Ship of Fools: CREDIT CARD SCAMS!

Thread: CREDIT CARD SCAMS! Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Ye Olde Motherboarde (# 54) on :

Enough is enough with credit card fraud! Scammers are getting sneakier and sneakier. SO BE PREPARED.

If you get a call from a credit card company - BEWARE!
LISTEN TO THE INFORMATION, Then tell them you are busy and you will call them back. Take down their phone number ----- call the phone number on your card - call THAT NUMBER. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT give any information over the phone to someone you did not call.

Here's the latest scam being pulled.......

READ THIS URL CAREFULLY!!!!!

Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ye Olde Motherboarde:
If you get a call from a credit card company - BEWARE! ... call the phone number on your card ... DO NOT give any information over the phone to someone you did not call.

I was really surprised a few years ago when AMEX called, left a message to call their fraud center, a number not on the card. So I call, they ask for full name and credit card number etc to verify identity, I said "umm, I have no idea who you are, I'm going to hang up and call the number on the back of the card." I did, turns out it was legit (someone had used my cc info to buy $9000 of t-shirts on the web).

Wouldn't you think a credit card company - especially their fraud center! - would be alert to wanting people to NOT call a number other than on the back of the card and NOT give or verify info over the phone even if the card company name shows on caller ID! Apparently that's not hard to spoof.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Another useful thing to do is Google the number of any caller of whom you have doubts. I do this prior to blocking it.

In fact, unless the caller id shows a call is from someone I know, I don't answer the phone at all.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

I wouldn't even bother pretending to be busy and take down the number I'd just hang up on them. Depending on my mood, I may tell them to go forth and multiply before doing so.

Posted by Gill H (# 68) on :

My dad is very hard of hearing. If someone phones, he says 'I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Please write to me at the address on your records if there is something you need to discuss.'

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

A few years ago I received a call from my credit card provider, saying that my payment was overdue. I said that it wasn't, they said that it was ... so I got my statement and they were right, I'd forgotten to pay as I'd been on holiday.

They said, "You can make a payment over the phone, now". All the alarm bells rang, as you can guess! I said, "How do I know you're genuine?" That seemed to flummox the man, who simply said, "Well, we are!"

I didn't pay there and then; but, later I called the company and, indeed, the call had been genuine. I made the payment (which duly showed up on my statement) and saved myself a bit of interest!

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gill H:
My dad is very hard of hearing. If someone phones, he says 'I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Please write to me at the address on your records if there is something you need to discuss.'

Problem there is that his account could be drained or frozen.
The number on cards is a general number, calling it will be slower, but safer.

Posted by Adrienne (# 2334) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ye Olde Motherboarde:
... tell them you are busy and you will call them back ... call the phone number on your card - call THAT NUMBER.

But be careful even with this - as the scammers made the call to you, unless they hang up, they can keep your line open, feed you a mock dial-tone, and it will still be them (although a different-sounding colleague) on the phone when you think you are speaking to your cardholder. Use another phone line, or phone another known number first.

Posted by Mili (# 3254) on :

I find being single helps with these scams. I am over 30 so they nearly always assume I am married and ask for Mrs my name instead of Miss or Ms. I just tell them no one by that name lives here.

I have more issues when my housemate answers the phone. Recently she told me our internet provider rang and said that due to some sort of error (can't remember what) they were going to stop our internet access within 24 hours if we didn't give them some details to rectify the problem. It all sounded very dodgy so I asked if the called me "Mrs". Sure enough they had, but my housemate was still worried so I rang the internet provider and confirmed it was a scam.

I was pretty sure they can't cut off internet access when you are paying the bills, even if there is some sort of error. Plus occasionally I have missed paying a bill, thanks to forgetting to confirm a payment when paying online and all they do is add it to the next bill with an overdue charge. They don't even give you a reminder the bill is due [Disappointed]

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gill H:
My dad is very hard of hearing.

So was my mother. So I used to phone up the bank on her behalf. They would say, "We cannot continue the call without your mother's authorisation. Is she there?" So I would pass the phone to her, so she could confirm that she was the real Mrs. X and I was her son. Then she'd give me the phone back and I'd be able to continue.

But any female could have posed as my mother - I really don't see how that process contributed to security. Mind you, it was some years ago, so they have probably tightened up since then.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

The Snopes link in the OP dates back to 2003 and was last updated in 2011, so this is pretty old news. I really don't know why we're discussing this, or why the thread title is in ALL CAPS as if to imply there's some urgency to the story.

