dealers · 2026-10-26 · 20m34s
Group · Vin security notice + VCA signatures + desking fees/tax
Group · Vin security + VCA email sigs + desking · Oct 26 ~11:35a
~20m with Vin rep.
Security (Oct 21)
- Suspicious/malicious activity; small subset of dealers; limited to Vin (not other Cox platforms)
- Not encryption; no unauthorized access since Oct 21
- External cybersecurity investigation — what (if anything) taken still unknown
- Proactive dealer calls; more info as available
VCA AI email signatures
- Defaulted to Vanessa in sig while agent renamed (Porsche catch)
- Name change ≠ auto sig update — edit signature separately
- Verified/updated: Chloe (ABR), Heidi (BHBMW), Kayleigh (HP)
Desking
- Parish tax intermittently zero (Port Allen / WBR); EBR had biannual miss (fixed)
- Support wants repeating examples + possible click-path cause
- Government fees on saved templates don’t inherit master updates — Lance updated managed templates (conv $27, tire $9, filing $8)
Status
park — FYI + open tax example collection. No Ada artifact.
0:00
Parish taxes showing zero after calculation (BR area / Port Allen)
Lance reported desk managers on Port Allen (West Baton Rouge) deals saw parish tax calculate as zero. Vin: collect specific repeating examples for support (code vs click-path). EBR biannual miss already corrected.
0:01
We recently detected suspicious activity on the platform. Okay. This this happened on October twenty first, so last day, I believe, is what that was. Okay. First and foremost, we promptly took steps to contain the activity. Continue to engage with the solutions platform and limited to to bin. It didn't affect any other solutions platforms. Okay. Uh huh. We're confident that the containment measures were effective, and there has been no unauthorized access since October 21st. For you and your brain, this was not an encryption event,
0:41
So double. So what? Hang on a second. Think you're switching to my chart. So what?
0:48
What was? I don't know at this point, and only share what I can share, basically. Um. Malicious and suspicious activity. Small subset of dealers that potentially were affected. We've launched an investigation that's still ongoing. Have an external cybersecurity team helping us as well to try to track everything down and figure out what, if anything, was taken.
1:18
I guess was taken.
1:22
All right. Well, whatever. As far as data, right? So VIN obviously doesn't have the same data as like a DMS, so, Not like we're talking full credit apps, and you know those types of things.
1:33
Most of it's public information,
1:34
Honestly. Correct. So we're just proactively calling our dealers, having the conversation, you know, with our relationships and stuff, to let them know as much. As more info comes out, or if there's more to share, we will do that. There's obviously a ton of stuff out on social media and those types of things, so we're trying to get ahead of it the best that we can.
1:57
Okay, yeah, I didn't even know that there were. So there's been articles on social media about VIN being hacked or whatever.
2:07
As far as I know, yes, I haven't dug into it. So I was on PTO Friday and this weekend I had a wedding this weekend, and walked back into all this at 8: 00 a. m. this morning.
2:17
So, so, do do you? Is it a possibility that it's just bot traffic?
2:23
Potentially, I mean, I just don't know, and we don't know, so we just had a meeting with everybody on there, and we just kind of released some new document and talking points that we could share with dealers on what we know so far.
2:39
Yeah, that's the first thing that comes to my mind is that it's just bot traffic, like, and I, I mean, like, like sanctioned bot traffic. Right. Look, I know I use my AIs to do a lot of stuff. Shit, I can tell you my GSM in Jackson. He actually happens to not be on VIN. He's on Focus. But like repetitive work of like marking the you know let's see, he's fucking funny. He goes, dude, I trained Grok how to go mark all all the cars sold. So you know, there's like the process when you end a when you end a showroom visit and your salesman sends you the to do and says go mark this sold or whatever. Yeah. He taught his bot how to do all that.
3:22
I was like, dude, that's fucking genius. Because if you know, you know, it's sold. Then it's just literally mindless work. So I have a feeling that there's a lot of that happening right now. Right. And it's what people want. Like that's you know. So I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how how VIN, Cox Cox, and VIN handle that.
3:44
Yeah, the automation side. I get what you're saying.
3:46
I mean, people want that automation, so it's like I hope they don't block it or try to block it. I don't know that you can fully block it,
3:52
But yeah, and I don't know if this falls into that first thing.
