I was the victim of a VISA phishing phone scam

[NotHardUp1]

I've never had any encounter that made me rescind a card except for actual theft of information via scanner. I had one credit card that they scanned, likely at a gas station, and I had charges that were small and reported to the police, and the card was reissued.

Another time, the bank had a merchant report a data breach. I wasn't even allowed to know the merchant, but they reissued a lot of cards apparently.

No phishing or calls have ever led me to conclude they knew my number. Without it, they can't do anything. I'm glad you avoided them, Neil, and thanks for the warning.

 

[Paws]

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.

Already that is definitely suspicious. No company would pressure their customers to act in the next 30 minutes, also how would they gain access to your computer? Most big companies don't even call their customers for precaution (this includes Google and Facebook which don't give a shit about their free users, only if you're a business partner for ads). It's usually the customer that has to get active when he suspects criminal activity with his credit card/account/whatever.

 

[Pierresro]

Trump should nuke India.

DUHHHH If you think that is funny you should be ashamed of yourself

 

[gsdx]

Round 2

I just got off the phone after another call. This one didn't start with a recorded preamble. It went straight to the 'live person'. He introduced himself by (fake English) name and said he was calling from VISA's security centre. I interrupted his spiel with:

"Sorry. I cancelled my card and chopped it up yesterday after you guys called me. I..."

*click... dial tone*

EDIT: I'm wondering if I should follow it through next time and give them my old card number?

 

[gsdx]

EDIT: I'm wondering if I should follow it through next time and give them my old card number?

On second thought, not such a good idea. All the arrows would be pointing at me, first.

 

[smokeshadow]

the fake voice mails that I seem to get tend to run along the lines of "my Windows license has expired and please call 800-XXX-XXXX to purchase a new license and new install" The last time this occurred, I had just picked up my PC from the tech repair shop due to a hard drive crash. They were able to recover most of my data from the old drive and had installed a new drive in the process. So. . .they had to install a new Windows onto the new drive for me to be able to re-install all of my software. So I definitely knew this was phony as I broke out in guffaws of laughter

 

[tarallucci]

I'm glad you've been able to handle the situation. I've been victim twice with online payments and was able to come out of it, once with a bit of luck.

 

[gsdx]

Round 3

Got another call a few minutes ago. The guy hung up on me when I told him that someone from his scam phoned me this morning and hung up on me when I told him I had cancelled my credit card. I wonder if those guys are paid by the hour, by the call, or by the number of people who fall for the scam?

 

[frankfrank]

Though it's hard to break old habits and I've been known to do it, NEVER utter the word "Yes" on the phone if you're not entirely sure you're really talking to the company that is represented in the phone call. I understand they can edit your "Yes" into something you would never approve.

That said, I used to do business with a computer tech company called iYogi, in India. I never had a problem with them (other than the occasional accent barrier), but I last used them around 2014 when I bought a new laptop AND I also began using a stateside tech company. iYogi never made improper charges on my credit card, etc.

I probably stopped using them around the right time - though they were originally a legitimate company, they went over "to the dark side" sometime before 2016. I deserted them in 2014 because it became hard to reach their tech people on the phone and there were other options. I'm VERY thankful that their tech support service became hard to access (hard enough to drive me away), because by 2016 they were making bogus charges of hundreds or even thousands of dollars on people's credit cards, infecting customer computers with malware, worms, viruses, keyloggers, rootkits, etc. I got away from them before they became a complete scam.

TO THIS DAY, they call me nearly every day trying to get me to give them access to my computer to fix it. I always tell them that I will "NEVER do business with your scam outfit" again, and will sometimes tell a white lie that "you scammed a friend of mine out of $1,150 in 2016." They call from different numbers all the time, or often from BLOCKED numbers...and even at one point three or four calls came "from" a woman in Quebec, etc. Of course you should never let anybody anywhere near their computer if they call you.

Even if the call is "from" something benign such as the Police Benevolent Fund or Greenpeace, I will tell them that I "NEVER do business with anybody who calls me" and the most recent time somebody called me, asking me to pledge some $$ to a museum, I told them I might do it if they can mail me a form in snail mail, but of course they wouldn't hear of it.

 

[Yooper]

Sorry if anyone's ever been taken, or had any grief.

I just don't answer the phone. If you want to talk to me, talk to the answering machine first. I might pick up.

(I've had the Microsoft calls many times, and recently the IRS one. I'm still waiting for my computer to stop working or the debt police to show up.)

 

[NotHardUp1]

Round 3

Got another call a few minutes ago. The guy hung up on me when I told him that someone from his scam phoned me this morning and hung up on me when I told him I had cancelled my credit card. I wonder if those guys are paid by the hour, by the call, or by the number of people who fall for the scam?

I don't think they get paid in that sense. It's a network of criminals. They buy the data from thieves who hack into large accounts and get your basic credit information, and thereby have the basics. Their object is to get enough of the bits they don't have so they can either hack your bank account, buy something large or small on your credit card, or similar.

It's more like mass mailing. It goes out to tens of thousands of targets. That's why the first part is a robocall, but the human breaks in when someone begins answering. It's a guy sitting there, jerking off, or watching soccer on his TV or laptop, or whatever, and listening or watching a software go through targets, and then boom, he sees one begin to get voice. It reminds me of fishing. You just watch the cork, or in this case, several hundred thousand of them. Then, you try to set the hook before reeling the big one in.

 

[gsdx]

They call from different numbers all the time, or often from BLOCKED numbers...and even at one point three or four calls came "from" a woman in Quebec, etc.

It's almost impossible to track them since they use proxy numbers.

 

[frankfrank]

That's why I put "from" in quotation marks.

 

[Cormac135]

Had another one phone me today, another Indian, Hello i'm phoning from the telephone management company, when i informed him i didn't have a phone he asked me if i was cuckoo in the head and put the phone down on me.

Rude bastard.