Yikes To Watch Out For

Just got phoned by a verrrry convincing scammer. (Related to the supermassive data breach reported this week? Seems likely.)

The caller ID was [Bank I Use] Customer Service. Worth noting, I recently put the bill for the Leif & Thorn Volume 6 paperbacks on my [Bank] card, and that’s at least 10x pricier than anything else I’ve bought for a solid year (you know, since the Volume 5 paperbacks). So I answered.

They had the right info when they asked “am I talking to Erin Lastname?” and “Are you still in the Your City, OH area?”

Then said their fraud department had blocked several large attempted transactions in Florida retail stores, and were any of those me? (Definitely not.)

First red flag: I logged in to my account, and the transactions didn’t appear anywhere. Even if it gets blocked, there should be some sort of “Store – $Price (Declined)” record on the card.

Second red flag: sketchy grammar in the text message they sent.

Third red flag: The guy claimed there was a login session in FL, and talked about resetting things, but my login session here in My City didn’t end.

Me: What was the number of the card where the fake transactions were attempted?

Him: Well, it was your cash account.

[Fourth red flag: He should’ve had a more specific answer, in the format of “it was your [debit/credit] card ending in ####.”]

Me: Can you tell me anything to prove that you’re really [Bank]?

Him: [*affable chuckle*] I don’t know what you mean, ma’am. If you look up the number we’re calling from, you’ll see it’s really us. We have a step-by-step process to go through, so if you could just answer the text, then we can proceed…

[Fifth red flag: I reset my password the normal way, through the website. Got a confirmation text, from the exact same number as the time I reset it in 2020. The “give us your username” text was *not* from that number.]

Me: I already confirmed my name and address. You have my phone number. Can you tell me something I haven’t already confirmed for you? What’s the number on any of my accounts? What’s the current balance?

….And then he hung up.

Bullet dodged! But, to his credit, he was persuasive enough to string me along for almost 13 minutes of phone time before I stumped him. Be careful out there, folks.