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February 1, 2010
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Social Media Allows Dealers to Track Down Missing Vehicles By Jeffrey Bellant
Keep your Facebook friends close, but keep your customers closer. Car dealers are learning that social networking sites can help with more than just marketing – they can help find customers who have bailed out on their payments.
“I didn’t tell her how I found it. I didn’t want her in on the secret.” — Drew Pellegrini
Staci Striegnitz, finance director for Marks Auto Sales in Lakewood, Colo., said more dealers are using the vast information network as a skip
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tracing tool. Marks Auto Sales, in business since 1983, has had a Web site since 2002. The dealership, like other businesses, has made the Internet a large part of its marketing and advertising program. But it’s also using Facebook and other tools for collections, too. In the same way the dealership asks for phone numbers and addresses from customers during the transaction, it also gets e-mail addresses and information that helps them find people who skip on their payments. For example, a customer may have a Facebook page that the dealer can use to trace him. Or a customer’s e-mail address may be a way to track him on the Internet. She said it’s hard for customers to hide their identity on social networking sites. “They don’t realize they’re open for everyone to see,” Striegnitz said. City Select Auto in Burlington, N.J., creatively uses MySpace and Facebook to find cars that it can’t find any other way. Office manager Drew Pellegrini said the dealership will use a company like Accurint to find people, but sometimes he has to resort to social networking searches. Sometimes, a social networking site may help Pellegrini find people more easily than a traditional locate-andresearch tool. “It works best with younger customers,” he said. Young people are more likely to move in with a friend, so a typical search won’t show that
Illustration by Joe Schlaud
they’ve changed addresses. In one case, a woman had skipped out on her contract and the dealership couldn’t find the car for a year. Pellegrini went online and became one of her Facebook friends, using a different identity. Pellegrini said her Facebook page showed her conversing with a classmate. By becoming the other girl’s Facebook friend, Pellegrini saw that the friend attended a local nursing school.
He called the school, found out when the nursing program was in session, went to the school parking lot that day and got the car. In another case, the customer who skipped on her payments didn’t even have the car. A friend of hers was using it. By researching her Facebook information, Pellegrini was able to determine the name of the person who had the car. Pellegrini became that person’s friend and learned the man was
in a gospel singing group. “So I looked up the name of the group online, found their Web page and learned when their next concert was scheduled,” Pellegrini said. “I went to the church where they were performing, about an hour after the concert started, and took the car.” Pellegrini received a call from the customer soon after. “I didn’t tell her how I found it,” he said. “I didn’t want her in on the secret.”
IN THIS ISSUE • New auction rises in the South with two veterans in charge. – Page 3
• Financing becomes a little easier to come by. – Page 8
• Odometer fraud cases go to court in two states. – Page 5
• A bank’s collapse causes trouble for tax refund loans. – Page 10