New CC fraud scam alert; be prepared...

[CDSmith]

Some of this should be common sense, but there are a lot of people out there who don't know all the little in's and out's of their credit card numbers etc who could very well walk right into this and get scammed.

Read the following, it could save you some headaches..... Unless you don't own a credit card. But you can still warn others. I just received this from relatives in Toronto who know some folks who recently got scammed. This is serious and well-worth the read. If it's been posted recently already just disregard and move along.



************************************************** *******************
SCAM ALERT May-June/2004: By understanding how the
VISA & Mastercard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll
be better prepared to protect yourself. Thanks to Dr. Pat Cloney
for passing this on. Those con artists get more creative every day.

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 <namebank. Did you purchase an
Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a marketing
company based in Arizona?"

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 1-800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800-VISA)
and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control #"

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, "he needs 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 your card number, the next 3
are the 'Security Numbers' that verify you are in possession of the
card. These are the numbers you use to make Internet purchases
to prove you have the card. Read me the 3 numbers". 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 charge on on our card.

Long story made short, we made a real fraud report and closed
the VISA card, and they are reissuing us a new number. What the
scammers wants 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 Master
card direct. 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 to late and/or harder 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 friends. By informing each other, we
protect each other. Thank-You.
************************************************** *****************************

[detoxed]

So they already have your credit card number, and in fact the 3 digit number on the back of your card is only needed for certain internet purchases. According to your story THEY DONT NEED TO CALL AND DO ANYTHING TO FUCK YOU OVER. THEY CAN JUST USE YOUR CARD ONLINE ALREADY

[David!]

Damn scammers
I was the victim of a low life crook who charged my debit card with over $1700 of bullshit purchases in the Naples, FL area.
I now have to go to Naples to identify the crook in a line up, the dumb fuck works at a gas station and was copying magnetique strip from the cards used by customers, he did over $100k of fraudulent charges and used the fake cards at stores where some of his buddies worked as cashier, talk about a bunch of sorry ass dumb Mofos !!!

[kmanrox]

what a great idea... i'm going to start a sweatshop here in thailand and run with it... thx

[Ash@phpFX]

Originally posted by detoxed
So they already have your credit card number, and in fact the 3 digit number on the back of your card is only needed for certain internet purchases. According to your story THEY DONT NEED TO CALL AND DO ANYTHING TO FUCK YOU OVER. THEY CAN JUST USE YOUR CARD ONLINE ALREADY

yeah, they already have your info, the cvv2 number cannot be stored by merchants, it is illegal. this is the reason that they introduced it. i remember a few years back with a variety of very popular shopping carts you could enter into your borwser a simple string at it would list all the cards in their database. it was scary shit

[rowan]

Originally posted by CDSmith
************************************************** *****************************
Please pass this on to all your friends. By informing each other, we
protect each other. Thank-You.
************************************************** *****************************

With wording like this are you sure it's not just an urban legend?

[rowan]

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/creditcard.asp

Originally posted by rowan
With wording like this are you sure it's not just an urban legend?

Ya, sounds like it is, but it's still good advice, everyone should know not to give out info about their credit cards but sometimes these people are so smooth that you get suckered in.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/librar...card_fraud.htm

[Easton]

it's not exactly a new scam, i heard about this in May

[Rictor]

Originally posted by rowan
With wording like this are you sure it's not just an urban legend?

Indeed. I take phone orders all the time with credit cards. You don't need the numbers on the back of the card. Same with a lot of Internet sites. Not all of them ask for the security numbers.

If they already have your number, you're screwed either way. Sounds like a fake e-mail though.

[Johny Traffic]

Fuckers

[Basic_man]

well, thanks for sharing mate!

[bizmak]

wow what a scam tnx for the info

[NBDesign]

Jesus Christ... are people so lazy they cannot get a fucking job and work for their fucking money? I HATE fucking thieves

[hijaker]

yep, it allways good that we keep up with the new scams out there

[Rochard]

One of the first things I do every morning and one of the last things I do every night is to log into my bank account and check the purchases made in the past 24 hours. If I find anything odd I call my wife - This morning it was a $29 purchase at Wal Mart which surprised me, since my wife usually doesn't shop in the morning before work and never shops at Wal Mart.

All you need to do is pay attention, watch your balances, and never give out your info to someone who calls you.

[4Pics]

wow, great scam

[jacked]

wow these scammers are getting sneaky

[Furious_Male]

Thanks for sharing this info. I haven't ran into that but I am running into problems with people just so happening to have my CC #. I am in the process of using one card for each type of thing I do online so I can try to determine where the leak is.

[CDSmith]

Originally posted by RocHard
One of the first things I do every morning and one of the last things I do every night is to log into my bank account and check the purchases made in the past 24 hours. If I find anything odd I call my wife - This morning it was a $29 purchase at Wal Mart which surprised me, since my wife usually doesn't shop in the morning before work and never shops at Wal Mart.

All you need to do is pay attention, watch your balances, and never give out your info to someone who calls you.

Also very good advice. Total common sense yet so few practice it.



As for the rest --
I don't know why other fools here feel the need to question the validity of a letter like this. At the very least it promotes awareness for scams like this, and believe me, scams like this DO happen, people out there DO get calls and fall for this sort of shit all the time. Who in their right mind would give a rat's ass if the letter is 100% accurate or legit?? Fact is, someone could fall for a scam like this, so spread the awareness instead of stupidity.

Again, common sense people... use common sense.

[CDSmith]

Originally posted by Easton
it's not exactly a new scam, i heard about this in May

The letter is dated May-June. It's new enough, and worth telling others about in my opinion. Judging by the phone script they're using a lot of people could fall for it.

[CDSmith]

Originally posted by detoxed
So they already have your credit card number, and in fact the 3 digit number on the back of your card is only needed for certain internet purchases. According to your story THEY DONT NEED TO CALL AND DO ANYTHING TO FUCK YOU OVER. THEY CAN JUST USE YOUR CARD ONLINE ALREADY

A) it's not my story,

B) maybe this particular internet purchase is one of those that requires the 3-digit security #.

and

C) Why do you have to raise your letters at me and come off like a raving idiot about this? Some people here are showing appreciation so obviously some needed to be made aware of this type of scam, so why not shaddap and just be happy there are people like me around that take a moment to try and help others?