Today’s scam of the day comes from a Scamicide subscriber who received a phone call from a scammer posing as a Chase bank employee working in its fraud department.  The scammer told the targeted victim that someone had used her credit card in another city.  The scammer then asked for information about her Chase accounts.  She was then passed on to a “supervisor” who told her that the bank needed to examine the magnetic stripes on her credit cards and told her that a courier would come to pick up her card so that they could be examined.  The Scamicide subscriber then asked the scammer if she called Chase’s fraud department would they confirm the two scammers worked for the bank.  The scammer responded that they would not because he worked for FDIC.  This contradiction of what she was told convinced the Scamicide subscriber that they were scammers and she hung up the phone.

Because scammers can “spoof” a telephone number your Caller ID can make it appear that a call you receive from a scammer is coming from Chase or another legitimate source so you can’t trust your Caller ID.  While you may receive call or a text from your credit card company to confirm a purchase that they believe is fraudulent, the real credit card companies will never ask for your credit card number, information about other accounts you may have nor would they ever ask to examine the magnetic strip on your card.  Only scammers do this.

TIPS

Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.  Whenever you are asked for personal information, to click on a link, download an attachment or make a payment in response to any communication, you should confirm the legitimacy of the communication before doing anything .  No credit card company will ask you to send them your credit cards.

If you do receive a call or other communication from your bank indicating there is a problem with your account, you should confirm with a call to your bank at a number you know is legitimate before responding.  However, if you get a call merely to confirm whether you made a purchase or not, you can respond to that request.  Legitimate calls from your bank or credit card company will not ask for other personal information.

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