This is not a blog post. This is an investigation.
If you have ever searched Google for a mobile mechanic in your city, there is a real chance that the website you clicked on — the one that looked like a local business with a local phone number and local reviews — was fake. Not poorly run. Not a startup finding its footing. Fake. Built from a template, registered in bulk, and designed to funnel you into a corporate platform without your knowledge.
At EthicalMechanic.org, we spent months pulling this thread. What we found is a story that stretches from Silicon Valley boardrooms to anonymous domain registrations, from a $50 million startup to a company that collapsed to a single employee, and from a family-run lead generation operation in Florida to thousands of consumers and mechanics who were deceived along the way.
Everything in this article is sourced from public records, domain registration data, confirmed affiliate tracking codes embedded in website source code, court filings, SEC documents, state corporate filings, and firsthand accounts published on platforms like Glassdoor, Indeed, and the Better Business Bureau. Nothing here is speculation. Every claim can be independently verified.
It Started with a Good Idea
YourMechanic launched in January 2012 with a pitch that made perfect sense: instead of hauling your car to a repair shop, what if the mechanic came to you? Co-founders Art Agrawal and Dongyi Liao built their prototype in Mountain View, California, entered Y Combinator, and won the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 Battlefield competition — one of the most prestigious startup competitions in the world.
The money followed. Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, Ashton Kutcher, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, and Yuri Milner all wrote checks. By 2016, YourMechanic had raised approximately $50 million and operated in over 2,300 cities with 350+ mechanics offering 719 services.
On paper, it looked like the future of auto repair. In practice, something very different was happening behind the scenes.
Everything that follows is built on public records, domain data, court filings, and confirmed affiliate tracking codes. Nothing here is speculation.
The Leadership Shift That Changed Everything
In December 2016, the board brought in Anthony Rodio as President and CEO. Rodio had an impressive corporate resume — former CEO of Redbeacon (acquired by Home Depot), VP at The Home Depot, stints at Amazon, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble. His appointment was announced via PR Newswire and placed by executive search firm Calibre One.
But according to YourMechanic's own Wikipedia page, Rodio's arrival "led a shift in the company's culture, operational strategy and management, while creating a significant decline in customer quality."
Within a year of Rodio taking over, co-founder Art Agrawal left the company. He took two other co-founders — Lina Zhang and Musawir Shah — with him. A class action lawsuit was filed months later. And what appears to be a deliberate strategy to inflate the company's reach through deceptive marketing began to take shape.
To understand what happened next, you need to understand how the money was really being made.
The Mechanic Pay Scam
Before we get to the fake websites, you need to understand what was happening to the actual mechanics inside the system. Because the exploitation of workers is the engine that made everything else possible.
YourMechanic marketed itself to mechanics as an opportunity to be your own boss. The Harvard Business School platform analysis notes the company claimed mechanics kept "100% of labor fees." That sounds great until you hear what mechanics actually experienced.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, Indeed, and statements in court filings, the reality looked like this:
- Customers were charged $120 per hour. Mechanics were paid $40 per hour. YourMechanic kept the $80 difference.
- Zero pay for drive time between jobs — sometimes 30 to 60 minutes each way.
- No reimbursement for gas, tools, or cell phone usage.
- No pay when YourMechanic sent the wrong parts — which happened frequently, leaving mechanics stranded at a customer's location unable to complete a job they drove an hour to reach.
- Classified as independent contractors despite YourMechanic controlling pricing, customer communication, scheduling, and the entire workflow.
One mechanic did the math. After accounting for unpaid drive time, fuel, and dead jobs caused by wrong parts, his actual effective rate came out to less than $10 per hour.
"Everything advertised about working with them is a lie. They are nowhere close to being competitive for master-level mechanics in pay." — YourMechanic mechanic, Glassdoor
"Company charges $120 an hour and only pays you $40. You have to drive all over, pick up and return parts and cores. Do not make a penny on parts." — YourMechanic mechanic, Glassdoor
"After 6 months, after accounting for time between jobs, driving, and fuel, I was earning less than $10 hourly." — YourMechanic mechanic, Indeed
This was not a bug in the system. This was the system. Charge the customer top dollar, pay the mechanic a fraction, call them an independent contractor so you do not have to cover expenses or benefits, and pocket the difference. Scale that across 2,300 cities and you have a machine that prints money — as long as nobody looks too closely at how it works.
Two lawsuits eventually forced people to look.
The Lawsuits
July 2017: The law firm Blumenthal Nordrehaug & Bhowmik filed a class action in San Diego County Superior Court alleging YourMechanic illegally classified mechanics as independent contractors to avoid payroll taxes, overtime wages, and business expense reimbursement. The suit argued that YourMechanic "exercises substantial control over the work performed and the manner and means in which the mobile mechanics perform the repair and maintenance services." If you control how someone works, what they charge, and who they talk to — that person is your employee, not your contractor. YourMechanic was doing all three.
October 2020: Mechanic Jonathan Provost took it further with a PAGA (Private Attorney General Act) representative action. When YourMechanic tried to force the case into private arbitration — a standard gig-economy tactic designed to suppress worker rights claims — the California Court of Appeal denied the motion. The ruling meant YourMechanic could face penalties of $5,000 to $15,000 per violation for willful misclassification of workers.
With lawsuits mounting and the cracks starting to show, the original founders were already long gone.
Where the Founders Went
When things started going sideways, Art Agrawal did not stick around. He left YourMechanic in 2017 — the same year the class action was filed — and immediately started a new company called Jerry.ai at Y Combinator. Same incubator that launched YourMechanic. Same playbook. He took co-founders Lina Zhang and Musawir Shah with him.
