At work today I got a phone call from a blocked number. That probably should have been the first clue that it was a telemarketer, but I bit anyway. Turns out it wasn’t.
It was someone from Visa. They were concerned about the security of my card. Had I received my last statement? They confirmed my name and address, and then wanted me to tell them the expiry date to confirm I was who I said I was. That sounded suspicious. I told them “No”. I didn’t know him from Adam!
It was hard to understand him because he had a thick East Indian accent. (Or Nigerian?) But it sounded like he was getting threatening. Apparently if I didn’t tell him, then they would consider my card to be at risk and it would be cancelled. I would need to go to the bank to reactivate it.
By this point, my co-workers had overheard what was going on and were listening in. On their recommendation I asked to speak to his supervisor. His accent wasn’t much better, and I didn’t get any different information. He did tell me his name, gave me a phone number to call once I had the information, and a website.
The website looked like it was slapped together in FrontPage.
I phoned the telephone number on the back of MY Visa card. It took a few minutes to talk to a human. Apparently there are no issues with my card. I relayed everything that had happened. I think she was amused at how laughable an attempt this was to get my credit card information. But it is scary to think that this must be working on some people, otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it.