Mar 25, 2015
Today I received a call from a person who claimed to be Jose from UPS. His phone number showing up on my cell phone was 1(801) 567-2399 (Midvale, UT). He had information of a package I recently sent with UPS. He knew the destination and recipient name. He said he needed to verify the billing number I had given them for the charge as he was missing a part of it (note that I originally had sent the package in person not through the internet, so it was pretty convincing that this was an actual UPS call, otherwise, how could they know these details). I did not have the info handy, so he asked me to call him back. He gave me the following number (1800) 772-2267 ext 3501. I did call him back but somebody else answered telling me that they were doing a saving promotion program and that I was entitled to receive a $100 rebate/gift certificate if I only paid $3.99. I told him I was looking for Jose and he said he would have transferred me as soon as we were done with the rebate process. He asked me my VISA info (plus date of birth, address, and email address- he did not ask for my SSN). I was suspicious but he insisted with all sorts of convincing arguments that it was not a scam. Since the whole thing started as UPS related and they already knew my info (name, destination and recipient of the package) I believed it. I gave them my credit card info and then they transferred me to a different department where I had to go through a machine answering system and re-insert my credit card information and others. At the very end they kept asking me if I wanted other kinds of gifts and I declined them. I hang up. They called me back immediately from this other telephone number (201) 408-7062 (Englewood, NJ). I asked this lady information regarding how they were associated to UPS and she told me she would have connected me to the right person as soon as we were done. I asked who she was working for and she said privacymaxx. She said that I was also entitled for free monthly trials on identity protection by privacymaxx. I got annoyed and tired and forced her to stop the call and not call me back as I was busy. Note: there was a recorded voice that said I needed to call this number (177) 548-1166 to stop monthly payments if I did not want to continue with the services they were providing for free. Also note that all the people I talked to had a strong Indian accent.
I usually never ever give my info on the phone, but in this case, I felt stupid not to give it as it came from an originally UPS call related to a real expedition. I am puzzled and shocked (how could they have my UPS information anyway?????). I still don’t know the consequences of what I did (giving them my personal info), but I certainly feel this is a scam or even an identity theft attempt (especially after finding and reading this website). So I immediately called my credit card company and filed a fraud alert. These criminals are getting super-clever. I wish they used their brain for something more useful to society!