SEATAC, Wash. — A man who paid $185 for rental car damages he said didn’t exist is now warning other travelers at airports.
Nate Murphy returned his rental car on Sunday to the Hertz’s facility at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).
He took the car through the AI-car scanning machine that looks for damage and, with no employee there, thought he was done.
“I’ll be honest, I thought, ‘Oh well, that’s cool. I go through this little scanner, they process everything and it’s done,’” Murphy said.
However, it was just the beginning.
On Monday morning, his account was charged, so he called Hertz for an explanation.
When he didn’t reach anyone, he requested a call back, though he wasn’t optimistic.
“If you ever try to call Hertz in Sea-Tac or any rental car agency at a big airport, you are not going to get them. It’s just simply not going to happen,” Murphy said.
In search of answers, he tried calling the Hertz desk at the car rental center and Googling phone numbers.
He finally got ahold of someone.
“They came back and said, ‘well, the reason why you’re getting charged is that you have damage to the car.’ I go, ‘what are you talking about?’” Murphy said.
He had seen an article a few months earlier about AI car scanners finding small, tiny damages and charging for that. That was in his mind when the person on the phone said there was damage to the dashboard and the suspension.
He was told he could pay $185 now or risk thousands of dollars later. He paid the $185. Two hours later, he got a call back from the General Manager at Sea-Tac’s Hertz office.
“She has no idea what I’m talking about. She goes, ‘I don’t know about any damages. There was no damage to the car,” Murphy said.
She told him the charge was for an extra day, as the car wasn’t processed after going through the scanner. Murphy said there was no one to give a receipt.
That’s when the realization hit for Murphy.
A spokesperson for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport said they weren’t aware of this exact scam, but that “scam websites” commonly target travelers.
“Unfortunately, in our current world, scam websites are all over. We see this in our parking area as well. These sites mask themselves as real sites and get you to click on them. We do track these and work to shut them down, but they can proliferate to other URLs. We encourage, like all cyber scams, be sure you’re on the real site of products or organizations. Whether that’s Hertz or the airport. If it doesn’t look right, check the business directly,” The spokesperson said in an email.
For Murphy, Hertz has refunded the extra day charge and he’s reporting the $185 as fraud to his credit card.
He says Hertz is launching an internal investigation. The car rental company confirmed to KIRO 7 that they’re looking into the issue.
“You don’t know what this scanner is taking photos of. [It’s the] perfect storm with me reading that article months ago about it and thinking that that just happened to me,” Murphy said.
©2026 Cox Media Group
