Watch Out for Dishonest Customers

Most customers are honest, hard-working people who only want your help in meeting their transportation needs. But some will work hard at cheating you. The list of ways a customer can cheat you and harm your dealership is a long one. And it only takes a few of them to do some real damage. Be on guard for some of the more common ploys:

• Fake cashier's or official checks
• Stolen checks
• Checks with insufficient funds
• Counterfeit money (know how to spot phony money)
• Titles that look clean, but are not
• Test-drive thievery
• Convincing a friendly body shop manager to hide a deductible to defraud an insurance company
• Using a false identity to purchase a vehicle
• Getting a sales manager to overestimate a vehicle's value to prove a tax deduction for a friend