I don't think so. Aside from the shadiness of it: he called the car loan company and they owned up to repo'ing it. He did in fact pay too little on his monthly payment. So how would a scam work?
(I don't know if he called the police or not, or what they would do in a case like this. Probably say, "Yep, sounds legit" and that would be the end of it.)
How much was the underpayment (I know you said a dollar or two, but I presume this had gone on for a while?). It's odd to me that they repo'ed rather than contacting him to say 'hey, there's a problem with your account.'
I find the story wholly believable, a lot of people who work in payments seem to be stupid and/or stubborn, and it might be the industry selects for those traits.
> It's odd to me that they repo'ed rather than contacting him to say 'hey, there's a problem with your account.'
I imagine there's a lot more money to be made making someone pay for the fees and costs of a repo, than a phone call asking them to pay a few dollars. Although his friend could also be lying about the few dollars part.
That would be an insane practice. The internal overhead is a pain. Repo is a last effort to protect the asset rather than a way to cure an account. Even with repo fees there's no guarantees you're getting that money back and the asset won't be worth as much if the customer doesn't true up.
General industry practice people are put in delinquency buckets, and generally not by amount but in the 'are they past due or not?'
I'm speculating but there could be other behavioral scoring as well and if they just automated the process of dispatching well... that's on them and good luck with that overhead.
I’m fairly convinced a lot of places give loans with horrific interest rates hoping person defaults. They repo the car. Resell it. The person usually has only mostly paid interest and still owes most of the original price of the car plus fees.
> It's odd to me that they repo'ed rather than contacting him to say 'hey, there's a problem with your account.'
That might be a good assumption if human beings were involved in the decision loop to repossess the vehicle, but I wouldn't be surprised if the entire process is automated.
> but I wouldn't be surprised if the entire process is automated.
Yup, I accidentally underpaid my mortgage one month by $0.20 (I fat fingered the online payment). I didn't get my house repossessed, but it did send the automated billing system at the bank into a huge tizzy that took six months and multiple phone conversations with different departments to sort out. I was flabbergasted that it caused so much commotion, as it can't be that unusual an error to occur.
(I don't know if he called the police or not, or what they would do in a case like this. Probably say, "Yep, sounds legit" and that would be the end of it.)
see above comment. Not a scam.