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Fake car-repair men scamming drivers in King County

KING COUNTY, Wash. — Fake car-repair men saying they'll fix your car on the spot, are apparently scamming people in King County.

The supposed "fixes" are leaving vehicles even worse off than the original damage.

People who fell for it say they want to warn you.

Santiago Ramos of Kirkland says two men noticed some damage on his car and offered to fix it. He was parked near the TechCity Bowl alley.

“A red Jeep drove by and said 'hey, I see some problems with your car',” Ramos said. “When they said $600, I was like that's a great deal,” he said.

After the work, Ramos said it was hard to tell what the finished results would look like.

“It was all covered up in a thick white coat or greasy coat,” Ramos said. “He said it's the wax, give it about an hour half before you take it off,” he said.

When the wax came off, Ramos knew something was wrong

“There was more damage because there were more dents through here,” he said. “I called him again, no answer. Again, no answer,” Ramos said.

Then he saw a similar story on Facebook this week, where a woman posted on a Kirkland page about two men offering to fix a scratch on her car.

The men had the same M.O. When the wax came off, there was this splotchy damage all over the bumper, according to the Facebook post.

“You saw this post and what did you think?” KIRO7’s Deedee Sun asked Ramos.

“I was pretty upset, because they're doing it again. I remember the red Jeep, that's exactly the same car,” he said.

Yet another victim shared his story on social media on Friday.

Amit Singh lives in Tukwila and talked with KIRO7 on the phone. He said he was supposed to have a small dent repaired on his car.
              
"When the wax coating was on there, it looked like he fixed it, it looked super legit," Singh said.

“I wiped the thing off my car and I looked at it and was like – there were three nails, like nailed into my car and it's still damaged and the paint is chipping,” he said.

All three victims expressed embarrassment at their situations – but all have decided to share their stories so you don't fall for it.

“I was just trusting and it was a stupid thing for me to do, but hopefully people see this and realize it's just a scam,” Ramos said.

Santiago’s incident happened last fall and he did not report the incident to police. Kirkland PD say they also don’t have a report on file for the more recent case.

Singh said after speaking with KIRO7, he plans to report what happened to Tukwila PD.

Police say sometimes people are too embarrassed to file the report or think it's not worth the trouble, but that's exactly what the scammers are hoping for – and police urge you to call when you think you've been scammed.

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