Bad Guys Don’t Always Break In. Sometimes They Trick Their Way In.
Most scams do not start with someone hacking into a system. They start with someone convincing a busy person to click, reply, share information, or approve something before they have time to think.
In a shop, that could look like a payment issue, a parts or vendor question, an insurance contact sending a file, or a message that makes a repair feel urgent. One rushed decision can open the door to downtime, financial loss, or exposed customer information.
That is why these scams are harder to catch than they used to be. Malicious emails are now twice as likely to contain AI-generated content as they were just two years ago, which can make fake messages sound more polished and believable. The message may look like normal business: a vendor update, a payment change, a file from a partner, or a quick “can you check this?” during a packed day.
The goal of a bad actor is simple: get someone in the shop to act before they stop and verify. A scammer may pretend to be a vendor, coworker, customer, insurance partner, or support contact. If the request feels urgent, unusual, or outside your normal process, slow it down.
Red Flags to Watch For
- A request skips the normal process or asks you to "just handle it this one time."
- Someone asks for passwords, username, verification codes, customer information, payment details, or access to your CCC account.
- Someone wants banking, payment, invoice, or vendor information changed without following the normal process.
- The message creates urgency around a job, payment, shipment, or customer issue.
- A link, attachment, email address, phone number, or name looks close, but not quite right.
What CCC Will Never Ask You to Do
Scammers often pretend to be someone you trust. Knowing what a real CCC interaction should not include can help your team spot a bad request faster.
- CCC will never ask for your CCC ONE® login credentials, including username or password.
- CCC will never ask you to ignore your shop's normal approval process.
Stop. Verify. Then Act.
Do not try to decide whether a request is real while you are in the middle of production, customer updates, and ringing phones. Use the same process every time.
- Stop.
- Don't click.
- Don't reply.
- Don't provide information.
- Verify.
- Use contact information you already trust.
- If someone claims to be from CCC, call back at the published phone numbers:
- Customer Care for billing or account issues (1.800.523.8924)
- Tech Support for technology questions (1.800.637.8511)
- Check with a manager if customer, payment, vendor, or account information is involved.
- Act.
- Once you've verified the request, move forward normally.
- If you can't verify it, treat it as suspicious.
Good Shops Follow the Process
Your shop already follows steps to protect repairs, customers, payments, and production. Use that same discipline when a request does not feel right.
If someone contacts you about your CCC account, payment information, banking details, customer data, or an urgent repair issue, do not let them rush you. Stop, verify the request through a trusted source, and then decide what to do next.
A few extra minutes of verification can help protect your shop from downtime, lost money, exposed information, and avoidable headaches later.
