The Original Gay Porn Community - Free Gay Movies and Photos, Gay Porn Site Reviews and Adult Gay Forums

  • Welcome To Just Us Boys - The World's Largest Gay Message Board Community

    In order to comply with recent US Supreme Court rulings regarding adult content, we will be making changes in the future to require that you log into your account to view adult content on the site.
    If you do not have an account, please register.
    REGISTER HERE - 100% FREE / We Will Never Sell Your Info

    To register, turn off your VPN; you can re-enable the VPN after registration. You must maintain an active email address on your account: disposable email addresses cannot be used to register.

  • Hi Guest - Did you know?
    Hot Topics is a Safe for Work (SFW) forum.

I was the victim of a VISA phishing phone scam

gsdx

gsdx

Festina lente
JUB Supporter
50K Posts
Joined
Oct 10, 2003
Posts
57,249
Reaction score
1,603
Points
113
Location
Peterborough Ontario
Be very careful, guys. It was very well done and quite realistic, but there were some tell-tale clues.

Here's what happened.

Just after 7:30 this morning, I got a call apparently from VISA. The voice was a recording and actually told me the first 2 numbers of my credit card. The voice told me that 2 suspicious charges had just been made: one was $300 to Ebay and the other was a $1,000 charge to iTune Gift Cards.

The voice said that I had 30 minutes to take action. By not taking action to challenge or cancel the charges, I was giving VISA permission to take over my computer. I was then transferred to a 'live agent' from VISA security.

Big red flag when the guy spoke with an Indian accent. He repeated the 2 charges and I asked him how I would know it was for real, that he really was from VISA Security. He told me my name, address, and postal code, which is readily available.

Then he asked me to verify my credit card number. I said, "You tell me and I'll tell you if you are right."

He said, "I am not allowed to do that, sir. You must tell me."

I said, "I'm not going to tell you anything. You tell me my number."

There was a click followed by a dial tone.

As soon as I could (I had to wait until 8 o'clock), I called VISA Security to cancel my card and get a new one issued. I told them as much as I could remember from the phone call and even told her that the recorded voice was English but the 'live agent' spoke with an Indian accent. She laughed and said, "I'm not allowed to say that, but I can confirm it if you say it first."

End of story: My credit card is now in pieces in my garbage can, my ongoing donation to TV Ontario has been temporarily postponed, and my new credit card will be in my hands early next week.

For the record, VISA is only allowed to contact customers between 8 AM and 8 PM. (My call came at 7:30 AM.) It was a slick phishing scam, but common sense reveals the red flags. Still, I felt a bit of panic and could easily see how people would fall for it and give the scammers exactly what they wanted.
 
Thanks for the warning and I'm sorry fraud happened to you!
If ever you get a call like that, hang up and call the phone number on your card (or the contact number on ypur statements). Only then can you be sure of speaking to an authorized agent.
 
I am now in the American community with the highest percentage of Asian Indian residents. (The tiny town of Millbourne, Pennsylvania.)

Don't fear the Indian accent. Be afraid of the words behind it. ( I like this town and its people.)
 
Thad1527 said:
Thanks for the warning and I'm sorry fraud happened to you!
Click to expand...

Thankfully, it didn't, but we can all feel sorry for the people who get caught in it and end up in REAL trouble.

Had it been real, though, and I truly was a victim, I wonder how pissed off they would be to find out that I have a voluntary $2,000 spending limit?
 
Good catch Neil, i've not had the Visa scammers yet but i used to get a fake BT then Microsoft scam about my computer being taken over by some outside source and they could help resolve it all for a price, always Indians, i just used to swear at them til they put the phone down or on one lovely occasion the guy began swearing back at me. :lol:
 
Cormac135 said:
Good catch Neil
Click to expand...

It wasn't intimidating at the beginning. It was more cautionary and the immediate panic I felt was genuine. It wasn't until I heard the accent that my common sense kicked in and I suspected it for what it turned out to be.

By the way, at least here in Canada, VISA never, ever, asks for information which they already have on file except for, perhaps, simple personal information. In this case, the year of my birth was all that the genuine agent asked for.

I don't know if this scam is in other countries as well, but I can't see it being limited to Canada. Just be aware, wary, and very cautious.
 
The lengths that they go through is incredible.
 
