Be careful of credit card phishing by phone

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John Cipriano
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Joined: 13 Jun 2008 8:23 pm
Location: San Francisco
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Be careful of credit card phishing by phone

Post by John Cipriano »

From http://www.h-i-r.net/2010/04/clever-phi ... tempt.html:
My phone just rang. It was a call from +1-817-688-7853. The other end was an Interactive Voice Response script.

Me: "Hello?"

IVR: "Hello. For security purposes, your Visa debit card has been deactivated for debit and ATM use..."

First reaction on my end was "oh, great. Somewhere, someone got my details..."
I listened through the prompts and there was no option to speak to a real human. I tried "0" "*" and "#" multiple times, to no avail. It just kept playing the short prompt menu over and over again. I chose option 1, to "re-activate" my card, suspecting a ruse. On cue, it asked me for my 16-digit card number, followed by #...
Just as your bank won't ask for passwords, they also won't ask for your credit card number, at least not on a call that they initiated. This is not a very advanced scam, either... these days, setting up your own PBX and voice menu is free and easy. So be careful who you give information out to.

FWIW I don't think I've ever had to tell the bank my whole card number, plus expiration date to lift a fraud warning. Maybe the last few digits. Sometimes when you activate the card you do that, but you know the right number to dial, so if you call from a landline you can be mostly sure you're getting the bank and not a scammer. (Not so on a cell phone, at least not with GSM).