Jerry is an AI-powered car insurance comparison app. The business model will sound familiar: insert yourself as the middleman between consumers and an industry, take a cut of every transaction, and scale aggressively through technology. Jerry has raised $213 to $242 million in total funding at a $450 million valuation and pulled in $35 million in revenue in 2024 with 355 employees.
The complaints at Jerry sound uncomfortably similar to what happened at YourMechanic:
- Customers reporting their insurance policies switched or cancelled during the comparison process without clear consent
- Premiums skyrocketing — one customer reported going from $848 to $3,602 in two years after using Jerry
- 50+ spam emails per day after signing up, despite Jerry's own tagline being "Zero spam calls, guaranteed"
- Inaccurate quotes that change after customers commit
- BBB complaints about misleading payment practices and coverage changes
- Laid off 13% of staff in January 2023
Different industry. Same intermediary model. Same pattern of consumer complaints. Same founder.
Co-founder Dongyi Liao went in a different direction. He is now CTO at Cepton, a lidar technology company focused on autonomous vehicles.
But here is the detail that ties it all together: both Art Agrawal and Dongyi Liao are still listed as Board Members of YourMechanic. They still have governance oversight of the company they sold. The fake website network documented in this article continued to operate — and expand — while the original founders sat on the board. They did not just build this machine. They are still connected to it.
The Fake Website Network
This is the core of our investigation, and it is where the evidence is most damning.
We uncovered a sprawling network of fake mobile mechanic websites — at least 85 confirmed domains across five distinct networks — all presenting themselves as independent, local businesses while secretly funneling customers to YourMechanic through hidden affiliate tracking links embedded in their booking buttons.
These are not legitimate businesses. They are manufactured lead-generation pages. They exist to rank on Google when you search for a mobile mechanic in your city, capture your click, and route you into a corporate platform without ever telling you what is actually happening.
Network 1: Rhino Mobile Mechanics
Seven city-specific "Rhino Mobile Mechanics" websites were registered on the exact same day — October 4, 2021 — through the same registrar (NameCheap), with identical privacy protection (Withheld for Privacy ehf, Reykjavik, Iceland), hosted on the same IP address (156.67.67.51, Hostinger International, Phoenix, AZ):
| Fake Website | Target City |
|---|---|
| detroitmobilemechanics.com | Detroit, MI |
| mobilemechanicwashingtondc.com | Washington, DC |
| oklahomacitymobilemechanic.com | Oklahoma City, OK |
| clevelandmobilemechanics.com | Cleveland, OH |
| louisvillemobilemechanic.com | Louisville, KY |
| mobilemechanicsbaltimore.com | Baltimore, MD |
| neworleansmobilemechanics.com | New Orleans, LA |
An eighth site — fresnomobilemechanic.com — was registered slightly earlier in July 2020 through the same registrar.
Every single one of these sites looks like a real local business. They have street addresses. Local phone numbers. Customer testimonials. Claimed operating histories — "serving Detroit since 2009," "trusted in DC since 2011." None of it is real.
And every single one contains a "Book Here Online!" button that routes to:
yourmechanic.com/book?utm_source=juhak&utm_channel=referral
The same affiliate tracking code — juhak — appears across all of them. Seven fake businesses, one day, one registrar, one affiliate code. One anonymous operator running the entire network.
Seven fake businesses. One day. One registrar. One affiliate code. This is not a coincidence. This is a coordinated operation.
The sites are so lazily built that the Washington DC version still contains "Milwaukee, WI" in its schema metadata. They did not even bother to change the city name in the code when they copied the template.
Network 2: Mobile Auto Repair Pros and the Ghost of "Richard Hanson"
The second network centers on mobileautorepairpros.com, a site that presents itself as a nationwide mobile mechanic service. The site's booking button routes directly to:
yourmechanic.com/book/?utm_source=mobilepros
It even has a dedicated "Your Mechanic Review" page and a "Services: Your Mechanic" page. It is not pretending to be independent — it is actively marketing YourMechanic while wearing a different mask. A Trustpilot reviewer saw right through it: "This is the same company as yourmechanic.com."
The site claims to be operated by a person named "Richard Hanson" out of Springfield, Missouri. There is a LinkedIn profile. An Alignable business listing. A Square website. An About.me page. Even a Facebook mention from someone named "Jim Mack" calling him the owner.
It looks convincing — until you notice that not a single one of these profiles contains an actual photograph of Richard Hanson. Every profile is text-only. No headshot. No photo with a customer. No picture next to a vehicle. Nothing. In 2026, a real business owner with profiles on five platforms and zero photos anywhere is not normal. It is a fabricated identity designed to give a fake operation the appearance of a real person behind it.
Mobile Auto Repair Pros covers hundreds of cities across all 50 states. Every one funnels to YourMechanic.
Network 3: Mr Mobile Mechanic
A third property — mrmobilemechanic.net — registered February 12, 2019, shares the same server IP address (162.0.227.139) and the same nameservers hosted by XagioCare as Mobile Auto Repair Pros. Same infrastructure. Same booking link:
yourmechanic.com/book/?utm_source=mobilepros
Same affiliate tracking code. Same operator.
But Mr Mobile Mechanic adds a layer that makes it even more troubling: it actively recruits mechanics through an application page. Mobile mechanics fill out a form thinking they are joining an independent partnership program. At no point does the application disclose that the leads route through YourMechanic, that YourMechanic's terms govern the relationship, or that the mechanic will be paid $40 per hour while the customer is charged $120.
This is not just consumer deception. It is mechanic deception. Mechanics are being recruited into a system they do not understand, under terms they have not agreed to, through a company that does not disclose who is actually running it.
Mr Mobile Mechanic covers 40+ cities including Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Memphis, and dozens more.
