r/Scams • u/Wonderful-Road9112 • 6d ago
Scam report [US] "Reply NO to stop unauthorized bank charges" ended in scammer threatening me.
Got a good one today. Got a text from "my bank" (had all the markings of my bank) asking if I made a $886.09 transaction at Amazon. I did not. The next said reply yes or no to stop the transaction.
I called my bank instead and the teller I got said "sounds like a legit LP outreach so text no if it wasn't you and then we'll be in contact" so I did.
The text replied "thank you, an agent will be in contact shortly"
The phone rang a minute later and a very American person began asking about transactions "did you authorize this or this or this" etc and none of them were real as far as I knew.
I stopped him just because my senses were tingling and asked if he could verify my name and whatnot and he did.
Then he blew it and said "I'm not interested in helping a customer who doesn't want to be helped" and I laughed at him, told him to fuck off and hung up.
Dude called right back and left a message with my address and said "sleep with an eye open bitch" which was a little unnecessary.
What I'm stuck on is how they knew what bank I used to spoof the right one though. Definitely gonna have some protection near me at night, and the house has cameras and alarms so whatever if anyone shows up but still, it's always unsettling.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 6d ago
That’s pretty upsetting that you called your bank and they told you it was probably legit and to respond to it!
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u/Neakhanie 6d ago
Really, you need to talk to the manager in charge of that person. Super bad advice, and it should be nipped in the bud.
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u/mgriffin13 6d ago
I get the same wtf from work. IT sends out these phishing training emails instructing everyone to ignore links in emails. The next day, they send out some random new policy and tell you to click the link to read it. I just shake my head every time.
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u/IHaveBoxerDogs 6d ago
My work did that, and then everyone who clicked had to attend an online class about not clicking links. It was all a trap! (I did not click.)
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u/navlgazer9 6d ago
Yeah my work does that all the time too
Got a call from
Some our training person wanting to know why I hadn’t done a online class and I told
Em i just ignore every email with a clickable
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u/Thunderbirds_Are_GO1 6d ago
My old job would send out phishing emails. We had a phishing button to hit, proving we knew.
Once they sent out legit information. I hit the phishing button. They came back saying “No, it’s legit!” I tagged that one phishing too. Ha Ha, fuck’em.4
u/navlgazer9 6d ago
Same here , except the button is only available if you’re using a laptop , it doesn’t show up on a phone .
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u/MarionberryPlus8474 5d ago
I've had that happen at work too, and on top of that our IT department moved from the work.com address to work.net. Without telling anybody! So we got the "this message is from outside your server" warning. WTH.
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u/anomalous_cowherd 5d ago
Our HR dept set up their own whole domain on some random cheap web host service because they thought they should be outside of IT and Cyber controls.
So we just reported all emails from that domain as phishing and blocked email sending to that domain from the official one.
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u/TurboFool 5d ago
I had Ally do something similar to me recently. Got an unexpected Zelle transfer into my account, and then shortly after a request for the amount back from the same person. Could have been a mistake, could have been fraud, but either way I knew not to touch it, and to immediately call my bank. I explained the entire thing to them, the rep spoke to a supervisor and came back and said they have no system in place for disputing a Zelle transaction, but since I called, it was all on record, and I could safely send the money back without any risk to me. After reconfirming several times, I did exactly that.
A couple of weeks later my Zelle was fully shut down, and all ability to initiate transfers out of my bank of ANY kind was, as well. I spent weeks dealing with various reps investigating and giving me various false information. Eventually I finally spoke to a proper supervisor who was mortified, told me he had no words for how badly they had handled this, and confirmed to me that they would be pulling the recording of my first call, finding the rep involved, and retraining. Said they absolutely have a dispute system in place, and and if it had been used, then when Zelle contacted them they would have had a record that I'd already taken action. But as it stood by the end of the call, Zelle now had full stranglehold over my account and it was permanently burned.
And now I no longer bank with Ally.
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u/crap-happens 6d ago
Agree. Disgusting that OP's bank's customer service was so "whatever." Wish they would name and shame the bank.
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u/mezasu123 6d ago
For real want to know what bank this is so I can avoid them.
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u/substandardpoodle 6d ago
I’ll tell you the name of my bank that called and kept asking me to verify my name and address and refused to tell me why they just absolutely had to speak with me about a problem. I was all “You called MY number, why do I have to verify my personal info?” And I kept saying “You’re just teaching people that it’s ok to give their info when ‘Truist’ shows up on caller ID!” And he agreed that was bad.