[ 27. January 2015, 11:27: Message edited by: Spike ]

Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
I wouldn't even bother pretending to be busy and take down the number I'd just hang up on them. Depending on my mood, I may tell them to go forth and multiply before doing so.

If I have time and inclination, there's one caller I sometimes have a bit of fun with.

He has a voice with what sounds like an Indian accent; he always gives a very WASP-y full name like Richard Williams (but a different one each time), and says he's calling about my computer.

"Really?" I say. "Last time you called, you said you were _____. Or have you had a voice transplant?"

He ignores this and goes straight on with his script. I interrupt. "You sound exactly like ______, who called about my computer last week. Are you related?"

And so on. I have managed to get him to hang up on me four times.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

If I am busy I hang up. If I am at leisure I have a small library of responses. It always works well to offer to contact the FBI, or to simply lay the phone on the tabletop and go feed the cat. But the most effective response is to say, in a perfectly flat and businesslike tone, "Do you want to have sex?" This is particularly effective for political solicitations.

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Back to the OP, my bank, and to the best of my knowledge most other UK banks, have policies relating to contacting customers that are laid out on their website and literature in branch. This will usually include:

emails will not provide a link to click on or a phone number to call - always an instruction to go to a particular page on the website (eg: the "contact us" page), call a number on your card/bill/website, log in to e-banking, visit a branch.

Phone messages and SMS texts will not include a number to call back, but again direct people to website or printed material for a number to call, or to go into a branch.

Identity checks on the phone will not ask for full account details (often just "last four digits" of the account number, for example). And, they will always accept a call back using a number on the website/literature etc.

In my case, because I have e-banking, I would get an email saying there's a secure message in the e-banking system. I then logon to e-banking and retrieve it.

Posted by Dafyd (# 5549) on :

I had a phone call this morning from someone on the 'technical team of Windows'. They put the phone down on me as soon as I asked them if I'd heard right.

Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dafyd:
I had a phone call this morning from someone on the 'technical team of Windows'. They put the phone down on me as soon as I asked them if I'd heard right.

Sadly, my elderly mother got caught out by that one about a year ago. Thanks to prompt action by her bank she didn't loose any money but she has not used her computer since

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

My usual reply is 'And I'm Bill Gates'. And if they say I'm not, then I say it's every bit as likely as them being from Microsoft.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
My usual reply is 'And I'm Bill Gates'. And if they say I'm not, then I say it's every bit as likely as them being from Microsoft.

I like that one!

I've heard of so many people getting the "Windows" call that I've been looking forward to it. I had all of my windows replaced in December, so I've been wanting to tell the "Windows" caller all about my new dual-pane windows, and how since they're brand new they don't need fixing at this time.

I did get an almost-real-looking email yesterday that was supposedly from a financial institution where I do indeed have a credit card. It looked a bit "off," so I logged into that account the usual way. There was no indication of any problem, so I called them (their real number, not the one in the email) and was assured everything was o.k. I forwarded to them the scam email.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:

I've heard of so many people getting the "Windows" call that I've been looking forward to it. I had all of my windows replaced in December, so I've been wanting to tell the "Windows" caller all about my new dual-pane windows, and how since they're brand new they don't need fixing at this time.
[/QB]

I did that a few weeks ago, and it was the first time a scam artist has ever told me to f*** off. My other favoured response is to hold the cordless phone over the toilet and flush it. To give credit to the last scammer I did that to, he said right away, "It was a pleasure speaking to you," and hung up.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

These calls are indeed an invitation to improv theater. I did get one 'Windows' caller to stay for quite a long time, by assuring them that I was anxious to participate and then having grave difficulty turning my computer on. ("Ooh, look, the cup holder came out. But why is it sideways? Will your software patch fix that?") Interspersed with questions called to my husband, who was 20 miles away at the time. ("Hon, is the on switch at the back? Are you sure? Is it on the right or on the left back? Is that your left or my left?")

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
I really don't know why we're discussing this,

Because it obviously isn't old news to everybody.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

Hostly Oink

After some discussion backstage, it's been decided that this thread doesn't really have anything to offer in the way of Ship's business.

Thread closed.

Piglet, AS host

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