I've had all kinds of scammers calling me about Medicare since the beginning the year. I had one the other day from a guy with an Indian accent claiming his name was "Dennis" (LOL!) about my back pain shooting down to my knee. I have no back pain at all. I've had a few about credit cards so yeah we get them here too. Calls purporting to be from the IRS about delinquent taxes which I just hang up on. There are at least weekly calls about "lowering my interest rates". I've had several claiming that "Microsoft has identified my computer as infected".... I use Linux and no you cannot have access.

So sorry Thad...not afraid of an Indian accent but many of the scammers have an Indian accent. So I'm "careful" when I get a call with an Indian accent. Many also have Asian type accents. Is that racial profiling? Or or caution based on prior experience?

Not directed at anyone in particular:
Don't start. Yes I know India is part of Asia. But you know what I mean by Asian accents: Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean and so on which are distinctly different from Hindi and other Indian languages.
 
I doubt they knew your card number. The first two digits? Wow, that's probably a country code or something equally generic. Why did you cancel the card? It was obvious they just wanted the number. If there is a suspicious transaction your bank will contact you.
 
cityboy-stl said:
Calls purporting to be from the IRS about delinquent taxes which I just hang up on. There are at least weekly calls about "lowering my interest rates".
Click to expand...

No phone calls from the IRS, but I get Emails from them for refunds and such. I get them from the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency) for the same thing, but they're all scams as well. The CRA doesn't work that way.

moniker said:
Why did you cancel the card? It was obvious they just wanted the number.
Click to expand...

The woman I talked to took my report and I told her I wanted to cancel it and have a new card issued. She told me that was a very wise move and I agreed with her.
 
I get tons of scam calls about health insurance it used to be really bad 20+ calls a day and they use local numbers. T Mobile did a great job filtering out the scam calls. Thankfully i barely get any calls.


The insurance scams have a computer systems to automatically call you with a prerecorded message and if you say a trigger word a live person picks up.
 
The scammers keep coming up with new angles. A few minutes ago I received a called supposedly from the IRS saying I was in big trouble, my property was being watched, etc. and I should call the number in the recorded message I was listening to. The same IRS that recently mailed me a $37 refund for a mistake I made in my taxes and always has a toll-free number for calls???

moniker said:
The first two digits? Wow, that's probably a country code or something equally generic.
Click to expand...

From https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/debt-management/credit-card1.htm :
The first digit in your credit-card number signifies the system:

3 - travel/entertainment cards (such as American Express and Diners Club)
4 - Visa
5 - MasterCard
6 - Discover Card

The structure of the card number varies by system. For example, American Express card numbers start with 37; Carte Blanche and Diners Club with 38.

American Express - Digits three and four are type and currency, digits five through 11 are the account number, digits 12 through 14 are the card number within the account and digit 15 is a check digit.
Visa - Digits two through six are the bank number, digits seven through 12 or seven through 15 are the account number and digit 13 or 16 is a check digit.
MasterCard - Digits two and three, two through four, two through five or two through six are the bank number (depending on whether digit two is a 1, 2, 3 or other). The digits after the bank number up through digit 15 are the account number, and digit 16 is a check digit.
Click to expand...
 
cityboy-stl said:
Don't you basically have only one health insurance company? Lucky You.
Click to expand...

Yes, the government. Each province and territory has its own health coverage. It doesn't cover everything, but usually as much as anyone needs. The first time I a hip, I spent a week in hospital after a titanium replacement. The second time, I was in for a month. My other hip was plated and pinned, my wrist was plated and pinned, my arm was in a sling (and a month after being released), and I had hours and hours of physio. All my medications were supplied.

The first hospital stay cost me $45 for the ambulance. The second stay cost me another $45. OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) covered the rest.
 
I had to cut up my card in the week before Christmas this past year because someone had used it....fortunately though, it was a real Visa person who left a message.

Almost all of us have the same first two numbers on our Visa, so that wouldn't work with me.

Glad you didn't get taken.
 
gsdx said:
A curious questions about drivers' licenses. In Canada, the license number start with the first letter of our last name. The last 6 numbers are our birthdates - yymmdd.

Does the United States use a similar system?
Click to expand...

Drivers licenses are issued by the state you live in, not the federal government. Each state has their own system for the ID.
https://ntsi.com/drivers-license-format/

Missouri issues drivers licenses are for either 3 or 6 years depending on your age and the expiration date is always on your birth date.
 
Thank you for warning us. That was a little scary that he knew your name and address and phone number, but as you say it is public information. Glad you caught on.

I just read in the local suburban paper about a woman who was scammed for $12,000. She was obviously naïve, but I still feel sorry for her.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top