Scam Warning

claire1368

I want to warn everyone about a scam that happened to us last night. Please read through. The phone rang just before midnight last night, I imagine this is important as it is late you are tired, off your guard and more likely to panic. A man asked to speak to my husband (by name) and when I asked who was calling he said he was from our bank (he named the bank) I was very suspicious so I asked what it was regarding and he said he couldn’t discuss it with me and needed to speak to my husband and go through some security questions which he proceeded to do, he then told my husband to call the number on the card as there had been some suspicious activity on the account. HERE COMES THE CLEVER BIT. My husband put the phone down, got the card and called the number on it, he got through to someone and was then asked security questions and then went on to be told about lots of transactions having gone through the account that evening - this went on for over 30 minutes and resulted in my husband destroying the card and placing it in an envelope for collection for testing!!!!! Within minutes a cab driver arrived and after discussion with him we agreed that this was a scam. He left without the card but the phone calls continued until 1.30am. I believe that the original call was never disconnected and that the dialling and ringing tones my husband heard were just sound effects. I eventually managed to contact our bank on my mobile phone as I couldn’t dial out on our land line. The scammers did a good job convincing my husband there had been activity on our account in order to get him to hand over the card - your bank will NEVER ask for your card. We feel foolish for having nearly fallen for this trick but when you’ve dialled the number from the card yourself and its late at night and someone has told you that there is already fraudulent activity occurring you could be convinced. Please make others aware and hopefully they can avoid any problems.

dalesrider

A old old scam.....

As you say bank will never ask for you card... Or ask for your PIN.

And to make it easier for people to read. Please paragraph long posts such as yours....
It is very hard to read one massive lump of text.

Thankfully I did not need to as i have spoken to more than enough people who have fallen for it.

thenudeone

The scam is relatively well known amongst people who take an interest in this sort of thing; for example it was featured in a recent edition of BBC Moneybox on Radioo 4

But there will always be people who aren't aware of it, so it doesn't do any harm to repeat the information again.

dalesrider - I don't think there's any need to be quite so condescending to a newbie.

claire1368

Apologies for the presentation - just thought I ought to share with as many people as possible and I copied this from my Facebook posting.

If I have to add anything in future I will make sure that I consider your presentation preferences.

Wish my husband was as clever as you.

sistafromanothermista

Well i for one claire1368 appreciated your advice as i wasn't aware of this scam

redpete

claire1368 wrote: »

My husband put the phone down, got the card and called the number on it, he got through to someone and was then asked security questions

How long was the phone down for? Did he hear dial tone when he picked the phone up to dial the number on the card?

dalesrider

redpete wrote: »

How long was the phone down for? Did he hear dial tone when he picked the phone up to dial the number on the card?

> I believe that the original call was never disconnected and that the dialling and ringing tones my husband heard were just sound effects. <

From OP.

While this scam is a old one. It has now devolped into a very nasty one.
Some cases it has gone on for weeks, with people even thinking they are reporting the crime to the police.... Even though it is still the fraudsters.
So just how they are taking over the phone lines for such a length of time is still being looked at.

It is also not just about getting the card and taking cash/buying goods with the PIN.
It is turning into gaining FULL access to the bank account, so funds can be moved from saving/credit cards to further fund spending on a card or via bank transfers.

dalesrider - I don't think there's any need to be quite so condescending to a newbie

Did not mean to in anyway.

As to the OP posting this. It is good and is always worth a repost....
Old scams get rehashed and return. So I have thanked the OP for their post..... Seems the 1st to do so as well

debrag

if the cards destroyed what can they do with it?

k18dan

debrag wrote: »

if the cards destroyed what can they do with it?

Order things over the phone?

sfax

Don't quite understand where the cab fits in but as a general rule, regardless of how it's dressed up, your bank will never ask you for your PIN over the phone or send you emails with login links.

Should imagine it's quite upsetting so i hope it gets resolved for you quickly

redpete

dalesrider wrote: »

> I believe that the original call was never disconnected and that the dialling and ringing tones my husband heard were just sound effects. <

That's why I asked how long the phone was left before recalling - I know there's a timeout after the called party hangs up before the call is cleared down but I can't remember how long the timeout is.
Clever and annoying scam.