3:56
It could be something totally un-, not that at all. I just, you know,
4:02
Yeah. Um. So jumping over to, and and I'll end that with if, as you roll that to the store, if they have any further questions. Anything else that we need to address? Answer, please reach out to me if if I can or I can get the info, I'll get it for you. Okay. Jumping over to your email that you sent me, I read what you said. What was going on at Porsche? Yep. You need me to check Audi and Brian Harris.
4:29
Correct. So I I can go check Audi and Brian Harris, but the the I guess the reason I sent the email was, uh, that's weird. Like, why would you know? Why would this thing refer to itself in different ways like that? So basically, with that in effect, you have the email coming from whoever our AI's name is. Right. I'm assuming we're not the only store that changes the name of their AI.
4:53
Right.
4:55
And so that was. And so then you got the. It's just in the signature. It's, it's like referring to it itself as Vanessa.
5:01
Correct. So that that stems from. I think part of the blame on that that stems from. How we have to because of how the AI functions. How we obviously have to set it up as a user inside of the system, and probably something that I can relay to like our implementation team of like, hey, we need to keep this in in mind that if we need to proactively tell a dealer if you change the name, we need to change the signature, the email signature as well. Yeah, that's all.
5:35
That's why I wanted you to have that. I didn't want to just fix it and then not tell you.
5:38
I wanted you to kind of know. No, 100%. I appreciate that, and that's a great point. That's probably overlooked, and obviously it was in this scenario. Come on, why won't you switch to friggin' BMW? Audi looks fine. I am checking BMW wall methodology right now. All right. So BMW does need change. Is it Chloe in every store?
6:05
No, so BMW's name is Heidi,
6:08
I think. Yep, Heidi. I'm looking at it.
6:10
Or I did that just to keep it. It was what Podium's AI was called. H E I D I.
6:16
Okay, so I am changing her email signature right now. Okay, so Heidi's been updated in BMW. Good there. I'll double check just everything. Well, I've got you on the phone just to make sure we're good.
6:34
My other question is how it is annoying. It's just it's taxes. I don't even know how we fix it, man. It's so annoying. Like I go in. I'm gonna have you look at it for me, make sure I didn't do something wrong. But you know how when you go into desking, you can look at, um, you know how the it's not proc doc, but it's like government fees. And I swear I've got them all right. Like if you look in BMW right now, those numbers are all correct. And but some of my desk my desk managers keep they still keep telling me yeah, but sometimes it pulls it up and it's the well two things happen, the the document fees end are wrong like they'll say twenty three dollars and twenty seven instead of twenty seven. And the other thing that happens is taxes don't pull correctly. So like, one of the managers did a Port Allen car deal.
7:29
The city of Port Allen, or which is like a West Baton Rouge parish place, and it just it zeroed the the damn parish taxes. Like it's funny because he said I'll hit the binoculars and hit the thing and then hit taxes and then it acts like it calculated it, but then it shows zero for taxes for Port for a certain parish. Oh, so anyway, I don't know. Sorry. No, no, you're fine. I've got a lot of little things. Let me know when that's done.
7:59
I'm making these last changes. Okay, all three stores are good on that. So the taxes thing. So I ran into this with the Baton Rouge area, specifically the East Baton Rouge Parish. Yeah. So obviously the parishes can roll out tax updates whenever they want. It sounds like, from what I understand, they do it biannually. We also check those. Biannually as well. What was missed on the East Baton Rouge one was we checked it in June and the update came out in July. Yeah. So for a dealer behind in Baton Rouge, all of anybody in the East Baton Rouge parish, the taxes were incorrect. Okay. We caught it. We got it corrected. So if you have or know of certain parishes that that's happening with, talk to your guys. Give me an email and I can look at getting those parishes specifically updated. But essentially, that's what we found that happened. So.
8:56
We try to proactively check it because we know the tax updates roll out. We basically were twenty days ahead of the timeline when we did all the checks. Everything looked good, and then updates rolled out, and then we missed it by twenty days. Basically, is what happened.
