this scam is worth noting

[The Natural Philosopher]

Via our local neighborhood watch. =================================

Swindon Police Station GablecrossShrivenham Road South Marston Swindon Wiltshire SN3 4RB Telephone: [phone]

Hi all,

This has been passed on via another Force area through our own Fraud Department In Wiltshire Constabulary, and it is a very convincing SCAM.

We have been asked to disseminate the information as widely and was quickly as we can through Neighbourhood Watch, School Safe and others.

This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want. Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it. This information is worth reading. By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect yourself.. One of our employees was called on Wednesday from "VISA", and I was called on Thursday from "MasterCard". The scam works like this: Person calling says, "This is (name), and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank) did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for £497.99 from a Marketing company based in London ?" When you say "No", the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from £297 to £497, just under the £500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?" You say "yes". The caller continues - "I will be starting a fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number listed on the back of your card (0800-VISA) and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. "Do you need me to read it again?"

Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works the caller then says, "I need to verify you are in possession of your card." He'll ask you to "turn your card over and look for some numbers." There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?" After you say, "No," the caller then thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to call back if you do", and hangs up You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number .

But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back within 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of £497.99 was charged to our card. Long story - short - we made a real fraud report and closed the VISA account. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the scammers want is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card.. Don't give it to them . Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or MasterCard directly for verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement you'll see charges for purchases you didn't make, and by then it's almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a "Jason Richardson of MasterCard" with a word-for-word repeat of the VISA scam. This time I didn't let him finish I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody we know that this scam is happening .

Please pass this on to all your family and friends.. By informing each other, we protect each other.

[Nick Leverton]

The classic wording of an Urban Legend.

How do these supposed crims get the home phone numbers corresponding to the card numbers they've allegedly bought ?

Nick

[Mike Harrison]

Leak from a hacked customer database - Sony PSN for example.

I'd suggest the best action would be to give them a wrong CVV number, as this would waste some of their time, and might also flag up a security check when they try to make a charge,

[Lobster]

Indeed: 2006 seems to be the earliest mention:

it's clearly a plausible scam, these 'warnings' are equally (more?) likely to alert con-artists to the possibilities.

David

[Robin]

+1

And with whiskers. See eg

or (with the very same wording)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I refuse to discuss any such thing via the phone. Tell them to write to you. Not email - write. That is too much effort for a scammer.

[Nick Leverton]

They're all plausible at first sight, and trigger people's sense of outrage/worry/ohmygoshness. That's why these legends spread, after all.

Nick

[Dave Liquorice]

Aye, seen it before (Ithink TNP has been on the pop a bit to much in the last 24hrs) but it is plauseable as a workable scam.

Don't under estimate the abilty of the crims to have machines data matching all of the sources they have. They might have name/CC number here, name/address there and address/phone somewhere else. Match 'em all up and what do you have?

[Nick Odell]

would waste some of

The OP is cut'n'pasted word for word from a known source. Only the dollar signs and the operator's name have been changed and ICBA to find out if the police details at the top are correct or not. A lot of police forces get suckered by this stuff as well - they are only human like the rest of us.

actually flags this as 'true' because it could happen though verifying incidents has been unproductive. But blindly passing on regurgitated material without good cause (ie an actual incident for which new, fresh evidence has occurred) just clogs up the alert mechanism we all have inside us and make it more likely a real fraud will slip though.

Nick

[John Rumm]

[snip old as the hills tale of woe]

On the one occasion I did get a anti fraud call from my cc company, I was actually reasonably impressed with the way they handled it. Needless to say I was in the frame of mind of "lets give them a chance to prove they are genuine (or prove they are dodgy)", while at the same time being very careful what I disclosed.

They went through various hoops to both verify to me they were who they said they were and also to prove I was really me. The questions etc were quite carefully thought out to so that they only asked things that would not ring alarm bells. Typically stuff like "I notice you use two relatively frequently, could you tell me the one you use most often?". Then once onto the section on potential frauds, they would start reciting transactions from further back than the actual suspect ones so you had confidence they must have access to your recent full purchase history (i.e. stuff not yet on a printed statement).

[The Natural Philosopher]

This comes FROM a police source. I do not belivee the email to be a scam.

quite easily.

One of the easiest ways is to find credit card statements, and bills with the same address in them, in houshold rubbish and where the phone mumbers are actually ON the bills, or simply to look the person up in directory enquiries.

Lets say you have the card number off a slip or statement. You have a name, and you know where the person lives. Directory enquiries nets you the phone number, now all you need is the expiry date on the card and the security number. You ask the person to confirm these to you, and you have the lot.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I have managed to track and trace people in te past with a lot less information than this.

I believe it IS a well known scam, and I further believe its been tried on me in a modified form at least once.

Leastways the request to call me back after I had verified the callersID (which I never did) never happened.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Last time it happened it WAS the credit card company. I refused to give them any information at all.

They eventually said 'call the number on your card then' I did and got back to the same person.

[NoSpam]

The same has happened to me a number of times - they ring you and ask for various identification details but are not prepared to identify themselves. If you refuse to give identification details they ask you to call the number on the card, which then goes into a cueing system. If you don't call them they suspend payments on the card. The world gets crazier every day. Must be time to join the Grumpies.

Dave

[Andy Burns]

The police are not immune to being taken-in, indeed they often propagate the false rumour of the "if you press 9 you can be charged £lots/minute" phone scam. But when it's pointed out to them that's impossible they pass it off with some excuse along the lines that "it still justifies using it as a warning"

[CWatters]

It is indeed convincing but the warning doesn't seem to be new.

Google suggests that this particular warning message (mentioning a call last thursday from "Jason Richardson of MasterCard") has been circulating since at least Nov 2003 and possibly older.

Oldest reference I can find is ..

[Graham.]

Quote

The only 4 digit 0800 number that I am aware of is

0800 1111 for Childline. You might suppose the police might have suspected 0800VISA did not look right.

[Theo Markettos]

That's because it's a hacked US report. 1-800-VISA-xyz exists - for example

1-800-VISA-911 for reporting lost/stolen cards (which is a very handy number as it works across all banks - pity we don't have anything similar).

When I've complained to the local police about circulating fake phone scam reports, they've said "sorry, we aren't telecoms experts". So I wouldn't have thought they would have spotted this.

Theo

[Huge]

Then you're an idiot.

[Mike Barnes]

Simpler is just to tell them nothing except that you'll ring them using the number on the card. Why, in this day and age, anybody puts any trust in anything a cold caller says absolutely defeats me.

(Cue the "what happens then is that they don't put the phone down so you think you've dialled the card company but you're still through to the same number" scam scare)