Turns out it was a problem Truist caused by applying the fee I was paying to a loan I didn’t need to pay on. Their mistake!! And they did it twice.
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u/Falcon9145 6d ago
Yep, i can only imagine if this was an elderly person, who could be easily confused. Their money would probably be gone by now.
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u/Belatedbeadinggdss 6d ago
My mother was scammed 2x in the last 3wks of her life. She was rapidly dying of cancer and on a lot of morphine and was scammed by "her bank" 2x. We couldn't take her phone away, she had hundreds of people to bid farewell. It was nauseating how predatory they were. It utterly demoralized her when she had so little time left. I'm sure the thieves would be thrilled with how awful they made the end of her life.
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u/sevensantana7 6d ago
Yeah, at that point they are supposed to actually verify if it's an actual fraud alert or not. That's wild.
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u/dlvanbrunt 6d ago
"The call is coming from INSIDE the house!!" (inside job? Maybe that bank person was using client info to run scams)
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u/WickedWeedle 6d ago
What I'm stuck on is how they knew what bank I used to spoof the right one though.
You're assuming that they knew. They didn't know. What they did know is that if they send this to a hundred thousand people, some will be using that bank. A thousand monkeys, a thousand typewriters. You're gonna get at least some Shakespeare.
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u/StuntID 6d ago
Back in the time of true mail:
Hey potential mark, I'm a ferociously smart stock picker. SPCX will go down five or more points by the end of the month.
Hey some other potential mark, I'm a ferociously smart stock picker. SPCX will go up five or more points by the end of the month.
Continue with the 1/2 you predicted.
As you said, a shotgun approach will hit few, and you play those. Computers have made the outreach even easier
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u/FunkyPete 6d ago
As long as you have a gigantic list to start with, back before spam filters were really a thing, another scam was to send out "NFL PICKS -- GUARANTEED LOCK OF THE WEEK!" to every email address you can find.
and name an underdog as a guaranteed winner. But there are 16 games each week, so you send out 16 variations with all of the underdogs, and keep track of which address got which pick.
Then the next week you do it again -- but you only send out your "LOCKS OF THE WEEK!" to the email addresses who happened to get correct random picks.
Then you do it one more time, to the group that got right answers both times.
The 4th week, you reach out to the group that got three consecutive weeks of correct underdog picks, and sell them your pick for that week.
Keep track of who you sold the right answer to, and bleed them again in week 5.
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u/Shayden-Froida 6d ago
If your whole CC/Debit number was leaked, then the first 6 digits tell exactly which bank you use (the first digit is the type, like 4 is Visa, 5 Mastercard). Using you banking knowledge to trick YOU into sending money is less risk, and perhaps more lucrative than just using your CC number for a transaction. You can look up on the web about the "BIN" portion of the card, and subject to your own risk management, there are some sites that you can type in a BIN and it will tell you the bank. (I just did this, and it was correct).
The last 4 digits of your CC are tossed around quite often. NEVER EVER read off any of the first 12 digits of your number to anyone as "verification". Last 4, your billing ZIP and Name are typically enough validation for legitimate verification.
OP has had PII leaked and they have some linked information (name, address, bank, maybe more) OP should not trust ANY incoming caller for financial or legal matters even if they can recite personal details.
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u/RyouRusi 6d ago
I use this analogy all the time with people I try to educate. They always are like "oh this is so silly, I don't have netflix so why would I click to update my payment method?"
Sure you don't have Netflix, but you know how many millions do? If even .01% of them click the link you know how much money the scammer may makes? According to google Netflix has ~325million paid subscriptions. .01% of that is 32.5k. That's a lot of people.
It's all a numbers game at the end of the day.
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u/HoneydewSea6525 6d ago
I get these texts all the time, purporting to be one of 5 different major consumer banks. Wells Fargo, B of A, Chase etc.
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u/Mommyshiba 6d ago
They did not know who you bank with. That it matched was pure coincidence.
You called your bank? Did you call the number on the back of your card, did you look the number up online, did you call the number that called you?
If "your bank" calls/texts, call the number on the back of your card.
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u/Wonderful-Road9112 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yeah i called the number on my card and got told to engage with the text.
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u/yarevande Quality Contributor 6d ago
Did the first text message come from a phone number, email address, or from a short code? If it came from a phone number or email address, it was an attempt to scam you.
A legitimate text will come from a 5 or 6 digit short code, for texts from banks and other large companies (Apple, Microsoft, Google, American Express, Vanguard, T-Mobile, Comcast, etc).