9:09
So, if it was like off by a little, that'd be different. But it's zero. Okay. We've had some that just show zero. Yeah, that's the. I've I've never had one of them tell me, hey, it's half a point off, or you know, something like that. It's usually hey I I hit the taxes while I was working a lease and it fucking just pulled zero. Interesting. Yeah, that's. I mean, look, if that's wrong here and there, I expect that, but just because of what you just described. But the the problem that and this is all just me being the messenger and the person that has to try to help. Yeah, it's like, at BMW, it's funny because like BMW always is very proactive. They're always letting me know, but I know it's.
9:55
Same problems probably happening at Audi, and they just don't tell me. Because sometimes I don't think they fucking use the desking, but that's neither here nor there. Oh, but oh yeah.
10:06
Okay, so we're using global taxes except for Louisiana. Fire. Customer address. Customer address. Tax validation.
10:27
So your settings look well. Your settings look right in BMW, from what I can see.
10:41
Yeah, they usually do. The settings are — I think — that's what's so frustrating, and that's also the goofy part: is how hit or miss the problem is. It comes and goes. Right.
10:53
Is it from what you've seen of them coming and going? Is it always the same parish, or does it bounce around?
10:58
I don't think it is always the same one. I could ask the sales managers again, but from from almost,
11:04
Almost makes me think of like how they clicked it or the button tap or something is kicking the taxes out. You know what I mean?
11:12
Oh, that is awful.
11:14
I'm not saying that it can't be a system here as well, but if it's random parishes and random times, it almost just makes me think. How we're clicking the buttons, or what buttons we clicked in what order, and it could kick the taxes out. I have to play with it or like see an example, but that's just kind of where my brain goes to. Not saying it couldn't be wrong or an error, but you and I both have been in stores and know how that goes too. Oh, for sure. So I guess on that front, if it.
11:50
If it next time it comes up, or if it comes up again, like let me know. Maybe ask those questions, obviously. But like, if it's if we have a parish that pops up more than one time, like those are the things that I can probably push over to the support guys and be like, "Look, we need to look into these taxes. Either it's coded wrong and it's pulling zero every time, or you know, can you support team go look at the click path of what happened here and see if you can tell me what happened too." Exactly. That would probably be my best recommendation for that on how I can help. Okay. But I got all that stuff double checked for the email signatures. Vanessa, or not Vanessa? My goodness, Chloe, Heidi, and Kaylee, all looks well on that front. And then I just wanted to talk to you about the other thing going on. And if you have any questions, or anybody at the store does,
12:41
Just let me know. I will. Can you? Other than. A person that was desking a while back, and we're now you know reworking a car deal. Why else would the fees not be accurate every time? Like, it's like it's. I gotta think. So, so here's the fees. How the fees? So like the government fees where we've got like, you know, you've got inspection and tire fee. I'm not tire fee. Tire disposal and all that crap in the government fees section of desking settings. So, government government license. So like.
13:16
For example, there's one that's convenience fee of twenty seven bucks. I still have managers telling me that they'll be desking a car deal and they've got to switch it because it's pulling it up as twenty three dollars.
13:27
There, I would imagine. My first assumption goes to I have this conversation quite frequently. If they're uploading and starting it with a template. We have a very bad functionality that even though if you update it in the settings, it does not update past templates.
13:46
Oh, that is exactly what is happening. How do we fix those templates?
13:52
So I'm looking at it now. Are you in front of your computer?
13:55
Yeah.
13:55
Yep. So if you go into Desking and like open up a new Desking, just like straight from the dashboard, Desking, and then click the Desking subheader. Yep. It pulls up, and then you see like start new, recent deal, managed templates. Yep. If you click into that, we have in in BMW, for example, we have lease, cash, and purchase as templates.
14:21
Managed templates, lease, cash.
14:23
Yep. We have to go in and update those government fees inside of here. So the convenience fee right now is saved at twenty - three dollars.
14:32
Where where is it?
14:36
So if you if you click the template lease,
14:39
Yeah, did it did.
14:39
That, and then under the total add-ons dropdown, see how it's blue? You can grab that.
14:45
Oh no, that add-ons.
14:46
Yep. Then you have government fees that's blue and also clickable.
14:50
Got it. What the hell?
