUT THE FORM, the VERY NEXT CONTACT that the consumer will receive is multiple phone calls, several times per day, for several weeks on end, from this company:
Alternative Claims Management
16404 San Pedro Avenue
San Antonio, TX 78232
(210) 340.4400
www.altclaim.com
This company lets the consumer know that they are a collections agency for Sixt Rental Car, and that the consumer owes Sixt Rental Car $613.18 for damage to the car. PLEASE NOTE THAT EVERY SINGLE PERSON GETS THE EXACT SAME DOLLAR AMOUNT AS THEIR BILL. Every single person that we have spoken to about this scam got a bill for exactly $613.18. The collections agency will tell the consumer that they already have the consumer’s debit/credit card on file, so they can just charge the immediately to make the debt go away.
6. During this same time period, Alternative Claims Management will also send a letter via U.S. Mail plus multiple emails to the consumer. All of these written communications come along with a handy-dandy credit card form for the consumer to fill out to "pay off their debt".
7. If the customer declines to pay the debt with their own credit card or debit card, then Alternative Claims Management will then advise the consumer to talk to their car insurance company about paying off this debt for them. And that is what I believe is the TRUE crux of this scam — to steal money from the car insurance companies. Furthermore, we believe that Sixt Rental Car also understands that many customers are renting a car through a company expense program, so these fake collection bills end up getting quickly paid by a company’s Accounts Payable Department. Several of the people whom we spoke to used a company corporate credit card to pay for their car rentals, which may be part of the scam as well. So it seems like there are many different layers to this scam.