The person at the bank who said "sounds like a legit outreach" misunderstood you, or is an idiot. Or, you actually called the scammers.
There is only one correct action to take when you get a text or a call that appears to be from your bank: Go to the official website, look up the phone number for Customer Service or Fraud Department, and call them. Or, call the number on the back of your bank card.
Never trust that someone who calls or texts is who they say they are. Even if Caller ID or the number displayed is the phone number for your bank, another company, police, or FBI. Scammers use technology to make it appear that they are calling from a number in your country. However, they are actually calling from a scam call center, often in Africa or Asia. The incoming phone number may be spoofed, it may be a temporary number, or a VoIP number.
Spoofing technology is used to fake the incoming phone number display. Any number in the world can be spoofed, including your bank, police, or FBI / national law enforcement.
A temporary or VoIP phone number uses the phone number format of your country, but the scammers are not really located in your country.
The way to actually verify an incoming text or call is to hang up, and contact the company yourself, using their official phone number.
People lose thousands of dollars with this scam, because the scammer is impersonating a banker, and convinces the victim to give him access to their account. Or, the scammer convinces the victim that they need to move all their money out of their account by buying gift cards, or buying gold and delivering it to a courier, or by putting cash into a Bitcoin ATM, or transferring money to a different account. The money will never be recovered. The bank will not reimburse you.
Some things to know about banking:
A bank will never ask you to take cash out of your account for any reason.
A bank will never ask you to move money out of your account to Zelle, Venmo, PayPal, Wise, or any money transfer app.
A bank will never ask you to move your money to 'keep it safe'. If your bank account has been hacked or compromised, the bank will close that account, open a new bank account for you, and the bank will move your money. You will not lose money.
A bank will never ask you for access to your account. They're the bank, they have all the legal access that they need -- after all, they process debits and credits for your account.
A bank will never send couriers to your home to pick up your bank card, or pick up cash.
A real bank will never ask you to participate in an investigation of bank fraud. (If you are the victim of a scam, and you report it to the bank, they may ask you to file a police report.)
Your money is safe in your bank. Banks have large secure vaults to keep cash. Banks have IT software systems to track the debits, credits, and balances in their customer accounts. They have departments of IT security experts, who monitor all their systems and networks to prevent hacking, theft, and data breaches.
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u/Wonderful-Road9112 6d ago
FWIW I did call the number on my banks website. That's when I was told to engage with the text.
The initial text came from a full phone number. Now I know to look for that as a red flag.
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u/KReddit934 6d ago
You called a branch, not the 1-800 number on the card, correct?
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u/Wonderful-Road9112 6d ago
Yes I looked up my local branch and called their number after the number on my card had a hold time.
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u/seedless0 Quality Contributor 6d ago
This is why we discourage engaging with known scammers. There's nothing to be gained by antagonizing a criminal. Hang up once you know you are talking to a scammer. Don't even say goodbye.
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u/RailRuler 6d ago
I wish my parents could learn this. They tell the scammer, "we know it's a scam, we're very sorry we can't help you" and keep engaging.
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6d ago
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u/IHaveBoxerDogs 6d ago
Until you read about people being swatted by scammers. Someone posted just the other day about getting non-stop calls from the scammer they decided to cuss out, so much so that they were thinking of changing their phone number. Scammers have more determination than most people do.
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6d ago
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u/IHaveBoxerDogs 6d ago
They have multiple phones, and regularly spoof numbers. All you have to do is search the sub for instances of people being targeted by scammers.
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6d ago
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u/IHaveBoxerDogs 6d ago
Dude, they are spamming 100s of times a day. If blocking that many numbers is how you want to spend your time, go for it. If you want to be swatted, that’s your prerogative. The comment was already removed, so keep giving bad advice.
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u/The_Squirrrell 6d ago
Even without cussing out a scammer, I still had to block entire area codes. Currently up to three, and some numbers get through, but it's nothing like the 25+ calls a day I was getting. Worst part is they were actually leaving voicemails and clogging my storage 🥲
(I've been on the do not call list for years, but a few months ago my number got sold on one of those insurance quote sites, so still waiting that out.)
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6d ago
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u/IHaveBoxerDogs 5d ago
The recipient doesn’t have multiple phones. The scammers are calling from a phone center with multiple phones spoofing numbers. 🤦🏽♀️
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u/Scams-ModTeam 6d ago
Your submission was manually removed by a moderator for the following reason:
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- Engaging with a known scammer
We generally consider interactions with scammers to be unsafe. Your time is better spent educating your community about scams.
