DAILEY — Randolph County Sheriff Rob Elbon has seen firsthand how easy it is for scammers to operate, so he wasn’t overly surprised when a new scam arose in the county targeting a used car dealership.

The sheriff was recently made aware that scammers posing as Shockey Auto Sales in Dailey lured money out of the hands of innocent victims who were looking to do nothing more than purchase a vehicle online.

“Somebody took Shockey Auto Sales’ address and took a photo of the building and advertised exotic cars for sale at that location on the internet,” Elbon told The Inter-Mountain. “Unfortunately, they hooked a couple people on it. One guy from out west supposedly bought a car and eventually showed up at the dealership wanting to know where his Camaro was that he paid for.”

Elbon said the money victims lost during the scam circulated to different spots around the United States and beyond.

“The money went to San Francisco and then to Canada, and I don’t know where it went from there,” Elbon said. “They (scammers) are using different IP addresses and things like that to keep law enforcement off of them.”

Elbon said Bob Shockey, owner of Shockey Auto Sales, has been operating his dealership for a long time and that it was sad to see his business targeted by scammers.

“He has been in business for like 62 years and he’s never beat anybody that I know of,” Elbon said. “I grew up right next to the car lot and went to school with his kids. And as I grew up and got older I would go down there and mess around and help him at his garage. So I know the man very well and I know he wouldn’t beat a soul, he’s just an all-around good guy.

“Scams like this happen all over; this one just happened to affect one of our local residents here.”

Elbon said these type of scams are harder to do at larger car dealerships.

“It’s a lot more difficult to get by with this at one of the bigger car lots, because their inventory changes and they are real vocal with people when they are buying online,” Elbon said. “Things are monitored more on the big sites, and Bob doesn’t have an online purchase option at his.”

Elbon said some of the cars falsely listed for sale at the dealership included several classic automobiles and one that is familiar to superhero fans.  

“They had a picture of the Batmobile for sale on there, a classic Dodge Charger and several other nice-looking cars they used as bait pictures,” Elbon said. “Unfortunately, several people fell for it. If people are going to buy a car online, they need to make sure they go and visit the dealer before they ever send any money.”

Elbon said because the crime took place outside of Randolph County and was spread around other parts of the country and beyond, the FBI is in charge of the investigation.  

“It’s an FBI thing because this is happening from outside of Randolph County,” Elbon said. “The crime didn’t happen here; the lot they used is in Randolph County, but none of the crimes are happening here.”

Elbon said that he himself was recently targeted by online scammers when he was making a purchase.

“I bought a doublewide for my daughter and sent money to Texas to buy it, because it was part of a foreclosure kind of thing,” Elbon said. “Somebody hacked the account while I was involved with the purchase and told me where to send the money to, so I sent it.

“I called the people and told them I had sent the money and when I was talking to them I found out they didn’t deal with the bank I sent it to. I knew then that I had a problem, so I called the FBI and they did what was called a chain breaker where they actually froze the account and money couldn’t be transferred out. So I was one of the lucky ones who caught it in time and was able to get my money back…I t can happen to anybody.”

Elbon said residents can contact the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office if they feel they are being victimized by scammers.