Jun 19, 2009
I received a call today from Sapphire Financials; spoke to a man who identified himself as John Walters. He gave me the 1-866-942-6441 phone number and email www.sapphirefinancials.homestead.com so that I could check out the validity of their business. I also go the name of his supervisor, Robert Vanny. Unfortunately during the conversation which seemed OK at first because John seemed to know quite a bit about my credit history, I gave him my credit card number and like a fool I also gave the last 4 digits of my SSN# too.He said that was needed in order to verify my information and qualify me for the lowest interest rate possible. THIS IS WHEN I GOT SCARED. I knew I had just done something stupid; I should know better as I work in the Retirement field and you don't give out personal information. I did not go through with the transaction, instead said I was going to call my card company and report them and hung up. Immediately, the phone rang and Robert Vanny tried to explain but due to the pushy approach I got even more uncomfortable.I called CitiBank and talked to someone in the Fraud department. They are not aware of any such business as being legitimate. As a result. I closed my card and I am alerting any financial I do business with to notify me of any unusual activity. I am also calling the Social Security office as I am a senior and a good target for scam artists.