Old Mrs. Buzz misdialed the customer service number on our HSA credit card, and got connected w/ a foreign sounding scam company stating that bank number she was trying to call had temporary technical issues and they would connect her, but for the inconvenience they were gonna give her a $100 shopping reward. So she gave them all her info, including name, address, credit card number, expiration date, security code, etc. to cover $2.95 handling fee. Brilliant. Then when they told her she had 14 days to cancel, or she would be charged $20/month for ongoing discount privileges at stores she rarely frequents, she started catching on. Even though I was yelling "get off the phone, it's a scam!" from the beginning, she kept at it until she finally realized she didn't want to get hit w/ $20/mo. kicker... as if she would be lucky enough that's all it would be. Another two hours spent trying to cancel the HSA credit card and get another reissued.

A quick googling showed me at least three other bank numbers that were close to the scammer's one listed in the subject line, so I'm gonna assume there are probably more. Our HSA bank's number that she thought was dialing was one digit off. No telling how bad the identity theft is really gonna be at this point.

I called back, and the guy kept pushing for more info, and I kept asking him to simply confirm what bank he was from because I said I was having an issue w/ my credit card, and had called the customer service number. While we were jousting, another call came in w/ no caller ID, and it was a Windows scammer asking specifically for Mrs. Buzz by name. The number I was calling from was one of our oldest numbers, from over 40 years ago, that has been ported to a cheapo cell package for years, but it's a number that has been associated w/ medical stuff and other things, and was published in the phone book for decades when there was such a thing, so it's likely a scammer rooting around w/ the info Mrs. Buzz gave out, that they would find that number.

Windows scammer was insistent on talking to Mrs. Buzz when I told him he couldn't access our computer. He insisted Mrs. Buzz bought a $340 three-year service contract a couple of months ago. Of course he didn't know what type of computer, or what version of Windows was supposedly involved, or how many Windoze computers were on the network.

Hope y'all's weekends have been at least this much fun.
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Geez, that really stinks.

Something for nothing? Please. Scam.

Not sure why it would take more than a few minutes to cancel the HSA card. Call the (correct) number, cancel, done.

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[www.fakesteve.net]

Quote
jdc
Something for nothing? Please. Scam.

Not sure why it would take more than a few minutes to cancel the HSA card. Call the (correct) number, cancel, done.

Mrs. Buzz just couldn't resist sumppin' fer nuthin', and even though I was yelling "scam!", she was hell bent on giving out personal info to a stranger. Finally, when she realized they were admitting they were gonna be hitting the card for $20/mo. (not to mention the whole identity theft thing), and being weaselly about being able to even cancel that, she started catching a clue. Anywho, it took awhile to track down a viable phone number to get to an HSA human on the weekend. Mrs. B had a tough time communicating the scope of the dilemma to the HSA rep, and then we had take care of the actual banking biz that we had wanted to do in the first place, before spousal unit misdialed. Turned out the HSA bank has made several changes that we were not aware of, so we had the rep explain those.

While Mrs. B was navigating voice mail hell, I was researching the dummy number and scam info on the computer. My bad, too, I misspoke and should've said "almost" two hours, as it was 1:52, and meant that the time involved was from the original misdial thru resolving things w/ the HSA rep. In re-reading my post after calming down a bit, I see my errors. Pain in the butt, any way it's sliced, and we are dreading what may be in store down the road w/ the compromise/data breach.
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I would have hung up the phone as soon as she started giving out that info. Getting yelled at is better than having your ID stolen. If you are on a VOIP system, that could be as simple as turning off the router.

No might be a good time to get a credit watch group, or at least check your credit rating, bank accounts, and credit card everyday for the next few weeks.

Good luck.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.”
-- François de La Rochefoucauld

Something similar just happened to me 5 days ago.

I needed to check on recent purchases on a credit card so I called the customer service number on the back. Since the font was super tiny on the back of the card I mistook one digit on the CS 800 number and misdialed a "5" for a "6".

In a polite and perfectly legit sounding voice the automation thanked me for holding and they would be right with me, in the meantime please listen to an offer. Blah blah blah,,, If interested press 1, if not interested press 2. Then another offer, and another, and another. I got suspicious after 3-4 minutes.

I was just on hold with Moen CS for 17 minutes so 3-4 minutes didn't seem weird. But then as the offers got more and more strange sounding for a bank to be sponsoring I hung up and called again. I can easily see how someone could fall for something like this.

So scammers now get phone numbers one digit off from CC companies to catch misdialers? Can there be that many?

Your wife's name and address are public, so it sounds like the only other information she gave out was your credit card, and you changed that. A PITA to be sure, but doesn't sound like anything to fret about.

/Mr Lynn

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"Hillbilly at Harvard"
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The HAH weblog: [hillbillyatharvard.wordpress.com]

Topical weblog: [walkingcreekworld.wordpress.com]

On the river in Saxonville.

TANSTAAFL

Omb-
She was on her cell phone, and I was following her around our place (as best I could) trying to get her to stop. If she had been on our landline, I would've hit the hook switch.

3d-
Exactly, only she couldn't resist temptation because she didn't share DM's wisdom.

MrL-
Seems like there are that many, or more. When I called back to see if I could get the scammers to name the bank they were supposedly affiliated with, the guy wasn't about to divulge anything; no bank/company, location, etc.. When I told him I just wanted to make sure I was calling my bank, the right bank, he kept going in circles, obviously not gonna give up anything until I did first. There should be an open hunting season for scammers like this.
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....another one is 8....6....7....5...3...0.....9......

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!