Network 4: "Best Mobile Mechanic" — Wrench Gets In on It
Here is where the story gets worse. After Wrench Inc acquired YourMechanic in 2022, the fake website strategy did not stop. A fourth network appeared — this one routing not to YourMechanic but to Wrench directly through discount.bestmobilemechanics.com with utm_source=bestmobilemechanics.
The acquirer looked at the fake website playbook and said: let us do more of that.
At least 22 fake city sites operate under this network:
| Fake Site | City |
|---|---|
| austinsmobilemechanic.com | Austin, TX |
| portlandsmobilemechanic.com | Portland, OR |
| sandiegosmobilemechanic.com | San Diego, CA |
| kansascitysmobilemechanic.com | Kansas City, MO |
| nashvillesmobilemechanic.com | Nashville, TN |
| pittsburghsmobilemechanic.com | Pittsburgh, PA |
| richmondmobilemechanic.com | Richmond, VA |
| stlouismobilemechanic.net | St. Louis, MO |
| cincinnatimobilemechanic.com | Cincinnati, OH |
| tucsonmobilemechanic.net | Tucson, AZ |
| albuquerquesmobilemechanic.com | Albuquerque, NM |
| raleighncmobilemechanic.com | Raleigh, NC |
| jacksonvilleflmobilemechanic.com | Jacksonville, FL |
| tampaflmobilemechanic.com | Tampa, FL |
| memphisbestmobilemechanic.com | Memphis, TN |
| denvermobilemechanic.net | Denver, CO |
| dallassmobilemechanic.com | Dallas, TX |
| houstonsmobilemechanic.com | Houston, TX |
| atlantagamobilemechanic.com | Atlanta, GA |
| charlottesmobilemechanic.com | Charlotte, NC |
| sanantoniosmobilemechanic.com | San Antonio, TX |
| sacramentosmobilemechanic.com | Sacramento, CA |
These sites cross-link to each other — Austin links to Tacoma, Dallas links to Houston, Tampa links to Miami — confirming a coordinated network. The Portland site displays Austin's phone number in its title tag. Copy-paste sloppiness that exposes the entire operation.
Network 5: The "Onsite" Template Sites
Yet another batch of fakes using the "Onsite [City] Mobile Mechanic" brand on identical WordPress templates:
- onsitehoustonmobilemechanic.com
- onsiteclevelandmobilemechanic.com
- onsiteindianapolismobilemechanic.com
- onsitejacksonvillemobilemechanic.com
- onsiteraleighmobilemechanic.com
- onsiteatlantamobilemechanic.com
- onsitecincinnatimobilemechanic.com
The Houston site's source code reads "Onsite Cleveland Mobile Mechanic." Same template, different city name pasted in — except someone forgot to update it. Again.
And there are still more following the "mobilemechanicprosof[city].com" pattern — Phoenix, Denver, Memphis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Mesa, Omaha. Heavily JavaScript-obfuscated to make the affiliate links harder to find, but the naming convention, template structure, and operational model are identical.
The Full Scale
Across these five confirmed networks:
- 8 Rhino Mobile Mechanics sites — batch-registered on a single day
- 40+ Mr Mobile Mechanic city pages — same operator as Mobile Auto Repair Pros
- Hundreds of Mobile Auto Repair Pros pages — covering all 50 states
- 22+ "Best Mobile Mechanic" sites — routing to Wrench post-acquisition
- 7+ "Onsite" template sites
- 8+ "mobilemechanicprosof" suspected sites
That is a minimum of 85+ confirmed fake mobile mechanic websites — and likely hundreds more when you account for Mobile Auto Repair Pros' full state-by-state coverage. All designed to make consumers believe they are hiring a local, independent mechanic. All routing to the same corporate machine.
85+ fake websites. 5 networks. Same playbook. Same deception. Different city names on the same template with the same booking links routing to the same company.
The People Behind the Curtain: Set-Apart Marketing
So who is actually building and operating these fake sites?
Independent mechanics who were recruited through "Mobile Auto Repair Pros" have previously alleged that the real entity behind the recruitment was a company called Set-Apart Marketing. Mechanics believed they were entering an independent partnership. Instead, they were being funneled into YourMechanic's platform without their knowledge.
Our research traced Set-Apart Marketing to a family operation with roots going back to at least 2008:
- Jason Wyrosdic — his LinkedIn URL is literally
/in/setapartmarketing. He IS the company. His listed role: "Pay Per Call Leads & Client Acquisition Specialist." Email: SetApartSEOMarketing@gmail.com. Based most recently in Mobile, Alabama — previously in Clermont, Florida. - Joshua Wyrosdic — also lists "Set-Apart Marketing" on LinkedIn. Has a second LinkedIn profile as "Chief Executive Officer at Local Marketing Heroes" from Fairhope, Alabama, where he promotes a service called "DeleteYourWebsite.com" and helps chiropractors "fill their offices within 90 days." Previously ran "Marketing Werks" from Branson, Missouri.
- Eric Wyrosdic — surfaces in public records connected to the family.
The family's marketing operation predates Set-Apart Marketing. Wayback Machine archives reveal a predecessor company called OnlineAdvancedMarketing.com, founded in 2008 with offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Orlando, Florida. That site listed a "Jason Butler" as Web Master and a "Joshua Wald" as Creative Director — the same first names, same cities, same skill sets, different last names. Whether "Butler" and "Wald" were maiden names, married names, or aliases, the operation's DNA traces back nearly two decades.