14:53
It's a dude. It's a it's a horrible functionality, but it's because they consider the template pre - made. The desking settings are like the master settings. So, if you created a template to not have certain fees in it, is the thought process? I I get the functionality of it from being in a dealership. It's horrible, but that's the back the thought process behind it. So, anytime you make desking settings changes, we have to double check templates as well, or just generate new templates. Any new template would pull anything from desking settings, but any prior template is saved to how it was before.
15:35
Okay. Well, I just took a screenshot of these, so I I can go in and fix these real quick.
15:43
Yeah. It's again a horrible functionality piece of how they talk to each other, but that is unfortunate reality we're in.
15:50
Goodness gracious. All right. Let's see.
15:55
So that would be a hundred percent why your guys are saying you know we have to change it every time. Unfortunately, if they're using those templates. Which I imagine.
16:05
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I just grab the lease, fix those for the fix those to match what the lease stuff is, and then grab the other one and fix those. So. Okay. Let me go do this real quick. So tire fee. Yeah, because they changed it also. Tire fee. It went from 11. 25 to nine dollars. Like that's just silly. Like why did we even change it, dudes? Like.
16:31
And there's that in some states, right? They charge you on a new vehicle for four new tires. It's two bucks a tire, or whatever.
16:37
And then inspection. You don't have to have it done. If I have an inspection sheet dropping off to zero, can I just hit zero on that.
16:44
So you can do it two ways. You can hit zero, and it would still populate and put zero. But when you go to print it, it obviously wouldn't be itemized because it's at zero. Yeah. Or you could click to the X and take it away. Oh,
16:58
I've seen the X. Yep. I might. Maybe even in case they decide to add it or something. I don't know.
17:05
That's what I was gonna say. Sometimes guys want something that's like there, but if I don't want to put a figure to it, it won't print because it's not itemized. Yeah. But if you take the X, it obviously will never show up unless they manually add.
17:19
It. Got it. So filing fee is eight dollars. Okay. So now I click. If I've updated them all, do I just click Add to Similar Scenarios on this deal? What do I click?
17:31
Similar scenarios. We'll put it to all three scenarios. Correct. If you did just current, it would only update the 24 months or whichever one you're clicked on. Okay. So similar scenarios is the current change.
17:43
Right. And so now I'm gonna go click cash and check those two.
17:47
Yep. Cash and then the purchase one that they have set up as well.
17:51
And cash is gonna be the same as purchase, I'm sure, right? Correct. Yeah.
17:56
Six eight fifty. Yeah,
18:00
Good. All right, see inspection. I'm gonna zero. Notary. That's title fee, right? No, notary. Okay, yeah, fifteen. Tire. They we do, man. It's fucking. I don't know how people keep tracking it. All right, let's see filing. All right, so it's just the one thing on here. All right, finish the cash one now. Purchase. Government fees. Tires nine dollars. Notary fees. Filing fee is eight dollars. Title fee is sixty-eight fifty. The twenty-three is twenty-seven. Recordation is ten. Notary is eighteen. Convenience inspection.
18:59
Tag fee for around this. Sixteen. All right, I think these are correct. Eight and nine. Filing fee. Tire. God, these all numbers all start running together. All right. Done. I think I did that, man. That's awesome. I'm glad we. I'm glad you finally told me about that.
19:26
Yeah, and I just. From my side, I don't talk about it actively, probably as much as I should. But as soon as an issue, I usually this is normally what it boils down to.
19:39
Yeah, because I man, I checked it in the actual desking settings, and I'm like, man, I know I'm not completely retarded. Like, I'm updating these things. All right, sweet. That's awesome, man.
19:50
That's that's that's what it is. Dumb functionality, but once you know about it, you're usually good to go from there.
19:56
So yep, sweet.
19:59
Okay,
20:00
So we've covered everything we needed to cover. We got the other stuff updated. I got you updated on what's going on in my lovely Worshild. But again, as you just to recap that, if you as you talk to the stores, anything further that needs addressed, answered, you know, call me about it. I can get you in touch with somebody if we need to address anything further that I can't or whatever you need to do. So, all right,
20:24
Sounds good. Other than that, I will keep you in the loop as I find out more. Thank you, man.
20:29
Appreciate it. No problem. Thank you.
20:31
Bye.