Something financially disastrous could have happened to us tonight, if not for DH's quick thinking. So let me ask you, how would you have reacted? What would you have done? I'm posting this because I hope that other people will think long and hard before giving out any personal financial info over the phone!
DH caught a credit-card scam tonight. We recently applied for a new bank credit card from our bank that has a lower rate than our current/old card, which we have through a credit union. Someone called us out of the blue tonight saying they were from our bank, trying to solicit a balance transfer from our old credit card to the one we just applied for ( my card arrived in the mail last week but DH's never did - definitely fishy..). They said if we transferred balance they'd give us this insanely low interest rate, and all they needed was the number from our old credit union credit card. This guy knew our address, the last 4 digits of our account number for our bank, and what kind of card we had applied for (but all the info was stuff he could have gotten off a piece of stolen bank mail). DH, being the smart cookie he is, told them he wasn't comfortable giving the number out over the phone and wanted to call the bank itself and verify that the call was legit first. The caller guy even put his 'supervisor' on the line who said the call was totally legit, and even gave DH an 800 number to call to verify. Again, DH was smart enough to not call that number and instead called the number for bank security from the back of my card, and kept the other guys on hold on the other line. They even stayed on, so convinced were they of our stupidity apparently. But bank security got on the line and said that they will NEVER call to solicit a balance transfer and will NEVER ask for your credit card number or full account number over the phone like that. It was a total scam. The guy hung right up when DH told him Bank security said it was not an authorized call. Needless to say we canceled the new cards and got bank security to put a fraud alert on our account, just in case. They also alerted Equifax about possible fraud.
I want everyone to know about this, so no one will have to get mired in the endless nightmare of credit card fraud. This caller kept trying to confuse DH, kept giving him personal information like our address ( "How would I know your address and information if I wasn't a real bank employee?", he said), and trying to distract him with chitchat. He never once read off the whole account number, so basically this person likely intercepted our mail somehow and was using it as part of a huge scam. He claimed to be in Guam, and when DH asked if he could call him back after speaking to our bank, he said the offer expired when the phone call ended. Fishy all around. So, if you get a call like this, PLEASE, use a cell phone or other phone and call your bank directly from a number off a genuine bank document ( NOT the number the caller gives you), and verify, BEFORE giving out any personal info at all. Give bank security all info you can get on the fishy caller. Bank security made DH answer 3 multiple choice questions just to verify his identity - what kind of car he had, whether our last property was a rental or own, and his mother's name. THEN security moved on to asking our address and the like, before even accessing our account info for us. After verifying it was a scam, the bank asked for the number the caller ID had on the caller, and the number that they told us to call to 'verify'. They said they can use all of that to open a fraud investigation on the caller. So, if this happens, take down those numbers. Call your bank to alert them about a fraud attempt. Cancel your card if need be. Please protect your financial information like the potentially disastrous thing it could be!
DH is a police officer and deals with fraud and theft all the time. He says so many cases could be prevented if people just applied common sense - Dont give out any personal financial info over the phone unless you initiated the call ( like calling the bank with a question about getting a new interest rate or something), and if an offer sounds really good but has an 'expiration' (like in this case, when the call ended), its 99.99% of the time a scam. Real bank employees know such offers don't expire, so they will allow you to call them back. And usually, they send you the offer in writing, NOT on the phone.
OK - preaching done!
Lisa
DH caught a credit-card scam tonight. We recently applied for a new bank credit card from our bank that has a lower rate than our current/old card, which we have through a credit union. Someone called us out of the blue tonight saying they were from our bank, trying to solicit a balance transfer from our old credit card to the one we just applied for ( my card arrived in the mail last week but DH's never did - definitely fishy..). They said if we transferred balance they'd give us this insanely low interest rate, and all they needed was the number from our old credit union credit card. This guy knew our address, the last 4 digits of our account number for our bank, and what kind of card we had applied for (but all the info was stuff he could have gotten off a piece of stolen bank mail). DH, being the smart cookie he is, told them he wasn't comfortable giving the number out over the phone and wanted to call the bank itself and verify that the call was legit first. The caller guy even put his 'supervisor' on the line who said the call was totally legit, and even gave DH an 800 number to call to verify. Again, DH was smart enough to not call that number and instead called the number for bank security from the back of my card, and kept the other guys on hold on the other line. They even stayed on, so convinced were they of our stupidity apparently. But bank security got on the line and said that they will NEVER call to solicit a balance transfer and will NEVER ask for your credit card number or full account number over the phone like that. It was a total scam. The guy hung right up when DH told him Bank security said it was not an authorized call. Needless to say we canceled the new cards and got bank security to put a fraud alert on our account, just in case. They also alerted Equifax about possible fraud.
I want everyone to know about this, so no one will have to get mired in the endless nightmare of credit card fraud. This caller kept trying to confuse DH, kept giving him personal information like our address ( "How would I know your address and information if I wasn't a real bank employee?", he said), and trying to distract him with chitchat. He never once read off the whole account number, so basically this person likely intercepted our mail somehow and was using it as part of a huge scam. He claimed to be in Guam, and when DH asked if he could call him back after speaking to our bank, he said the offer expired when the phone call ended. Fishy all around. So, if you get a call like this, PLEASE, use a cell phone or other phone and call your bank directly from a number off a genuine bank document ( NOT the number the caller gives you), and verify, BEFORE giving out any personal info at all. Give bank security all info you can get on the fishy caller. Bank security made DH answer 3 multiple choice questions just to verify his identity - what kind of car he had, whether our last property was a rental or own, and his mother's name. THEN security moved on to asking our address and the like, before even accessing our account info for us. After verifying it was a scam, the bank asked for the number the caller ID had on the caller, and the number that they told us to call to 'verify'. They said they can use all of that to open a fraud investigation on the caller. So, if this happens, take down those numbers. Call your bank to alert them about a fraud attempt. Cancel your card if need be. Please protect your financial information like the potentially disastrous thing it could be!
DH is a police officer and deals with fraud and theft all the time. He says so many cases could be prevented if people just applied common sense - Dont give out any personal financial info over the phone unless you initiated the call ( like calling the bank with a question about getting a new interest rate or something), and if an offer sounds really good but has an 'expiration' (like in this case, when the call ended), its 99.99% of the time a scam. Real bank employees know such offers don't expire, so they will allow you to call them back. And usually, they send you the offer in writing, NOT on the phone.
OK - preaching done!
Lisa
