I just received a phone call whose caller ID says "Credit Service", 11:59am,
1-701-661-1003.
Recorded message saying something like "This is your credit card company."
Note: they did not say what company, just a generic phrase like "your credit card company".
Going on "There is no reason to be alarmed. You are eligible for a special reduction in interest rate to 6.9%. You must act quickly, because this special offer expires soon. Press 1 if you want to receive this special lower interest rate."
When I pressed 1, after some hold music, eventually I got what sounded like a human. He said something that again sounded, to my recollection, like "This is the charge department".
At this point I said "Hold on, you guys cold called me, so I need you to tell me what company you are, and how I can verify..."
And they hung up.
---
Now, I must be careful, since I am reporting the exact caller ID as reported by my phone, including the phone number, but since my notes above as to what they and I said are only an approximate recollection.
I don't record all of my telephone calls. At least, not at this time.
If this was a legitimate business call, at the very least they exhibited bad customer service.
However, this is also exactly the sort of thing that a fraud operation might do: try to fool people into giving out account numbers over the phone, etc.
---
I wonder if there are an police systems to report this sort of thing to.
Oregon: http://www.doj.state.or.us/finfraud/engexplanation.shtml
Wish there was a national service. FBI has a webpage, but looks like it is for actual fraud only, not suspicion.
No comments:
Post a Comment