My entire card details got stolen recently, including my name, address and phone number. The first I knew of it was when an email came in with a verification code for a multi-thousand £ purchase for a hotel reservation. I was just thinking it’s an odd looking phish when my phone rang. I ignored it as I always do and then it immediately rang again, so I answered it:
Them: Hello, is this Mr Zanzibar?
Me: Yes
Them: This is Amex fraud dept. We’ve noticed some odd activity on your card, did you make a purchase at x for y in the last few minutes?
Me: No.
Them: OK, great. It’s been flagged and declined on our end so your money’s safe. Just so that I can get this closed off, can you confirm the code that was sent to you?
Me: …Nnnnnooooooooo?
Them: immediately hangs up
Obviously then had to then call the real fraud dept and cancel my card, but I was annoyed by how little of a shit they seemed to give. No curiosity of where they could’ve got every detail of my card, no advice of what to do next, just cancelled the card and issued a new one. Thank you, next caller please.
Spent the rest of the day both relieved that I didn’t fall for it but also furious at myself because the best response I could come up with in the moment was “no”. I could’ve at least told them to get fucked!
My favorite response to scammers and people ringing doorbells selling religion (scam).
The only time I’ve spoke with one of these (because who answers a phone anymore), was about a decade ago. Told me my insurance was expiring on my car. I started to grab my card to read the numbers and renew. This stuff wasn’t widespread and well known at the time.
I had a moment of clarity and asked, “what kind of car do I have?” Line went dead. I got pretty lucky as this was long before the internet had a bajillion reports of exactly this.
I’ll prolly fall for something eventually. On a long enough timeline…
My entire card details got stolen recently, including my name, address and phone number. The first I knew of it was when an email came in with a verification code for a multi-thousand £ purchase for a hotel reservation. I was just thinking it’s an odd looking phish when my phone rang. I ignored it as I always do and then it immediately rang again, so I answered it:
Them: Hello, is this Mr Zanzibar?
Me: Yes
Them: This is Amex fraud dept. We’ve noticed some odd activity on your card, did you make a purchase at x for y in the last few minutes?
Me: No.
Them: OK, great. It’s been flagged and declined on our end so your money’s safe. Just so that I can get this closed off, can you confirm the code that was sent to you?
Me: …Nnnnnooooooooo?
Them: immediately hangs up
Obviously then had to then call the real fraud dept and cancel my card, but I was annoyed by how little of a shit they seemed to give. No curiosity of where they could’ve got every detail of my card, no advice of what to do next, just cancelled the card and issued a new one. Thank you, next caller please.
Spent the rest of the day both relieved that I didn’t fall for it but also furious at myself because the best response I could come up with in the moment was “no”. I could’ve at least told them to get fucked!
My favorite response to scammers and people ringing doorbells selling religion (scam).
The only time I’ve spoke with one of these (because who answers a phone anymore), was about a decade ago. Told me my insurance was expiring on my car. I started to grab my card to read the numbers and renew. This stuff wasn’t widespread and well known at the time.
I had a moment of clarity and asked, “what kind of car do I have?” Line went dead. I got pretty lucky as this was long before the internet had a bajillion reports of exactly this.
I’ll prolly fall for something eventually. On a long enough timeline…
I would have given them random numbers 🙂
Yup, that’s one of the other things I wish I’d had the foresight to do.
That’s actually quite devious. Wtf