Beware Credit Card Fraud Notification Scams

I had an interesting experience the other day that drove home me the importance of being aware of potential credit fraud/identity theft.  It was also an annoying reminder that in the digital age, there are a lot more ways to be stolen from than there used to be.

I received a phone call the other day from a 1-800 number I didn’t recognize.  Since I was at work and assumed it was a telemarketer, I didn’t answer;  however, the caller left a voice message.  I checked the message and it was an automated call claiming to be from a major bank from whom I have a credit card informing me there had been some suspicious activity on my credit card and that I should call back immediately to clear it up.  Being immediately suspicious, I googled the phone number to try to determine if it really did come from the bank or if it were a scam.  Naturally, I got conflicting reports…some claiming it was legitimate and some claiming it was a phishing scam.

I was almost convinced it was probably a scam and had decided to ignore the call (unwisely) when I received an email from an online vendor I had recently made a purchase from that my credit card had been declined.  Since I was nowhere near my credit limit on the card, I quickly put two and two together and concluded this was the seemingly-fraudulent purchase.  For the life of me I can’t figure out why exactly this particular transaction was flagged since it was nothing out of the ordinary, but I called my bank and sure enough, that’s exactly what had happened.

How To Handle Credit Card Fraud Notifications

While this story has a happy ending, it could just as easily have been a phishing scam.  If somebody called you claiming to be from your credit card company and informed you of suspicious activity, what would you do?  Would you supply them with your credit card number or, even worse, social security number “just to make sure?”  I know a lot of people who would, including a lot of otherwise tech-savvy individuals.  After all, it’s difficult to think straight when you think your identity has just been stolen.

If this ever happens to you, I highly recommend taking the following precautions just to be sure you don’t become  victim.  It could certainly be legitimate, but better safe than sorry.

• Don’t Give Out Any Personal Information To Somebody Who Calls You – The best thing to do in this situation is to politely thank the caller and then hang up.  Make up an excuse if you have to.  While it could be the bank, it could just as easily be an impostor.
• Call The Number Printed On The Back Of Your Card – Practically all credit cards have a customer service number on the back.  By calling that number, you can be 100% certain you are in fact talking to an actual representative of the bank.  If there was really any suspicious activity on your credit card, customer service should be able to help you out just as easily as the person who called you, only now you know you’re not speaking with an impostor.
• If The Call Was Fraudulent, File A Report And Have The Bank Issue You A New Card – Your bank’s customer service representative should be able to assist you in filing a credit card fraud report and issue you a new credit card.  Somebody obviously already has your credit card number or enough information to figure it out, so there’s no point taking chances.
• Check Your Credit Report – This is optional, but you might want to burn one of your three free annual credit reports from annualcreditreport.com just to make sure nothing fishy is going on.  It’s free, so there’s no real reason not to.
• Never Give Out Personal Information To Anybody Unless YOU Called THEM – It’s worth repeating that you can never trust somebody is who they say they are over the phone unless you called them directly.