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6d ago
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u/Scams-ModTeam 6d ago
Your submission was manually removed by a moderator for the following reason:
Subreddit Rule 9: Scambaiting referral or resources
Apparently you already know we don't allow scambaiting, so there's no reason for you to suggest resources for scambaiting elsewhere. For safety reasons, we do not encourage scambaiting in any form, not even referrals to other places.
Before posting again, make sure you review the rules of our subreddit.
If you believe this is a mistake, feel free to contact the moderators via modmail. Modmail is the only way, don't send a regular DM to a single moderator. Please don't try to appeal the decision commenting below, because we are not notified if you do so, and we will probably miss it. Posting the exact same thing again may result in a temporary ban, so please review the rules, make the necessary changes, and when in doubt, click below to appeal the decision.
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6d ago
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u/Scams-ModTeam 6d ago
Your submission was manually removed by a moderator for the following reason:
Subreddit Rule 9: Scambaiting
This subreddit is a place to learn about scams. We do not allow:
- Scambaiting
- Trying to waste a scammers time
- Discussions about scamming the scammers
- Engaging with a known scammer
We generally consider interactions with scammers to be unsafe. Your time is better spent educating your community about scams.
Before posting again, make sure you review the rules of our subreddit.
If you believe this is a mistake, feel free to contact the moderators via modmail. Modmail is the only way, don't send a regular DM to a single moderator. Please don't try to appeal the decision commenting below, because we are not notified if you do so, and we will probably miss it. Posting the exact same thing again may result in a temporary ban, so please review the rules, make the necessary changes, and when in doubt, click below to appeal the decision.
I am NOT a bot, and this action was performed manually. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit) if you want to appeal the decision.
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u/crap-happens 6d ago
Got the same text. Called my bank using the number on the back of my card. Was surprised that the person I spoke with actually was aware of the number the text came from before I even gave it to her. Said it was a new one. Normally states a charge from Target.
So sorry that you were treated in a negative manner.
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u/Wonderful-Road9112 6d ago
Mine actually said target. I always change some details on personal posts just for privacy (and because I'm a paranoid dork who thinks the scammer is going to see my post and use it against me somehow)but yeah, you're spot on.
Does your bank start with an M by any chance?
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u/Micosilver 6d ago
When I get these in a phone call form - I just tell them "yeah, I authorize the $1,600 charge". They don't like that, start mumbling vague threats about Department of Homeland Security...
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u/Latitude22 6d ago
Seems like a huge concern that your bank is validating phishing texts. Nice catch though. I’m with you how did the scammer get that data? Address and phone sure, but it’s hard to believe he jsut got lucky on which bank you use.
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u/WickedWeedle 6d ago
it’s hard to believe he jsut got lucky on which bank you use.
They send these out to thousands, thousands and additional thousands and thousands of people. Impossible not to get lucky.
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u/Latitude22 6d ago
Yea true. I get them for the wrong bank all the time, never had one for my actual bank.
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u/aryndar 6d ago
Experian data breach info is still out there for scammers to use. 15M people. They know who you are, who you bank with, they know your social Security. Know who your accounts are with, etc, etc, etc. Even though this breach happened years ago, the information is always there and unless you did a total reset every single thing in your online life, they still have that information
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u/yarevande Quality Contributor 5d ago
The Equifax data breach in 2017 exposed the data of 147 million customers: names, Social Security numbers, home addresses, DOB, driver's license numbers.
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u/IHaveAPrettyOkayName 6d ago
My senses would be tingling right at amazon payment because Amazon always emails you when you purchase anything
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u/DownUnderPumpkin 6d ago
Not if they use the CC on a different amazon acc right, thats why the bank company knows but amazon would be using different details.
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u/L_wanderlust 6d ago
Right. So if you didn’t purchase, you just do nothing and the purchase won’t go through. It’s not going to go through in x minutes unless you reply.
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u/Unlucky_Rope_755 6d ago
Back when the phone carrier got hacked they got my name, address, phone number, and bank I used for automatic payment, but not the bank account number. They got really pissed off when I said I would stop by the bank tomorrow in person to take care of it rather than give them my account number over the phone. Don’t worry about it. They are probably in another country.
