credit card scam

[T77911S]

lady at work just told me this story that happened to her:
trying to keep it short

she got a text from her bank saying there was fraud on her CC.
she replies to text then gets a call from BB&T.
caller ID even shows BB&T.

she questions the guy about his legitimacy.
he tells her to google BB&T phone number, it check out.

she says she did not make the charges he claimed so he will cancel her card and send her a new one. he validates her address (which is an old one), then validates another address which is old.

then he asks for the 3 digit number on back of CC and she reluctantly gives it to him.

now she is on the phone with this guy for an hour while he is making charges with her CC in the amount of 2500, all from walgreens in tampa. 5 roughly $500 charges.

the guy was good.



never give out your 3 digit code., or any info for that matter
never reply to any links on emails or texts
if in doubt get the persons extension and call them back with the number in the back of your CC.


mind you this one is limited to walgreens as it looks like he had someone on the inside helping.

oh, the old addresses were ones she had on file at wlagreens, she never updated her new one.

[legion]

When I get something like that, I turn around and call the number on my statement to verify.

[Sooner or later]

I have been getting calls that my Social Security number has been compromised. I get a couple a week. I never answer but they always leave a number.

[Adrian Thompson]

Stupid. Never every believe it's the bank that's calling. Hang up, google their number and call back.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Zeke

What's BB&T?

The name of her Bank

[red-beard]

The rule in our house is never never never give out credit card numbers or other personal information unless We initiate the call.

Also, if fraud is suspected, we call the number on the back of the card.

WF has a pretty good automated system for fraud. It will verify the last 5 transaction with you. And If there is fraud, I hang up and call the number on the back of the card.

[Mad Max]

It seems some folks are too easily dubbed by fast talking scammers with just enough information to make them believe.

[craigster59]

I keep getting calls from "Apple" in San Jose saying that my cloud account has been hacked and that I need to speak with one of their customer reps. Ain't happening.

[OK-944]

I have caller ID...and unless I know the caller personally and recognize the voice, I simply do not answer the call. Most suspicious callers do not leave a message - and if they do, I do not phone them, but instead directly phone the institution (my bank, CC company, etc.) referenced in that message, to verify the callers info. To date, all of these calls have been scams.

While many of these scam-calls are robo-calls...lately (several times per day sometimes) I've been getting lots of live-sounding calls, with numbers claiming to be in my state. My machine will at first record silence, followed by a live-sounding "hello, hello? From what I gather, what these folks want is for me to pick up the phone and answer "yes?" at which point they can somehow use my recorded response, in concert with voice recognition software, to facilitate identity theft. Pretty scary stuff!

[legion]

Just do what I do. When the phone rings, and I suspect it is a scammer (they will spoof a local phone number 90% of the time), I answer:

"FBI Field Office, Consumer Fraud Division, this is Special Agent Smith."

[JackDidley]

Originally Posted by craigster59

I keep getting calls from "Apple" in San Jose saying that my cloud account has been hacked and that I need to speak with one of their customer reps. Ain't happening.

Hazel keeps leaving me voice mails about this. I do not even have an Icloud account.

[Baz]

I never answer the phone.

Problem solved.

[GH85Carrera]

I had a call once from my credit card company. I asked for her name and extension number. I told her I was going to hang up, and call the number on the back of my card, and ask for her extension. I called the main number, asked for that extension, and she picked up. OK, that is legit!

Anyone that calls me, about any sort of credit thing at all, my BS meter pegs. Verify, then trust.

[Rick Lee]

I used to work for a CC company and it was a real pain in the ass to get people to believe I worked there when I had to call them. They would never have gotten to me by hanging up and calling the number on the back of their card. But they could have Google'd my desk number and it would have come back as being at that CC company's HQ in Phoenix. And I had the company's email domain for my email. I was pretty close to walking down to the front of the bldg. and taking a selfie in front of the giant logo. There wasn't one iota of their credit card info I couldn't look up and read back to them - last transactions, card numbers, every statement amount, miles/points balances and uses, etc. But some folks just wouldn't believe me.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

I have been getting calls that my Social Security number has been compromised.

I get those too. They ask me my SS number. I ask them what SS number they are calling about. Sometimes they hang up, sometimes they flail around a while.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by legion

When I get something like that, I turn around and call the number on my statement to verify.

Every single time without fail this is what you have to do.

I tell them straight up, "sorry, I'm hanging up and calling the number on the back of the card"

Inbound is easily spoofed these days.

The ONLY way to make sure is to initiate the call yourself to a known valid number.

Common sense 101.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

...But some folks just wouldn't believe me.

I wouldn't.

I lose nothing by hanging up and calling back but risk everything by not.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Zeke

What's BB&T?

They replaced CITI Bank in TX.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into my CITI branch one day to deposit a large check and they asked me to open an account.

I was like WTF?

Same teller who I'd used for years. She was also from back east so we used to kibitz all the time.

I slowly start to realize all the CITI branding was gone and it hit me.

We figured out I was never notified about the change because my account was technically still in a branch on Long Island so they never bothered to send a letter even though all my statements came to my TX address.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

I wouldn't.

I lose nothing by hanging up and calling back but risk everything by not.

I get it. But I never ever asked for any PII (personally identifiable info). I had it all already. The purpose of my calls was never to get that kind of info out of them, but rather to get them to spend more with their vendors (I only called business owners) on the card, and then explain how much $$ that translated into for them. So I didn't really get why some were so reluctant to talk, when I explained very clearly that I wasn't going to be asking any PII and I was able to read back to them all of their previous transactions, if they asked about any of that stuff.

FWIW, one of my best customers was a high end car dealer from NY, had a few 959s and all kinds of other exotics. We used to talk for hours and had a great rapport. He spent around $900k/month on the card.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

...So I didn't really get why some were so reluctant to talk...

Because it's, sadly, the world we now live in.