Austin Police raise concerns over social media practice targeting auto theft victims

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Police Department raised concerns about what appears to be crooks targeting people on social media who have gotten their cars stolen.

"When a person's car gets stolen, it kind of flips their life upside down," said Sgt. Christian Maynes with APD's Auto Theft Unit.

After digging into rising auto theft rates across the city, KXAN Public Safety Reporter Brianna Hollis discovered what appeared to be a trend of social media comment sections getting flooded with similar apparent "referral" messages on posts related to auto theft.

The comments come from what looks like personal Facebook accounts directing people to Instagram profiles that claim to help auto theft victims find their cars.

So KXAN asked APD about the matter. Maynes said his unit has not investigated anyone falling victim to any potential scam regarding the posts - but he wants to issue a warning about social media situations that "seem too good to be true."

"You should be a little skeptical about anything you see on social media," he said.

Maynes said theft victims can often feel like they're in such a bind that they pursue avenues to fix problems that they normally may not.

"They just want their car back," he said. "So the fear is that they're going to buy into these posts, use these scams, give them money and lose out on this money because it's not a legit post."

According to the Insurance Council of Texas, you should never pay anyone you don't know through payment apps like Zelle or CashApp. If you're able to use a credit card - there's a chance your credit card company may issue a refund if it does turn out you were scammed.