Set-Apart Marketing's own website (set-apartmarketing.net) tells its own story through its evolution. Wayback Machine captures from 2015 through 2022 show a functioning WordPress SEO agency site — services listed as "Inbound Lead Generation," "Pay Per Lead," and "Client Acquisition" — covering Florida, Alabama, Missouri, and Tennessee. The site's testimonials page from January 2019 said "Testimonials are 100% Real" and then directed visitors to LinkedIn. There were no actual testimonials on the page.
By 2025, the site was completely rebuilt as a generic template. It now claims to be "a team of 40 web experts with over 12 years of experience," displays placeholder testimonials attributed to "Pricilia Doe" and "Daniel Johnson" with Lorem Ipsum text, and lists a fake address of "1234 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012" with the email "mail@example.com." The company that builds deceptive websites for others cannot be bothered to build a real one for itself.
Set-Apart Marketing had a Yelp listing at 16401 Nelson Park Dr, Clermont, FL 34714 with phone number (407) 734-0158. The listing shows 1.0 stars, is marked as CLOSED and UNCLAIMED, and categorized under "Marketing" and "Web Design." We independently confirmed that the Clermont address does not correspond to a real office — but it does correspond to a listing for "Mr Mobile Mechanic of Clermont FL" at unit #107 at the same address. The physical location of Set-Apart Marketing and Mr Mobile Mechanic overlap. The phone number, when called, forwards to individuals who claim no knowledge of the operation.
The single Yelp review, from a user named Alfred M. in February 2019, reads:
"This is the worst service ever. They signed me up for this even after i told them i dont want their CRAPPY leads. Worst part is that i kept getting calls from people outside of my local area. Now..." — Alfred M., Yelp, Feb 2019
The review is truncated by Yelp's interface. But what is visible confirms the pattern: a mechanic signed up against their will, receiving leads from outside their service area, complaining about a company that does not listen to "no."
And here is the direct technical link that removes all doubt. The Mr Mobile Mechanic Leads page for Chicago contains an "Apply Today" button that links directly to:
https://app.set-apartmarketing.net/widget/form/qBGyIY6wUqPHCNt56CGs
Set-Apart Marketing's CRM platform is literally the backend system processing lead applications for the Mr Mobile Mechanic network. This is not circumstantial. This is a direct, embedded, functional link from one operation to the other.
"Richard Hanson" and the Identity Factory
The article has already noted that "Richard Hanson" — the claimed owner of Mobile Auto Repair Pros — has zero photographs anywhere across five online profiles. Our deeper investigation reveals why: the identity appears to be fabricated, and it is not the only one.
The WordPress REST API — a publicly accessible interface that exposes user account data on WordPress sites — reveals the following across the network:
| Site | WordPress Username | Display Name |
|---|---|---|
| mobileautorepairpros.com | webmaster | "Richard Hanson" |
| mrmobilemechanic.net | info | "David Carroll" |
| mymobilemechanic.org | administrator | "Christine Dixon" |
| mymechanic.org | wpadmin | "My Mechanic" |
Three different human names. Four sites on the same infrastructure. Every WordPress account uses a generic admin username — "webmaster," "info," "administrator," "wpadmin" — not a personal login. Real business owners use their names. These are placeholder accounts with fake display names attached.
The "Richard Hanson" identity contradicts itself across platforms:
- About.me says Mobile Auto Repair Pros was "founded 2016" with 8 employees
- Square says it was "established 2008" and describes Hanson as "head mechanic and manager"
- The Alignable listing in Springfield, MO uses phone number 417-283-8094 — the same number that appears on the mrmobilemechanic.net homepage, a supposedly separate business based in Orlando
And then the metadata gives it all away. The "Mr Mobile Mechanic Pros of Orlando" page on mrmobilemechanic.net embeds geo coordinates 30.6875941, -88.112331 in its structured data. Those coordinates are not in Orlando. They are in Mobile, Alabama — the same city where Jason Wyrosdic lives. Someone was sitting in Mobile, AL when they built the "Orlando" page and forgot to update the GPS coordinates.
The Mobile, AL page on the same site lists a business address of 530 Providence Park Dr E, Mobile, AL 36695. The zip code — 36695 — is the same zip code as Jason Wyrosdic's residential address on Berwick Court. Same neighborhood. Same zip. Same person.
On Alignable, "Richard Hanson" posted about business ethics: "Yes, 100% Integrity matters a whole lot, if your not honest you shouldn't be in business!"
The Lead Generation Machine: Charging Mechanics to Be Exploited
Here is the part of this story that has never been reported.
The fake mobile mechanic websites were not just deceiving consumers and funneling them to YourMechanic through affiliate links. They were simultaneously running a second revenue stream — charging real mechanics for the privilege of receiving leads generated by the very same deceptive network.
Both mrmobilemechanic.net and mobileautorepairpros.com have dedicated pages openly advertising lead generation services to mechanics:
- mrmobilemechanic.net/mobile-mechanic-leads/ calls itself the "Only Dedicated Mobile Mechanic Lead Generation Co" and offers "Only 1 Spot Per City" — an exclusive territory model where one mechanic per city pays for all the leads
- mrmobilemechanic.net/apply/ promises "Exclusive Phone Call Leads Direct To You in Your Local Area" and lists 40+ cities where spots are "still available — going fast"
- mobileautorepairpros.com/mechanic-leads/ states: "We have been a major lead provider and lead generation company for 10+ years we have worked and helped some of the largest mobile mechanic companies out there get very big and rich. Now is the time to help the so-called little guy..."
The sites' own legal pages confirm the business model in black and white. The mobileautorepairpros.com privacy policy explicitly states: "Mobile Auto Repair Pros is a lead generation website" that "connect[s] users with independent, third-party mobile mechanics." The disclaimer page goes further:
"[This site] is a marketing company we forward leads and phone calls to different companies, business or individuals and we are not associated in any way with them or their work and [this site] is not responsible for any actions they do or don't do."