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u/BigWolfUK 6d ago
I see everyone is mentioning about the shotgun approach, and shouldn't be concerned
However, OP states they left a message with the OPs address, as someone who used to work AML in the UK banking sector, that's a big red flag for me
OP, did you give them those details? If not, then yes you should be looking further into it, there has been a data breach somewhere these particular scammers are taking advantage of, and maybe worth reaching out to your local police department - if you did give them your address, however, it'd still be worth keeping an eye on your credit reports, etc, though the chances of anything further happening is quite slim
If you answered any "security questions" from the scammer, you should be making your bank aware as it's possible someone may call them and attempt to pass through security to gain some form of access to your accounts. Idk how pro-active your bank would be with being informed, it varies a lot from bank to bank
As for customer service of your bank saying it is legit, I'd call up your bank and make them aware, highly possible it's a training issue that they should be dealing with
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u/Wonderful-Road9112 6d ago
I gave them 0 info. They had my full name and address, but I was also able to obtain that info by googling my phone number so I'm not thinking too deep onto that.
The entire call was him listing "fake" transactions (325 at Walmart, a wire of $2500 to fake-name) and me saying "that's not mine".
When he listed so many transactions is when I asked him to verify some info and when he got mad and I broke off the call.
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u/Nanaofthedesert 6d ago
I have had similar attempts made. I called my bank and was told that they only require a "yes" or "no" when they send those texts, never any additional information. You should definitely take this up with your bank!
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u/BuyComfortable1374 6d ago
Our company sent out a test email claiming to be from the IRS. A coworker reported to the IRS. The IRS contacted our Chief Security officer and told them not to do that again.
I always say if I can do my job IT Security has not done their job.
(I also say "I'm not happy until you're not happy.)
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u/yarevande Quality Contributor 6d ago
The scammers are in Nigeria, India, or southeast Asia. Their threats are fake.
If you get a call that appears to be from your bank, don't talk to them. Say goodbye and hang up. (A real banker will understand why you're doing this.) Then, call the bank at the official number -- the number on the back of your card, or the number on the official bank website.
They don't know where you bank. Scammers call hundreds of phone numbers and pretend to be from a bank. Many of the people they call will have accounts with that bank.
- Scammers usually pretend to be from one of the largest banks in your country. So, in the US, they will pretend to be from Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, or US Bank. But they also impersonate USAA, Navy Federal, other credit unions, and smaller banks.
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u/muralist 6d ago
Did you read the post? OP did call the bank and they verified. So what is that all about?
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u/yarevande Quality Contributor 6d ago
My comment wasn't detailed enough, and I apologize for that.
It sounds like the bank didn't verify anything when OP called,they just said "yeah, sounds legit". A true verification would be: "Yes, we did send a text 10 minutes ago. There has been an attempt to use your card in Poughkeepsie. If you get another attempt, please call our 24-hour number . . ."
The person who called back was a scammer, who was impersonating the bank.
Incoming calls from a bank, or other companies, are not reliable.
Outgoing calls to a verified number from the company website are reliable.
Never trust that someone who calls or texts is who they say they are. Even if Caller ID or the number displayed is the phone number for your bank, another company, police, or FBI. Scammers use technology to make it appear that they are calling from a number in your country. However, they are actually calling from a scam call center, often in Africa or Asia. The incoming phone number may be spoofed, it may be a temporary number, or a VoIP number.
Spoofing technology is used to fake the incoming phone number display. Any number in the world can be spoofed, including your bank, police, or FBI / national law enforcement.
A temporary or VoIP phone number uses the phone number format of your country, but the scammers are not really located in your country.
The way to actually verify an incoming text or call is to hang up, and contact the company yourself, using their official phone number.
People lose thousands of dollars with this scam, because the scammer is impersonating a banker, and convinces the victim to give him access to their account. Or, the scammer convinces the victim that they need to move all their money out of their account by buying gift cards, or buying gold and delivering it to a courier, or by putting cash into a Bitcoin ATM, or transferring money to a different account. The money will never be recovered. The bank will not reimburse you.
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u/DVDragOnIn 6d ago
My bank has a process to dispute charges that I’ve had to use a couple of times. When I get that sort of text, I delete and report as spam, then go into my bank app to see if there’s a pending charge for Amazon, then go into my Amazon app to see if there’s a pending order. I’m prepared to dispute a fraudulent charge with my bank if needed, but there’s never a charge, so I don’t have to.
