You are not the only one receiving repeated phone calls about your vehicle. The telemarketing robocalls have become so prevalent that “extended car warranty” memes have been popping up all over the internet. We’ve rounded up some of the best for you to scroll through in the article below.
The best memes of the extended warranty of your car
After scouring the internet for the best extended warranty memes, we settled on 28 that made our warranty researchers laugh the most. These are our favorites (Click to enlarge):
About extended warranty memes
Some calls related to extended warranties are scams, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Others are intended to sell legitimate contracts for protection plans. But regardless of the specific intent, the goal is usually to get your money and personal information.
These calls have become a hot topic of discussion online in recent years, with search traffic for terms like “car warranty calls” picking up steam in 2020 and peaking in 2021. With that increased interest came a spate of “extended car warranty” memes that mock the often unforgiving nature of the calls. Phrases like “we’ve been trying to get in touch with you” commonly heard on the recordings are often part of the joke.
Automated Auto Extended Warranty Calls
Calls about vehicle service plans were the top complaints received by the FCC in 2020. That means robocalls made up a significant portion of the nearly 50 billion robocalls made annually in recent years.
In many cases, providers outside of the US used local telephone carriers to route their calls. This allowed robocalls to appear with the same area code as the recipient, or one from nearby areas. These providers are known as “gateway” providers, allowing foreign representatives to impersonate local calls.
FCC response to warranty calls
Recently, the number of calls about “your extended car warranty” has started to dwindle, or at least it should have.
In 2022, the FCC introduced new regulations to try to curb robocalls. One update is the introduction of the Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (SHAKEN) standards, collectively known as STIR/SHAKEN. In essence, this protocol suite requires multiple operators to verify that callers are legitimate before the call reaches the recipient.
In addition, the FCC has issued orders to carriers requiring them to cease and desist from providing service to robocallers. It also requires providers to block calls that come from a non-originating (DNO) record. The agency can enforce these regulations with heavy fines and penalties for telecommunications companies that do not comply.
What to do with telemarketing calls
Since the introduction of the new legislation, you have probably started to receive fewer annoying ‘spam’ calls. But that doesn’t mean they will stop completely. The FCC has issued some tips to use if you’re getting robocalls, including those about “your extended car warranty.”
- Register your phone number on the national Do Not Call list. To avoid penalties, legitimate warranty providers and other companies will typically not call the numbers on this list. Scammers may not bother to verify.
- Do not answer calls from unknown numbers. Even calls with local area codes can be from telemarketers with spoofed numbers.
- Do not answer any questions, especially those that can be answered “yes” directly.
- Never provide personal information when receiving a call or when speaking with a person or company that you do not know or trust.
- Most state and federal government agencies will email you before you call. If you receive a call from someone claiming to represent one of these agencies, hang up and call the agency directly.
- If your voicemail is activated, make sure access is password protected. Some carriers let you log in automatically if you call from your own number, which scammers can spoof.
For more information, you can read the FCC’s downloadable and printable guide to stopping unwanted robocalls and text messages. The guide provides information and links to tools you can use to stop, or at least reduce, robocalls about extended car warranties, and everything in between.