The mymechanic.org homepage states: "My Mechanic does not operate an auto repair shop and does not employ mechanics." Its disclaimer reads: "[This site] is a free service to assist homeowners in connecting with local service providers. All contractors/providers are independent."
These are not mechanic services. They are marketing companies that present themselves as mechanic services.
The Two Revenue Streams
The evidence points to money flowing in two directions at once — though we want to be transparent about what is confirmed and what is strongly indicated.
What is confirmed: Every consumer who clicked a booking button on these fake sites was routed through an affiliate link (yourmechanic.com/book/?utm_source=mobilepros), earning the operator a commission of $10 to $24 per booking through YourMechanic's affiliate program. Those links are embedded in the source code and still active as of April 2026. This is verifiable by anyone.
What is confirmed by firsthand accounts from mechanics: Independent mechanics across the country were paying $50 to $200 per week — directly to Jason Wyrosdic's Set-Apart Marketing — for "exclusive leads" generated by these same websites. This went on for the better part of five years. Multiple mechanics have independently confirmed this arrangement.
Both revenue streams existed on the same websites, operated by the same network, through the same infrastructure. Whether both were running simultaneously — meaning Jason was collecting affiliate commissions from YourMechanic while also charging mechanics weekly fees for leads routed through the same sites — is strongly indicated by the evidence but has not been independently verified through financial records.
The payment structure was designed to obscure the relationship. Jason Wyrosdic had a PayPal account set up through which he sent weekly invoices to mechanics for "lead generation services." By invoicing the mechanics — making them pay him rather than him paying them — the mechanics were positioned as his customers, not his contractors. This meant:
- No obligation to issue 1099 tax forms
- No worker protections or contractor rights
- No paper trail showing an employment relationship
- No accountability when the relationship ended
And end it did. After years of dedicated service — years of paying weekly fees, answering leads, building the reputation of fake brands that they did not own — Jason Wyrosdic dumped them. Mechanics who had paid thousands of dollars over multiple years were cut off without warning. No 1099s for any of those years. No documentation of their contributions. No transition plan. Nothing.
It remains unclear whether YourMechanic or Wrench were even aware that Set-Apart Marketing was running this parallel operation — charging mechanics for leads while simultaneously earning affiliate commissions from the same bookings. Jason Wyrosdic may have been freeloading off YourMechanic's affiliate program while building his own paid network on top of it.
A mechanic pays $200 a week. Jason collects $10,400 a year from that one person. Multiply that across dozens of mechanics in dozens of cities — and consider that the same sites simultaneously carry active YourMechanic affiliate links earning $10 to $24 per booking — and you begin to understand why someone would build 85+ fake websites.
The Birdeye Listing
The lead generation operation has a Birdeye listing under "Mr Mobile Mechanic Leads" at 603 N Beaumont St, Owasso, OK 74055, phone 770-273-5590 (a Georgia area code for an Oklahoma address). The listing is categorized under "Advertising / Media / Agency" and "Marketing" — not auto repair. Not mobile mechanics. Marketing.
The single review on that listing reads: "RICH is the mannnnnn" — a reference to "Richard Hanson," the fabricated identity documented above.
The Domain Empire: One Operator, Hundreds of Fake Businesses
Our infrastructure analysis reveals the full scale of the operation. Multiple domains — presenting themselves as independent businesses in different cities — share the exact same hosting infrastructure, nameservers, registrar, and privacy protection:
| Domain | Created | Registrar | Nameservers | IP Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mobileautorepairpros.com | Nov 2016 | NameCheap | ns12/ns13.xagiocare.com | 162.0.227.139 |
| mrmobilemechanic.net | Feb 2019 | NameCheap | ns12/ns13.xagiocare.com | 162.0.227.139 |
| mymechanic.org | Nov 2019 | NameCheap | ns12/ns13.xagiocare.com | 162.0.227.139 |
| mymobilemechanic.org | Nov 2019 | NameCheap | Cloudflare | — |
| mrmobilemechanicleads.com | May 2025 | Hostinger | Cloudflare | — |
| autorepairfreeestimates.com | Feb 2024 | NameCheap | — | — |
| diyautorepair.net | Nov 2024 | NameCheap | — | — |
All privacy-protected through Withheld for Privacy ehf (Reykjavik, Iceland) or Domains By Proxy (Tempe, AZ). All presenting as independent businesses. All controlled by the same operator.
The sites run on Xagio, an AI-powered SEO platform founded by Herc Magnus in Alberta, Canada. The page source of mrmobilemechanic.net explicitly loads the Xagio SEO plugin (wp-content/plugins/xagio-seo/), and the hosting infrastructure runs through XagioCare — Xagio's managed WordPress hosting service. Xagio itself is a legitimate tool provider; the operator is a customer using their platform to build deceptive sites at scale.
The site mymobilemechanic.org reveals another critical tool: Magic Page Plugin — a WordPress plugin that auto-generates location-specific pages from templates. The footer reads "2024 By Magic Page Plugin." This is how one person creates hundreds of city-specific pages with identical content, swapping out only the city name. It explains the copy-paste errors found across the network — Milwaukee schema in Washington DC pages, Orlando social links on Kansas City pages, Mobile AL GPS coordinates on Orlando pages.
The operation also maintains a sprawling social media presence across Facebook, Twitter/X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit (u/mechanicleads), Medium, Substack, Quora, Tumblr, Blogger, Behance, and Vimeo — all reinforcing the illusion of a legitimate business.