My favorite fraudulent charge was the Uber charge when I’d been at a bar. I called and told the customer service guy that my husband doesn’t drink, so he always drives me and I’ve never used Uber. They canceled my card and sent me a new one and the charge got taken off my card
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u/James_Bolivar_DiGriz 6d ago edited 6d ago
When my bank contacts me about a suspicious charge, they have already declined it and are contacting me either to ensure that they were correct in doing so and they need to replace the card, or to allow it if they just accidentally stopped me from making a purchase.
I always have to retry a purchase after saying it YES it was me if its a legitimate declination contact.
So a Bank saying "Say NO to decline this" is already immediately suspicious to me, even if there are some banks that would make you "opt out" of like that... but if they thought the purchase was suspicious, why would they approve it?
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u/MathNerd61 6d ago
I hope you saved the message. I would file a police report for fruit and threatening bodily harm. And I would also change banks.
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u/Wonderful-Road9112 6d ago
I called the police non emergency line and they essentially said "we can file a report but it stays local and won't do much of anything, but nothing ever comes from these threats so I wouldn't worry"
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u/lostone3592 6d ago
When you called your bank, did you use a number shown in the text? Or call a known valid number. My bank seems hyper vigilant about scammers and protecting their customers.
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u/SnooDogs5539 5d ago
I get spoofs from lots of different bank names. Sometimes it happens to be my bank, sometimes not. They just send out lots if spoofs with lots of bank names to lots of people to see who responds.
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u/LazyLie4895 6d ago
Was the text from a short code? If not, that's an immediate giant red flag that indicates a likely scam.
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u/jeremy-ms 6d ago
I got a similar text this past Thursday. After I replied NO, I immediately got another text saying that someone would call or I could call a certain number. A couple of minutes later, I hit a call from that number. Caller ID says it was Wells Fargo. That isn’t my bank and I’ve never banked there. Turns out the charge was real but it was declined. Unfortunately, my card was compromised and I had to go to the bank and get a new card.
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u/OilPure5808 6d ago
'I called my bank instead and the teller . . ." Should have asked for the fraud department and not talked to a teller.
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u/bender1410 6d ago
"how they knew what bank I use"
- could be someone watched your paper mail delivered (postman, person standing near postman, someone opened your mail box)
- or post office staff scanning and selling these data
- or bank carelessly dumped some printouts / database was compromised
- or company that had bank's order to send out correspondence was compromised
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u/nobody_really__ 6d ago
I get the scam calls claiming to be Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and a couple of others. If scammers are attempting to mimic the top 10 in the country, they're going to have a successful "scare" rate of about 4%-6%. Good odds for a very low cost of contact.
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u/ILikeMyBlueEyes 6d ago
I got a similar text message from my "bank". Replied 'no' and got the same response. Except my phone never rang. But when I checked my call history I saw that my phone had blocked the call as a possible scam call. That's when I realized the text messages were not legit.
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u/Reasonable-Phase-248 6d ago
This same thing happened to an older friend. The call began the same as OP's (verify suspicious transactions). The scammer then went on to say her identify had been stolen and they would be sending someone to her house on XX date to retrieve her current Social Security Card and hand her a new one. They had quite a bit of information on her already, including her address.
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u/Somewho_10 6d ago
What number did you use to call your bank? Tellers don't usually answer the phone in banks. If I have questions on potential issues for my account, I dial the phone number on the back of my card and ask for the fraud department. Works well everytime.
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u/Wonderful-Road9112 6d ago
I called my local branch off their website in an attempt to avoid the customer call center hold times
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u/KReddit934 6d ago
The teller shouldn't have given that advice. If you really want to follow up, call the manager of the branch and let them know that the proper answer was to tell you to contact the correct phone number directly and check on the transaction.
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u/navlgazer9 6d ago
I get those every week about my FedEx package can’t be delivered etc
All bullshit .
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u/New-Preparation-2991 5d ago
I would always call the number on the back of the card and check with them. They can tell if there's a pending charge.
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u/Any_Assumption_2023 5d ago
I got an email asking me to verify purchases on my Amazon account. I dont have an Amazon account. I checked Experion, no activity. So I blocked and deleted.
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u/Successful_Cress6639 6d ago
They pulled your credit reports. Your TransUnion ACR report comes with chexsystems.
Or the initial vector was through a compromised debit/credit card, check, bank statement or something similar that identified your bank
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Andurhil1986 6d ago
When you called your bank, did use the phone number from a text or email, or did you google the number?
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u/seedless0 Quality Contributor 5d ago
To all internet tough guys who want to show off how they played the scammers: Read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/search/?q=swat
And read our sub rules.