Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Now here's a phone scam that would almost certainly catch me out
From Islington Council's Islington Life Blog:
The fraudster, claiming to be from your bank, says that they have spotted a fraudulent payment on your card or that your card is due to expire and needs replacing. You’re asked to call back using the telephone number on the back of your card – seems legitimate? However, the caller keeps the line open at their end so, when you make the call, you are unknowingly connected straight back to the fraudster.
In most cases you are asked to ‘cancel’ your existing card or ‘activate’ or ‘authorise’ a replacement card by keying your PIN into the handset of your phone.
The fraudster then poses as a bank representative who agrees to collect your card from your home, sometimes offering you a replacement card, which is a fake.
In some cases a genuine courier company is hired to pick up the card from your home address. The victim will have been asked to place the card into an envelope ready for collection – the fraudster now has your card and pin so they can start spending your money.
A variation of the scam involves the fraudster ringing the victim and claiming to be from the police – again with the aim of going to the victim’s home to collect the card and PIN.
Tags for Forum Posts: scam, telephone scam
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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This sounds similar to something that almost caught me out until I realised he didn't actually know who I banked with and was trying to trick me into revealing it. He started by trying to convince me that someone had used my card in a bank machine. Fortunately, the penny dropped but not straight away...
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Permalink Reply by Pat Devereaux on
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Thanks for the warning
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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I had this very call at home last night, asking if I'd spent £700 in Selfridges on my card (I wish!).
I'd read about it so knew it was a scam but it was frightening to imagine how someone would be lulled into reassurance by being asked to call their bank. Be warned folks. I think they got my name from the phone book ..
In terms of being fooled, it is pretty obvious when you pick up your phone again that there is no dial tone - but if you were in a panic at the thought of your card being used fraudulently it's easy to imagine how you might just miss that.
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Permalink Reply by Joseph Boyle on
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The best way to deal with these sorts of things is to say as I do that I will ring the bank back using only the numbers provided by the bank. I have always made it clear to my bank that I will NEVER deal with matters when they call me simply because one never be sure of the bona fides of the caller. I may have to pay for the call but would rather do that then be ripped off.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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The banks themselves sometimes engage in bad practices. Instead of writing to you, which is of course way more expensive, they'll call by phone and then have the cheek to ask to run a (fairly mild) security check on you.
You only have their word for it that they are your bank. While these are normally genuine, I think this is bad practice and sets a bad example.
Over time, people are lulled into the habit of treating telephone calls from individuals claiming to be from their bank, as normal.
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Yes Joseph, but that is exactly the point of this scam - you do call your back back on the number they provide, the catch being that, because the original caller hasn't hung up, you simply end up back on the phone to them (assuming you don't notice the fact that you don't have a dial tone).
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