The phone number web further confirms single-operator control:
| Number | Appears On |
|---|---|
| 417-283-8094 | mrmobilemechanic.net homepage, mobileautorepairpros.com Springfield, "Richard Hanson" Alignable |
| 770-273-5590 | Mr Mobile Mechanic Leads (Owasso, OK), lead program pages |
| 407-796-9877 | mrmobilemechanic.net Orlando, lead application page |
| 417-812-5736 | mobileautorepairpros.com mechanic leads page |
| 816-307-0749 | Mobile Auto Repair Pros Kansas City ("Richard Hanson" about.me) |
| 918-303-5974 | Mr Mobile Mechanic Owasso, OK (Chamber of Commerce listing) |
One operator. Multiple phone numbers. Multiple brands. Multiple fabricated identities. Hundreds of fake city pages. All routing through the same infrastructure, the same CRM, and the same affiliate links.
The sites even cross-link each other. Both mrmobilemechanic.net and mobileautorepairpros.com list the same "Lead Partners": Mr Mobile Mechanic Leads and Top Dog Mobile Mechanic Leads. They are not partners. They are the same operation linking to itself.
How mobileautorepairpros.com Evolved
Wayback Machine archives (80+ snapshots from 2013 through 2026) document the transformation:
- December 2016: A Springfield, MO-only mobile auto repair shop. Physical address, local phone number, basic list of services. A real local business — or at least the appearance of one.
- July 2017: Blog post by "Richard Hanson" announcing a new Orlando, FL location at 1405 S Hiawassee Rd, Orlando, FL 32835.
- June 2018: Expanded to 18+ states. Added "All locations are individually owned and operated." Added "Check out Mobile Auto Repair Pros on Yelp." A review from "mahak" in August 2018 reads: "Awesome content with lots of information which will be helpful" — clearly not a real customer review.
- 2022–2025: Added a dedicated "Leads" section to the navigation. The mechanic leads page appeared with the "10+ years" claim and the pitch to help "the so-called little guy."
- 2026: Hundreds of city pages across 30+ states, extensive services listings, and a Jobs section.
What started as a local Springfield, MO business page became a nationwide deceptive marketing operation in under two years.
The Copycat Wars
The mobile mechanic lead generation space was not always this crowded. An independent company called Mobile Mechanic Leads — based in Phoenix, Arizona and explicitly not affiliated with YourMechanic — established itself as a legitimate lead generation service for mobile mechanics. Their model: exclusive phone call leads, one mechanic per zip code, 270+ cities, 500+ mechanics served, with a CEO they describe as "a seasoned mobile mechanic with almost two decades of hands-on experience" whose "story began in 2007."
Mobile Mechanic Leads took the industry by storm. And the Wyrosdic/Hanson network noticed.
A separate service called USA Mobile Mechanic Leads — based in Jacksonville, Florida, phone (855) 982-9361 — also operated in the lead generation space. Then a new domain appeared: usmobilemechanicleads.com — "US Mobile Mechanic Leads." The name differs from "USA Mobile Mechanic Leads" by a single letter. The domain was registered December 15, 2025, through GoDaddy with full privacy protection. The site currently displays a "Launching Soon" placeholder. Its Blogspot blog, created in September 2024, claims "over 8 years of experience" — on a brand that did not exist until months earlier. Its ProvenExpert profile has zero reviews. Its Facebook page lists an Atlanta, GA address.
USA Mobile Mechanic Leads called out the copycat. Jason Wyrosdic — who appears to have been behind the knockoff domain — subsequently let it go. Mobile Mechanic Leads then acquired usmobilemechanicleads.com.
Mobile Mechanic Leads' own website now includes a prominent warning: "Don't be fooled by copycats! Call The Original Mobile Mechanic Leads and experience why we are the best!" That warning exists for a reason. The Wyrosdic/Hanson network did not just deceive consumers and exploit mechanics — they also attempted to poach the business identity of a legitimate competitor.
The Collapse of Jason Wyrosdic
Where is the man behind Set-Apart Marketing today?
Public records show that Jason Wyrosdic purchased a home at 7648 Berwick Ct, Mobile, AL 36695 — a five-bedroom, five-bathroom house — for $707,000 in December 2021. That purchase came during the peak years of his lead generation operation, when mechanics across the country were paying him $50 to $200 per week.
By October 2024, Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB filed a Complaint for Ejectment against Wyrosdic in Mobile County Circuit Court — a foreclosure proceeding. A second filing followed in June 2025 (case number 02-CV-2025-901606.00). The man who built a network of fake businesses, charged mechanics for years, and then dumped them without documentation is now losing his house.
Set-Apart Marketing's website has been replaced with a Lorem Ipsum template. The Yelp listing is closed and unclaimed. The Clermont, Florida address leads nowhere.
But the fake mechanic websites are still running. The YourMechanic affiliate links — verified as recently as April 2026 — are still active on both mrmobilemechanic.net and mobileautorepairpros.com. The BBB listing for Mr Mobile Mechanic in St. Petersburg, Florida shows a rating of F — the lowest possible grade. And someone, somewhere, is still collecting affiliate commissions every time a consumer clicks "Book Now" on one of those fake city pages.
The operation that Jason Wyrosdic helped build has outlasted Jason Wyrosdic.
The Wrench Acquisition — And What Came After
On June 2, 2022, Wrench Inc — a Seattle-based mobile auto repair startup founded by Edward Petersen that had raised $77.2 million of its own — acquired YourMechanic. The combined network covered 35,000+ zip codes. Coverage in GeekWire and Aftermarket News framed it as consolidation in the mobile repair space.
But the circumstances of the sale deserve scrutiny. YourMechanic's Wikipedia article states the acquisition occurred after "a series of lawsuits, fatalities, and marketplace mechanics safety issues."
