This may have already been discussed in the blogs. I apologize if so. But, I'm so behind in reading that I may have missed it. A new scam that might have caught me was made known to me. Three times, we have been questioned to make sure that our accounts hadn't been compromised. Two with credit cards, one with debit. Fortunately, only the debit one was a real attack. The others were goofups. One was when getting gas, the machine kept cutting off. That triggered a couple of small transactions that looked like someone was trying to get our card to work. I'm glad someone was watching.
The new scam involves calls like we received, saying they are from the fraud department of whoever. They have your name and get you to confirm your address, which they already know. They also have your credit card number and the bank that it is issued on. They ask you to verify a fraudalent purchase which doesn't exist, yet. They then ask you for the PIN number on the back of the card to verify you still have the card. And to supposedly issue you a credit or something. That is the number they are wanting to get from you. Then, they can start charging things. The credit card companies say that they already have the PIN number since they issue the cards, and I'm assuming that the fraud people have it, too. They are saying, Don't give out the PIN number. This is real slick. I probably would have been taken since I have already received these types of calls legitimately. I was real leery of giving out numbers and such. I had no real idea if those people were legit. I don't think anyone asked for my PIN number though. The one time we got an email, I didn't use the connected thingy, but called the bank people directly. This is getting scary. You don't know who to trust on the phone or the computer. I will call the people on the back of the card to verify. The problem was that a couple of times, these calls came from a company monitoring fraud for our banks. I hope that I got this scam explained right. It shook me up when I heard about it. But, it also makes me mad. And makes me determined to get rid of all these things that can be used against me. If I just own a couple of them and don't use them much, then I hope that I can keep track of what is going on much better. People used to hold a mortgage burning party. I'm going to hold a shredding party for these cards....
Tricky Scam.....
October 16th, 2007 at 04:44 pm
October 16th, 2007 at 05:40 pm 1192556459
What's really messed up about this is that card had only been used at a restaurant and nowhere else in the past 6 months.
Of course the other thing you have to watch is your credit report, thieves can always get new cards in your name and use them and since you don't know about those accounts, they tend to do more damage.
October 16th, 2007 at 08:08 pm 1192565324
I dropped MBNA a while back. They also kept calling and asking for my SS# while I had a card with them. Asking me all sorts of personal stuff. I refused and when I called to complain they said yes it had been them. Idiots! Was just a sales call but was so annoying when they tell you nott o give out this info, but then they call you and ask for it. ?????
So um yeah, be careful, but also be careful in case it is a legitimate call.
October 16th, 2007 at 08:51 pm 1192567862
I did this once when they were asking for info on my boss because the info on his cc had been compromised...and the guy had a real weird name, too...but turned out to be legit...