Fraud Alert: Lowering Interest Rate Phone Call
I got a curious call at the office Friday afternoon, and my curiousity probably saved someone thousands of dollars. I got a message that said “press one to lower your interest rate,” and I pressed it.
The call came in around 6:15 PM, and a man who claimed to be from Visa/Mastercard called saying he could lower the interest rate on my credit card to 6.9%. I still have one credit card left, and like I said I was curious, so I decided to chase the rabbit and find out what the story is.
He first asked if I had a credit card with a high balance but that I was at least $1000 under my credit limit. He said those were the parameters to make sure he could help me. I said yes.
So then he asked what the credit card number was. Normally my smarter side would kick in and I wouldn’t give this information out, so I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote down a sixteen digit number that started with a “4″ and gave it to him. I wrote this number down so I could keep the ruse going. If this guy was going to hang himself, I would need to give him some rope.
At that point, I asked for his name, and he replied “Ronney Archer.” He then asked for my expiration date, which I made up as well.
He then asked for the seven digits on the back of the credit card. I made up some more numbers, making sure the fourth number was a “0″ in order to fit within Visa’s parameters. I asked him for a phone number and he gave me a phone number that wound up being a phone line for a motel registration company.
Finally, if I wasn’t sure this was a scam, Ronney asked for the phone number for customer service and put me on hold. (I know Citibank’s phone number from memory because I deal with them so often) He told me he was checking with another department to lower my rate by I know darn well that he was calling to check the space on my card.
He came off hold and asked me if he had the right credit card number and repeated it to me. I told him he was one number off. He then asked for my social security number. I gave him a bogus number ending in “0666″ and he put me back on hold.
A few minutes later, he got back on the phone and he asked if he had the right credit card number again. I changed one more number and he asked me if he could have my phone number in case we got disconnected. I decided to do what I call the U.S. test and I gave him the number 215-867-5309. Any American over age 30 would remember that phone number from the annoying 80s song and call bull, but this guy did not.
All told, I spent 20 minutes on the phone with this crook and hopefully I cost him some money.
There is fraud out there, everywhere, and if you are not careful, you could get taken. Never give out personal information over the phone to someone claiming they will help you. Your bank has your card number and expiration date, they also have your social security number, no one calling from your bank should ever ask for this information.
If you are ready to get real help from a real live lawyer who specializes in helping people with their debt problems, then call me at 484-661-2891 or email me at jim@padebt911.com to set up a free consultation.
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