READING, Pa. – McGinty Motorcars in Reading is a unique place.
“It has such a special charm and character,” said Courtney McGinty at McGinty Motorcars.
In fact, one big fan sent a gift.
“We received a pizza in the mail. It was from Dominos. It was from Tammy in Virginia,” recalled Pat McGinty.
Probably because Tammy in Virginia has been talking to the business about a planned purchase, right?
“Hey Pat, I was taken back when you said how do you know me. I’ve been talking to you about your ’55 international truck to purchase it and you’re gonna trade my van in for an even swap,” and I said, “Tammy I’ve never spoken with you.””
The folks at McGinty say they and Tammy are the targets of a scam.
“There was someone that made a Facebook page of McGinty Motorcars that was fake, using our videos and our photos from our Facebook page and built up this duplicate mirrored Facebook page that was fraudulent. And she was corresponding with them. The phone number on it was from Tennessee, so it wasn’t even in here, and it said Washington, PA not Reading, PA,” he recalled.
District Attorney John Adams says his office is constantly battling scammers of all sorts and that you should hang up and call police and never give money to satisfy someone’s request.
“I felt very violated and angry because how do we fix it? Not just because someone was encroaching into our personal life, but that someone else could get scammed out of money or lose their car,” Courtney said.
As for that unexpected pizza?
“We became friends over the pizza order, and she thanked me so much. She’s a widow and she’s 69 years old, so it really pulled at my heart strings because we’ve heard these stories before,” Pat said.
McGinty’s is encouraging people to stay vigilant so that these stories don’t have to have a bad ending.
“She called me crying. She said, ‘thank you, we got our dream car’.”