Mar 16, 2009
I received a call this morning, beginning with an automated recording stating "we have made several attempts to contact you regarding your credit card balance, this will be the last attempt...". It goes on and asks you to press "1" to speak to a person. I am assuming this is to alarm someone that they have not made their credit card payments, etc. Well, I pushed "1" only to talk to a woman who wanted to inform me that she'd received all of the information regarding all of my credit cards from the credit card financial institutions, and she wanted to know the interest rates of each card, and the balance. Of course I figured this was a scam, so I asked her how I could verify with my financial institutions that this is a legitimate company. She responded by telling me that she has to qualify me BEFORE she can give me a contact phone number, address, or any other information! I played along and asked her exactly what information she was looking for. She said she needed to verify an account number, but wanted me to read the account number to her!! Of course, I told her that wasn't going to happen, but I really do feel sorry for those who don't know better, and give that kind of information over the phone. If you've learned nothing else.... please demand that they provide a contact phone number, check with your institution, and look the phone number they call you from up online. After I laughed and hung up on her, I called that that she called me from -- only to find out what I already knew... it was a disconnected number.