Texas Border Business
Hidalgo County is warning the public of Social Media Scams involving Motor Vehicle Transactions.
Consumers are requesting that their vehicle title transactions or registration renewals be processed and never having their deals done or receiving their titles and registration stickers. Consumers send the information through text to a number provided to them by individuals on the Facebook market. The fraudsters send them a code and request they pay the excessive and phony fees at a local Retail Store. They then ask that they report to a county tax office and report to a certain window where their paperwork is supposed to be ready. They in turn find out that no deal has been done and nothing has been processed. The consumer is then ignored by the phone number that they have been texting with and are left without receiving what they were promised.
Pablo Villarreal Jr. Stated:
“If it seems too good to be true, it’s probably a scam. Titles are required to be turned over to the County Tax Office before a transfer can be done. Businesses must be a Full Service Deputy, Limited Service Deputy, or licensed title service in order to process motor vehicle transactions in Hidalgo County“.
“Please report these types of scams to your local authorities including the Police Department, the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office Auto Theft task force, the Hidalgo County Tax Office, and the Department of Public Safety. It is best to mark the page as a scam on Facebook and report it to Consumer Reports.”
