This guy is in costume, but the call I received was from a real scammer. Credit: CarbonNYC/Flickr
I received a suspicious email from my credit card company yesterday almost immediately followed by a call from a person who, in the first breath, asked me for my social security number!!! Make sure you don’t fall for this!
First I got an email from my credit card company (or so it appeared) saying there were suspicious charges on my account, with a phone number to call to confirm. I was skeptical of the email right off the bat because when I opened the card I set up email alerts for purchases over a certain amount. (Basically, when a big purchase is made they email me.) I had not received that “big purchase” email alert.
So I
logged in to check my most recent transactions. Everything looked okay, aside from a restaurant that added $2 to my bill without permission. I filed the email and went back to work.
About five minutes later I got a call from a woman who said she was from my credit card company and needed my social security number to verify fraudulent charges.
“I would never give out that information over the phone so I’m assuming this is a fraudulent call. Never call this number again.”
And I hung up. Scary!
This means someone has my phone number, knows which company I have a credit card with, and has my email address. The first and last two pieces of information are not particularly exclusive. However, I don’t believe I have shared the name of my credit card company. I’m absolutely going to freeze my credit, request a free copy of my credit report to check for errors, and consider taking additional steps to prevent identity theft.
Remember, never give out personal information over the phone unless you are absolutely sure of who you are talking to. Be skeptical of who people say they are!
UPDATE: It turns out this email was real!
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Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
It gets a bit scary when someone you know to be very bright gets hit with something like this. How fortunate that you knew what to do. Here’s hoping all your readers also know what to do. The “bad guys” are getting bolder and bolder in these down economic times!
My husband’s grandparents almost got scammed as well. We found out that they received a call from someone posing as their grandson. The caller said they were in Spain and got in an accident and broke their nose. They needed 2800 dollars sent over to pay for the hospital bills and all that junk. The grandparents were actually going to do it! It is scary to think that it is getting to be more commonplace to get scammed or have someone attempt it with you.
You really have to be careful these days. So glad you realized what was going on!
Lyn, that’s a pretty common scam according to reports I’ve read. You might remember that there were a couple of ‘big’ hacking incidents to Epsilon which deals with lots of credit companies…. do a general search & you’ll see who all was included..
This is a very good article to share with your kids. Especially if they are teens and just starting to get credit cards.
When you receive any suspicious email that appears to be from your bank, call your bank’s Customer Service departmen using the phone number of the bank, not the number on the email. They can tell if the email was sent by the bank.
If it was not sent by the bank, speak to your bank’s FRAUD DEPARTMENT. They may ask you to forward the email so that its origin can be traced.
I’ve done this on more than one ocassion and anything that I can do to help end the fraud helps everyone, except the scammers.
@Myke Good follow up tips! I emailed my credit card company directly through its secure site to tell them about the fraud.
I know you had done a an article not that long ago on financial software. I have been using Quicken for 15 years, and download my transactions every evening. So this way, I’ll see anything out of the ordinary. I prefer that – I think even Mint has warnings, rather than having the credit card company E-mail you anything by statements. In fact, I don’t think any of our banks or credit cards send us E-mails for anything other than statements. We also use credit karma, a free service, to monitor any changes in our credit. We did have LifeLock once too, but don’t any more, though it was good.
unfortunately because of the recent issues with epsilon, alot more social engineering calls and emails are going on. its doubtful that they got anything more then email info (which includes any company that has your email that uses epsilon) but its better to be safe then sorry. the credit bureaus will allow u to put a temporary hold for free but anything long-term comes with a fee.
@kat I’d rather pay a fee to freeze and unfreeze my credit card than get tangled up in identity theft!
We were the victim of identity theft last year. Thankfully, we caught it right away and were able to get things squared away. It’s becoming a bigger problem as time goes by. You can never be to safe with your credit cards!
Hi To All,
It is allot easier than you can imagine to get the credit card company or bank name that you use. I worked with the intelligence community and what I know would cause you to pull your hair out (I’m bald by the way.) Anyway seriously, I have received a number of alerts from Bank of America saying that I need to call a given phone number or respond to the sent e-mail. I found it very interesting as I do NOT bank with that bank nor will I ever do so. My suggestion is that if you receive an e-mail or a phone call from your bank or credit card company that you NEVER respond to it and tell them NOTHING!! Instead call your bank or your credit card company directly and ask them if there is a problem. If they say that there isn’t a problem let them know that you received an e-mail from what appeared to be from their company. Many companies want to be informed of this type of activity. Anyway I hope this helped. I will soon have an e-book out on how to protect yourself and how to get what you want from companies.
Be Well,
Merlin
just got a sort-of official letter saying I was hired for mystery shopping and enclosed was a check for over $2000–to call a number and be sure to deposit the check. Check looks fairly good and other than a few grammar and spelling errors, this scam could trick someone. One of the jobs is to send $1950 by Western Union–once you send it, you’ll discover that the check bounced and you’re liable for it! No idea how they had my name and home address…..needless to say, I threw it out after warning friends.
I was living in a a 4unit apartment ocmplex, my neighbor was stealing my mail and I didn’t realize it. I was very grateful that the cops knocked on my door asking why the neighbors had my mail. They were in the process of stealing my identity. I was very grateful that they police dept worked with me to make sure my credit was not affected
Turns out the cops had been watching that apt and they made a hugh bust.
Yikes. Scary stuff!
I am glad you did not fall for it.
will keep my eye out for this, thanks for sharing.
Just a week ago, Visa’s fraud dept. left an automated message wanting us to confirm several very recent purchases. I phoned the number on the recording and was able to identify with certainty the 5 or so purchases in question. None was an amount that I would consider to be a “red flag” (one was for $10, another in the $30-range, for example). However, when I looked at our account online, I saw two entries that weren’t questioned. Both were for San Manuel Indian Casino and in the same amount ($240, I believe). I was then connected to a Visa rep. who said that one of the amounts was a debit and then it was credited back. She (the rep) said someone might have mis-keyed, hence the debit and immediate credit, but she suggested closing the account and opening a new one, which I did. The new cards were overnighted to me. Had I read this blog first, I would like to think I wouldn’t have called the number from the phone message but, instead, called the number on the back of our card as has been mentioned in some of the comments. So I was lucky that this wasn’t a telephone scam and that the call made me check my account online, which I ordinarily don’t do until it’s time to pay the statement.
Coincidentally, my husband had just read an article about credit cards with a computer chip embedded (sometimes identified by little wavy lines) which enables purchasers to scan their card if the store offers that option in addition to or instead of swiping the card. As I understand it, the bad guys have a scanning device that can be hidden in a briefcase, yet be able to scan a card that is in a wallet in a woman’s handbag, for example. When our new Visa cards arrived the next day, I noted they had those wavy lines. I immediately called Visa (using the number on the back of the card this time) and requested cards without the chip. They just arrived today!
I hope this experience/information is helpful!
Thought I’d update you on two separate occurrences this week involving my husband’s and my AmEx credit cards (separate numbers although same statement). (The Visa incident I previously shared above) is only about two weeks ago. Two days apart, we got phone calls (and I an e-mail notification as well) to confirm one transaction on my card and about five on his. All were fraudelent! It’s creepy to learn this in and of itself, but we each were in possession of our cards. Think of the ramifications of that! Even though I wasn’t suspicious about the phone calls, I nevertheless (because of reading these comments) called the number on the back of the card rather than use the one left on the phone messages. Anyway, kudos to AmEx for being alert and aware! And curses on the creeps who know how to do this and should be using their smarts for improving society rather than for illegal activity!