Volkswagen warns of fraudulent recall messages in China
Volkswagen China has issued a public warning after reports of scammers sending fake recall notifications to vehicle owners via SMS.
Volkswagen China officially confirmed that unauthorized parties have been impersonating the company and regulatory agencies to send fraudulent SMS alerts to vehicle owners. These messages contain links designed to harvest personal information under the guise of processing vehicle recalls.
The company stated that these communications are illegitimate and are not part of its official customer outreach. Volkswagen has advised all vehicle owners against clicking on suspicious links or providing personal and vehicle identification data to unknown sources.
The rise in these phishing attempts follows a recent genuine, large-scale recall initiated by Volkswagen China, SAIC Volkswagen, and FAW-Volkswagen. That recall affects over 580,000 vehicles due to potential corrosion in steering gear bolts. The company is directing all customers to the State Administration for Market Regulation’s official website to verify legitimate recall information.