BEWARE! Credit card scam!
This happened to a good friend, one of the nicest vicars I know:
1 Police ring: Say our card has been cloned; used in a shop and they've got the suspect in custody. Reel off list of suspect transactions; say they have receipts
2. They ask us to ring our bank and cancel our cards.
3 We ring off and redial to call the emergency contact number on the back of the credit card; go through security system and ask to block the cards. They say it's all done.
4 The bank offer to put us back through to the police fraud dept
5 We speak to the City of London police operations room who ask for details of the officer we spoke to, and put us through
6 The original officer says they need the cards as evidence; can we take them to a police station? We say no not til tomorrow; she offers to send a courier
7 Courier arrives and flashes ID; we hand over cards. After all they've been blocked by the bank; they are just worthless plastic now
Then ring bank this morning to follow up, and discover that everything above is a lie.
Apparently the fraudsters follow the same scripts as the real police and bank people; the key thing is when you ring the bank, they have managed to not end the original call, so we thought we had ended one call and rung our own bank; in fact we were still talking to the fraudsters. They impersonated the original police officer, the bank security staff, the City of London operations room
When the bank person asked security questions we gave answers. What are letters 1 and 5 of your memorable name? What is your mother's maiden name? Please key in nos 1 and 3 of your pin? Sorry that didn't go through; please key in nos 2 and 4; when we get back to talk to the police we are now convinced it's really the police - we've been via the ops room! - and give more personal information.
And at the end they've got all the security info they need to take money. And they did.
We are feeling paranoid about this; so much so that when the fraud dept of the bank rang twice today, I wasn't sure it wasnt the fraudsters again.
The national fraud office tell me that the key thing is they intercept your phone line, so you are not calling the people you think you are. The fraud office say they probably intercept the signal on a cordless phone, probably from just outside the house.
Be warned folks. Be seriously warned.
(I seem to be stuck on the Fb font, it's Mags again now). I know if I have any calls like this I won't redial on the same phone but use my or my daughter's mobile.
I hope they catch the swine who have done this to my lovely friend.
love Mags B x
1 Police ring: Say our card has been cloned; used in a shop and they've got the suspect in custody. Reel off list of suspect transactions; say they have receipts
2. They ask us to ring our bank and cancel our cards.
3 We ring off and redial to call the emergency contact number on the back of the credit card; go through security system and ask to block the cards. They say it's all done.
4 The bank offer to put us back through to the police fraud dept
5 We speak to the City of London police operations room who ask for details of the officer we spoke to, and put us through
6 The original officer says they need the cards as evidence; can we take them to a police station? We say no not til tomorrow; she offers to send a courier
7 Courier arrives and flashes ID; we hand over cards. After all they've been blocked by the bank; they are just worthless plastic now
Then ring bank this morning to follow up, and discover that everything above is a lie.
Apparently the fraudsters follow the same scripts as the real police and bank people; the key thing is when you ring the bank, they have managed to not end the original call, so we thought we had ended one call and rung our own bank; in fact we were still talking to the fraudsters. They impersonated the original police officer, the bank security staff, the City of London operations room
When the bank person asked security questions we gave answers. What are letters 1 and 5 of your memorable name? What is your mother's maiden name? Please key in nos 1 and 3 of your pin? Sorry that didn't go through; please key in nos 2 and 4; when we get back to talk to the police we are now convinced it's really the police - we've been via the ops room! - and give more personal information.
And at the end they've got all the security info they need to take money. And they did.
We are feeling paranoid about this; so much so that when the fraud dept of the bank rang twice today, I wasn't sure it wasnt the fraudsters again.
The national fraud office tell me that the key thing is they intercept your phone line, so you are not calling the people you think you are. The fraud office say they probably intercept the signal on a cordless phone, probably from just outside the house.
Be warned folks. Be seriously warned.
(I seem to be stuck on the Fb font, it's Mags again now). I know if I have any calls like this I won't redial on the same phone but use my or my daughter's mobile.
I hope they catch the swine who have done this to my lovely friend.
love Mags B x
Comments
Hugs Shell xx
Mandy x
What is the world coming too!! :-(
Love Jules xx