"A series of lawsuits, fatalities, and marketplace mechanics safety issues." — Wikipedia, YourMechanic article
Fatalities. That word sits in an encyclopedia entry about a mobile mechanic startup, unchallenged, with no elaboration. No major news outlet has publicly reported on specific deaths linked to YourMechanic mechanics. Its presence on Wikipedia — uncontested — suggests sourced information that has since been removed or paywalled. Whatever happened was serious enough to be documented and serious enough that nobody at YourMechanic or Wrench has demanded its removal.
What happened after the acquisition was a collapse:
- February 3, 2023: Wrench laid off its entire US revenue team, outsourcing the jobs to the Dominican Republic and later the Philippines. Employees were notified by email the moment it happened. (Indeed employee reviews)
- By June 2024: Wrench's total headcount had fallen to one single employee — a 96% year-over-year decline.
- The "Best Mobile Mechanic" fake website network (Network 4 above) was built AFTER Wrench acquired YourMechanic. Wrench did not inherit the fake site strategy and shut it down. They expanded it.
The company that acquired YourMechanic now appears to function as little more than a tech shell — one employee, contractor mechanics, and a brand that still takes bookings while fake websites across the country drive traffic to it.
Who Owns This Operation Today
For the record, here is exactly who is running this today, based on Florida Sunbiz corporate filings, SEC filings, and their own website:
Wrench, Inc. — incorporated in Delaware, registered as a Foreign Profit Corporation in Florida
- President & Director: Edward Petersen
- VP & Director: Daniel Casey Willis
- Principal Address: 701 5th Ave, Suite 7150, Seattle, WA 98104
- EIN: 81-0926250
- Florida Document Number: F18000005670
- Status: ACTIVE — annual report filed April 22, 2026
- Registered Agent: Incorp Services, Inc., 3458 Lakeshore Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32312
- California BAR License: ARD304522 (Wrench, Inc., dba YourMechanic)
- Florida License: MV108509
The company operates publicly as "Wrench, Inc., dba YourMechanic" — their words, on their own about page. Edward Petersen is the CEO. The address is a shared office suite on the seventh floor of a downtown Seattle high-rise.
As of this publication, neither Edward Petersen, Daniel Casey Willis, Wrench Inc, nor anyone associated with YourMechanic has publicly addressed the fake website network, the affiliate scheme, the mechanic exploitation, or any other allegation documented in this article.
What Customers Actually Experience
Across the BBB (200+ complaints on file), PissedConsumer (83 reviews, 1.4 out of 5 stars), Trustpilot (820+ reviews), and consumer forums, the complaints follow a pattern:
- Mechanics no-show with same-day cancellations, leaving customers stranded
- Wrong parts ordered — mechanics arrive and cannot complete the job
- Customers overcharged beyond the original quote with no recourse
- Warranty claims denied after incorrect repairs were performed
- Prepaid credits expire and are never refunded
- Multiple reviewers allege that positive reviews on the platform are fabricated
- Customer service is unresponsive, with hours-long hold times leading nowhere
After the Wrench merger, customers reported that labor costs nearly doubled while service quality continued to decline. Warranty claims went unscheduled for weeks.
It is worth noting that neither YourMechanic nor Wrench are BBB Accredited Businesses. Both profiles explicitly state they have not agreed to BBB Standards for Trust and have not passed the BBB's vetting process. A company that has raised over $125 million in combined funding cannot get accredited by the Better Business Bureau.
There is now an active Facebook group called "Scammed By Wrench/YourMechanic" where consumers and mechanics share their experiences. Its description: "This group was created to share reviews/experiences with the company Wrench/YourMechanic."
Hijacking Competitor Traffic Through Google Ads
The deception didn't stop at fake websites. Independent investigative reporting by MobileMechanic.com revealed that YourMechanic was inserting "MobileMechanic.com" — a competitor's brand name — directly into their Google AdWords meta titles and descriptions. When consumers searched for MobileMechanic.com, they were shown YourMechanic ads disguised to look like they were clicking through to an entirely different company.
This is not a gray area. Using a competitor's trademarked name in your ad copy to intercept their customers is textbook deceptive advertising. MobileMechanic.com documented the practice in their initial exposé and a follow-up investigation, both of which remain published as additional sources on YourMechanic's marketing practices.
Fake local business websites. Fabricated identities. Affiliate-driven booking funnels. And now, hijacking a competitor's brand name in paid search. Every layer of YourMechanic's customer acquisition strategy involved deceiving someone — consumers, mechanics, or competing businesses.
What This All Adds Up To
Step back and look at the full picture:
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A $50 million startup built a mobile mechanic platform that charged customers $120/hour and paid mechanics $40/hour while calling them independent contractors.
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The founders left when the lawsuits started — one to build a new company using the same intermediary model, now valued at $450 million — while keeping board seats at the company they abandoned.
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A sprawling network of fake websites — at minimum 85 confirmed, likely hundreds — was built to trick consumers into thinking they were hiring local mechanics. The sites are fake. The business names are fake. The testimonials are fake. The owner identities are fake. The only real thing is the booking button — and it routes to YourMechanic.
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An affiliate program that pays operators $10 to $24 per booking for every consumer they funnel through these fake sites. Do the math: 85+ sites across hundreds of cities, each generating bookings daily. Even at a conservative 10 bookings per day across the network at $24 each, that is over $87,000 per year flowing to anonymous operators whose only contribution is deceiving consumers. At higher volumes — which a network covering all 50 states would easily produce — the numbers climb into the hundreds of thousands.
