Scam Targeting Glass Shops Getting Worse, Not Better

In the two months since the glassBYTEs.com was first contacted about glass shops being the target of telephone scams, the number of reports about phone calls and attempted transactions has only increased.

Most recently, two different scenarios related to the scam have played out in the industry. The first, reported to glassBYTEs.com through the message board, is that those running the scam are now initiating contact with through email. While other shops have reported receiving emails from the scam artists after having been contacted via phone, usually to verify the "order," at least one company has received an email with a first-time request for glass. The email that prompted the message board post, according to the glassBYTEs.com reader, was sent from a Yahoo email account, requesting approximately 80 pieces of 30- by 30-inch piece of 1/8-inch thick glass. CLICK HERE to read the original post on the message board and join the discussion.

Meanwhile, Donna Guiel with Guiel Auto Glass in East Hartford, Conn., contacted glassBYTEs.com to say that her shop has seen a spike in calls from people posing as potential customers requesting suspicious orders of glass.

Guiel contacted glassBYTEs.com yesterday to say that she had just gotten off the phone from the third phone call in four weeks of this sort, the latest call having been placed directly, rather than use a TTY relay operator. As has been the case with other shops, Guiel reported that the person wanted pricing information for 75 pieces of 30- by 30-inch piece of 1/8-inch glass.

Having received this kind of phone call several times before, Guiel has prepared a statement she gives to all inquires of this kind, explaining that there is a scam targeting the glass industry and her need to verify the authenticity of the call. In doing so, she asks the caller for the name of the company initiating the call as well as a location for where the glass is to be shipped. More often than not, Guiel reported, the person calling hangs up on her, but this time she noticed that a telephone number registered on her caller ID.

Turning the tables on the scam artist, Guiel dialed the number that appeared on her caller ID and the phone as answered, as best she could tell, by the same individual with whom she had just spoken-someone identifying himself only as "Rush." Upon informing Rush that he had contacted her earlier in the day, Guiel said she was given the same story she'd received when she received the phone call in her office but that when she told the man that she knew who he was, why he had called and that he'd hung up on her when she mentioned the scam targeting the glass industry, he once again hung up on her.

The call happened to originate in Naples, Fla. Guiel told glassBYTEs.com that from the background noise she noticed when she called the number, it sounded similar to a call center.