Friday 27 May 2011

I'm not paranoid but

The other morning I answered the home phone to a recorded message allegedly from my credit card company saying that there had been unauthorised use of my card and I needed to press 2 to be put through to the fraud department. I assumed it was a scam as I often get calls saying that there is a virus on my computer, that I should log on and follow some instructions to get rid of it, yeah right. (The last time we got one of these virus scam calls we asked the caller if he could give us a 12 digit log on code and answer some security questions, he hung up shortly after that.) While I was wondering what to do the next part of recorded message said it was urgent that I call them on an 0845 number. I put the phone down and checked the contact numbers for the company on their website, they were all 0885. Later I mentioned this to Mr FF who said he'd had a similar recorded call ages ago to verify a genuine overseas use of his card and that it probably was OK.If I hadn't that same morning finished this book I might not have been so suspicious but having read this fast paced insight into the world of hackers who infiltrate police and government computers and use social engineering to commit murder, a book full of bluff and double bluff, I might not have been so concerned. The phone rang again later and this time Mr FF answered, went through the button pushing process and eventually got a real person, who he passed to me. This person listed the last 5 transactions on my card, two for about £1,000, one for £450 and 2 for less than £20. The last 2 were mine (obviously) and had been accepted, the others which had fortunately been declined by the credit card company were definitely not mine. The call centre person offered to cancel my card and send me a new one within 5 working days but again I wasn't sure if this was genuine so I said I'd prefer to call the credit company rather than act on a call that I couldn't verify. He was pleasant enough and suggested I ring the customer care number on the back of my card.
So I made my own call, got through to the fraud department again, went through some security questions was given exactly the same information and again the offer of cancelling my existing card immediately and waiting for a new one, which this time I agreed to. Bad enough that some scum has used my credit card details, the attempted purchases were for a UK mail order fashion company, a UK printing company and some organisation in India, but even worse that I felt I couldn't trust the person who phoned to help me. I really don't want to feel that they are all out to get me, it was a good book though.

11 comments:

  1. I don't think you're paranoid, better to be safe than sorry :-(

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  2. You did the right thing. I would have been suspicious too.

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  3. I'd have felt the same and done the same thing. We get so many of these scam calls that you are suspicious of everyone sadly :(

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  4. I think you are very sensible - a friend of mine had their bank account hacked by giving a load of info to someone who rang out of the blue.

    Pomona x

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  5. You did well and I hope I would have done the same. Incidentally, I had a similar call to inform me increasing amounts had been withdrawn from my account from the stroke of midnight and thereafter at 5 minute intervals. The source was apparently a known funder of Al Quayeda!

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  6. Sadly you can't be trusting these days....it's very sensible to ring the number on the back of your card.
    I get a lot of spoof emails from Pay Pal but when I cursor over the link it's never Pay Pal... this is why I am resisting doing online banking, that and the fact I am an old fossil ;-)

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  7. Very sensible of you to be so careful. You never know how clever and to what lengths people will go to catch you out. I hope you get your new card soon! x

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  8. It leaves a nasty taste, doesn't it? when my card was used illegally they tested it every so often by making very small donations to charities to make sure it hadn't been reported yet. I was apparently buying airline tickets all over Scandinavia and loads of computer games - not a likely scenario in my case!!

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  9. It's a sad reflection on life today that we are so suspicious. Sometime ago I had a call from my credit card company - to start with, they wanted my security answers - but I asked what the call was about. They wouldn't ell me if I didn't give them the security answers ..... but as they had phoned me, I didn't know if the call was genuine. Like you, I called the card company myself and found it was a genuine call - but just a marketing one, so why couldn't they jusy have given me a general idea at the start!!

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  10. I would feel exactly the same way. You really cannot trust anyone on the phone these days and even less on the computer, not without being very careful, as you were!!

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  11. Just catching up after our weekend away, thanks for the kind comments about the garden post.
    This post has put the wind up me, as we seem to have escaped such scam calls and fraudulent usage, but you do hear of this happening to so many people.:(

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