JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax has investigated an online trend causing a local cybercrime lawyer to recommend that all social media users take warning.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve found dozens of social media posts claiming to support local car detailing businesses. But all of the posts have almost the exact same caption, many have the same pictures, and we’ve noticed they’re now popping up in Facebook groups across the country.
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The template of the social media posts are all, essentially the same: the user making the post claims to be a recent customer of a car detailing business supposedly owned by a young man who started the business to support his mother after his father died. After reverse searching both the captions and the pictures of these posts, we’ve found dozens of duplicates of those posts from users around the country, using nearly the same word-for-word captions and many of the same images, although supporting different businesses.
Curtis Fallgatter, a former chief assistant federal prosecutor and current cybercrimes attorney in Jacksonville, said this could be a method to play on your emotions as a way to make money.
“Many of these posts are, virtually, identical. That, in and of itself, suggests that they’re not entirely accurate or valid,” said Fallgatter.
Action News Jax has investigated these posts and found users sharing them anywhere from Duval County’s beaches to Tampa and even in Texas. All of them share the same story of young men hard at work, detailing cars, as a way of supporting their families in need. Some of the posts share claims of businesses offering 50% discounts, while others make urgent pleas to support the business because the owner is claiming to be experiencing a financial struggle.
But no matter what is being offered, Fallgatter said Facebook posts using the same story as a means of marketing a business are worthy of a warning.
“Where you’ve got common images, similar names, similar endorsements, coming from different sources, that suggests it’s not legitimate business,” Fallgatter said.
One of the posts we’ve seen came from a user who shared an advertisement in a Jacksonville Beach Facebook group for a company called “Gloss Boss.” But we found another user, earlier this month, had shared a post in a St. Augustine Facebook group using the same picture and caption, though promoting a different business. We messaged “Gloss Boss,” showing them the similar posts, asking if the business was based in Jacksonville. We also searched the Florida Division of Corporations and found no active business licenses with the name “Gloss Boss.”
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“Gloss Boss” messaged us back, saying they were based in Orange Park. The company also said that the user who posted their advertisement online lived at a Jacksonville address at a home on Merseyside Avenue.
We called the homeowner, Holly Davis, who told us she had not only never heard of “Gloss Boss,” she didn’t have her car detailed by them and didn’t know how they obtained her address.
“To try and say that we’re a customer to possibly lure in other people, you know, that’s scary,” Davis told us.
We sent another message to “Gloss Boss” asking the company to verify that it had done work at Davis’ address. We never received a response. The company, like other supposed car detailing companies we have investigated, did not have a public address or phone number, only an email as a means of contacting them.
We reached out to some of the companies to ask about pricing and the kind of personal information they request from customers, but we have not yet received responses to those emails.
Fallgatter said that if anyone sees online posts that seem suspicious, the first step should be contacting law enforcement.
“Google the name of the company, see if it’s legitimate, but check with the secretary of state and call the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and ask them if it’s legitimate,” said Fallgatter.
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