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A parallel revenue stream — confirmed by multiple mechanics — charged the mechanics themselves $50 to $200 per week, for years, to receive leads generated by the same deceptive websites. The payment structure was routed through PayPal invoices in a manner that avoided 1099 tax obligations. When the operator was done with them, he dumped them with nothing. The affiliate links and lead sales pages coexist on the same sites, operated by the same people, through the same infrastructure.
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A family-run lead generation operation traced back to at least 2008, operating through Set-Apart Marketing out of Clermont, Florida, and later Mobile, Alabama. Their CRM platform (app.set-apartmarketing.net) is embedded directly in the fake mechanic sites. Their Yelp listing has 1.0 stars. Their website is now a Lorem Ipsum template.
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At least three fabricated identities — "Richard Hanson," "David Carroll," and "Christine Dixon" — were used across the network's WordPress sites, all with generic admin usernames and zero verifiable photographs. GPS coordinates embedded in the "Orlando" page point to Mobile, Alabama. The founding date contradicts itself across platforms. The sites' own privacy policies admit they are "lead generation websites" that do "not operate an auto repair shop."
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The network attempted to copy a legitimate competitor — creating "US Mobile Mechanic Leads" to poach the identity of "USA Mobile Mechanic Leads." They were called out and forced to let it go. Mobile Mechanic Leads — the independent, legitimate company they tried to imitate — now warns customers: "Don't be fooled by copycats!"
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The company was acquired by Wrench Inc — which then laid off its entire US team, collapsed to one employee, and built its own additional network of fake websites rather than shutting down the practice.
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The operation's architect is now facing foreclosure. Jason Wyrosdic purchased a $707,000 home in Mobile, Alabama during the peak of his lead generation operation. By 2024, foreclosure proceedings had begun. The mechanics he exploited have nothing to show for their years of work. Neither, it seems, does he.
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All of this is still happening. Every fake Rhino Mobile Mechanics site is live right now. Every YourMechanic affiliate link on mrmobilemechanic.net and mobileautorepairpros.com — verified April 2026 — still routes to yourmechanic.com. Mr Mobile Mechanic holds a BBB rating of F. The deception continues, today, in your city.
Why This Article Exists
This investigation is exactly why EthicalMechanic.org was built.
The mobile mechanic industry is full of incredible, honest, hardworking people. Mechanics who show up at your driveway, do the work right, charge fairly, and take pride in what they do. Those people deserve better than being undercut by a machine that manufactures fake competition, exploits their labor, and deceives the customers they serve.
And you — the person reading this — deserve to know who you are actually hiring when you click that Google result.
If you have been affected by YourMechanic, Wrench, Set-Apart Marketing, or any of the fake mobile mechanic websites described in this article — whether as a consumer who was deceived, a mechanic who was exploited, or a mechanic who paid for leads and was dumped — we want to hear from you. Your story matters. Your experience is evidence. And the more people who speak up, the harder it becomes for this operation to continue unchecked.
This industry needs reform. And reform starts with the truth.
Report This Company
If you have been deceived by YourMechanic, Wrench, or any of the fake mobile mechanic websites documented in this article, you can file complaints with the following agencies:
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- File online: ReportFraud.ftc.gov
- Phone: 1-877-382-4357
- Report deceptive advertising, fake business representations, and undisclosed affiliate relationships
Washington State Attorney General (Wrench HQ is in Seattle)
- File online: atg.wa.gov/file-complaint
- Phone: 1-800-551-4636
California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR)
- File online: bar.ca.gov/consumer/filing-a-complaint
- Phone: 1-800-952-5210
- Wrench holds CA BAR License ARD304522 — BAR has direct enforcement authority
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
- File online: fdacs.gov/Consumer-Resources/File-a-Complaint
- Wrench holds FL License MV108509
Better Business Bureau (BBB)
- File online: bbb.org/file-a-complaint
- Wrench BBB profile — already has 200+ complaints on file
Your State Attorney General
- Every state has a consumer protection division — search "[your state] attorney general consumer complaint"
- Report fake mobile mechanic sites ranking in your city through Google Search or Google Maps
For mechanics who were deceived or paid for leads:
- U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division — call 1-866-487-9243 to report misclassification
- Contact a labor attorney — the precedent in Provost v. YourMechanic (2020) established that PAGA claims cannot be forced into private arbitration
- IRS Form 13909 — if you paid Set-Apart Marketing for leads and never received a 1099, you can report suspected tax fraud
- If you paid weekly fees through PayPal, request your full PayPal transaction history as documentation
Every complaint creates a paper trail. Every paper trail leads to accountability.
This investigation was produced by EthicalMechanic.org. All claims are based on publicly available records, domain registration data, WHOIS lookups, confirmed affiliate tracking codes embedded in website source code, WordPress REST API data, Wayback Machine archives, court filings, SEC documents, state corporate filings, BBB records, Birdeye listings, and published reviews across Yelp, Glassdoor, Indeed, Trustpilot, and PissedConsumer.
Prior to publication, EthicalMechanic.org attempted to contact Jason Wyrosdic and his wife — believed to be named Christy or Christine — to offer them a fair opportunity to tell their side of the story. Because of the lengths to which the Wyrosdic family has gone to conceal their identities behind fake business names, placeholder websites, and privacy-protected domain registrations, they were difficult to locate. They were ultimately tracked down and contacted via Facebook — the only channel through which they could be reached. EthicalMechanic.org informed them that an article was being prepared that would include details about them, their family, and their business operations, and that if they wanted those details to be accurate and represent their side fairly, they were advised to have a conversation with us. They responded by blocking EthicalMechanic.org. That discussion never happened. After several years of waiting and compiling additional evidence, we made the decision to move forward with publication.
YourMechanic, Wrench Inc, and the operators of the fake mobile mechanic websites documented in this article have not responded to requests for comment. Sources and documentation are available upon request.