Have you recently received a phone call from a company claiming your current automobile’s warranty was about to expire, but not to fret because they had an extended warranty for you?

If you hung up, you made the right call. While extended car warranties are a thing, these phone calls are nothing but a scam.

A real extended warranty is usually something you buy on your own, when you feel like it, or when you purchase a new car. You usually start the process. Rarely will a dealer or a legitimate company reach out to you right around the time your manufacturer’s warranty expires, and even if they do, it’s usually by mail and it certainly isn’t by robocall.

Most manufacturer’s warranty are for 10 years, 100,000 miles. If you’re well before or after those amounts and receiving calls, that’s red flag number one.

Red flag number two is robocalls. If someone was going to reach out to you about a warranty, it would be a real person calling. Also, they’d probably try and contact you by mail first since your address is easy for them to find, being that your car is registered to it and all.

Finally, red flag number three is wanting immediate payment. Warranties, like insurance, are usually a monthly payment, not an upfront cost.

If you get these warranty scam calls, call the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP, or visit their website at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov.

Questions? Feel free to email us at kenmanchester1@gmail.com or check us out online at manchesterautoandtire.com