Scam Alert: lowering your credit card interest – beware!

I just got a phone call from a “professional” scammer.  Normally, I don’t pick up phone calls from phone numbers I don’t recognize – I get way too many telemarketers (or as I like to call them, phone spammers) calling to waste my valuable time, and I don’t like to be interrupted when I’m working, so my rule is that I only answer the phone when I’m expecting a scheduled call.

However, this number called several times in a few days without leaving a message, and I was curious to find out who it was, if for no other reason than to make them stop calling, because it was getting distracting.  The number was 773-000-0000 and the caller ID simply said “Out of area”.

It was an automated recording from “Account Services”, and it stated that the offer to lower my credit card interest rate was almost expiring, and to press 9 to continue.  “Account services” is pretty generic, which was my first tip-off that this was a scam.

My next clue? I have a few credit cards, and not one of them has ever called me about lowering my interest rate.  In fact,  I call all of my credit card companies like clockwork every 6 months, even if they don’t have a balance and are already really low, and ask them to lower the interest rate (which everyone should do).  However, in my 10+ years of credit card usage, I have never once had them call me and offer to lower my rate.

So, curious, I pressed 9 to see what they were going to say.  The way that these call centers usually work is that, once you press 9, the autodialer program that called you forwards you to a phone extension where a person is waiting.  On their caller ID, they will almost always see the dialer’s phone number, and not your number, since you did not call them directly.  For this reason, I felt pretty confident pressing 9 and knowing that he wouldn’t know who I was specifically.

The gentleman who answered sounded as though he was probably in India or Pakistan, and sounded as though he might have taken elocution lessons to speak like an American. For some reason, he was shouting rather than speaking.  Not shouting angrily, just shouting as though he was deaf or was in a very loud place, and it did sound as though he were in a huge call center with a cacophony of voices chattering in the background, so that was likely the reason.

I could not make out what company he said he was with.  I asked him to say it again. He spoke so quickly and so loudly, I couldn’t make it out at all.  I asked him to state his company name a 3rd time, and he said that he worked for “visa and mastercard”.

Here is a summary of his sales pitch:

He claimed to work for Visa, Mastercard, and Experian.  He said “they” did a survey and it showed that xx percent of people are hurting their credit by closing credit accounts instead of lowering their interest rates. (*note* it is technically true that closing credit card accounts hurts your credit, because it lowers your total available credit.  The more you know.)

Basically, his angle was that on behalf of Experian, Visa, and Mastercard, they would lower all of my credit card interest rates for free, “because you have such good credit and are still paying such high interest rates”.

It’s true, I do have excellent credit, but I think that was just a lucky guess on his part. The only high interest credit card I have is my business credit card, and it does not go any lower, for any reason, as part of the rewards program terms.  Believe me, I have asked every 6 months for 3 years as a matter of principle. So his information was pretty far off base in that regard.

So, anyways, supposedly, Experian had reviewed my account and decided that despite having good credit my credit card interest rates were “too high”.  He didn’t seem to know what those high numbers were, or the names of the credit card companies that were supposedly charging me too much interest.

It’s a good scheme when you think about it… no matter who you are or how good or bad your credit is, you will probably always consider the interest too high, and people’s eagerness to get a deal “before it expires very soon” may stop them from thinking about it too hard.  Whatever the reason, this scam has been around for several years, so it must be working for them!

I asked several questions, such as, “aren’t Visa and Mastercard and Experian three different companies, how could you work for all three?” and “Who is paying you, Visa, Mastercard, or Experian?”.  I got no satisfactory answer from him.  Most of his answers were just things he had already said, and it wasn’t any more convincing the the more I heard it.

He assured me it would cost me nothing. I asked if his company was a charity, that they could afford to randomly call and help consumers get lower interest rates.  In response, he again claimed that Experian picked me based on my excellent credit and that the reward is having lower interest rates.

He seemed to have a bunch of pat answers, but his responses were inappropriate – just a little off, like his english – none of his answers quite fit the questions that I asked, and no matter what I asked, I got one of 5 answers.   He never explained how his company got paid, or which company actually signed his check – but just kept assuring me that it would not cost me a single cent because he works for Visa, Mastercard, and Experian.

He, of course, needed my credit card numbers and other information in order to help me.  At this point, having listened to his grating voice blasting at top volume for several minutes straight, and having absolutely no intention of giving this obvious scammer any sensitive financial data, I hung up.

If anyone calls you and asks you to give them your credit card number, bank account number, social security number, mother’s maiden name, or any other sensitive financial data, NEVER give it to them.  A legitimate bank, credit card company, or other financial institution will send you an official letter in the mail on their stationary or with their logo on the documents.  Visa and Mastercard will never, ever, ever call you on the phone and ask you for any of this information.  The only time they do ask you for any information is when you call them.

Speaking of which, another good point to bring up would be to never call a phone number on your answering machine for a bank.  If someone leaves a message for you saying they’re from your bank, your credit card company, your credit union, or other financial institution that you do business with, and asks you to call them back, look at their official company website or in the phone book to be sure you are calling their phone number.  Anyone can call and pretend to be Mr. Smith from your bank and give you a phone number to call him back at, but that does not mean that he’s legitimate, or that his phone number is, or that it’s OK to give him your information on the phone.

On a related note, another thing that I have been telling people for years is that if you receive an email and it asks you to log into your bank account, PayPal account, email account, etc, NEVER click on the link given in the email.  If you get an email supposedly from PayPal then you should open a new browser window, and manually type in paypal.com into the address bar with your own fingers.  Otherwise, you may be clicking on a link to a site that has stolen paypal’s pictures and only *looks* like paypal.  In the address bar, it may even have the word paypal in the website address (such as http://paypal.fakescamsite.com or http://fakescamsite.com/paypal) but when you enter your login information, it steals it, giving the scammer (or Phisher) the ability to log into your account and steal your money, change your password, etc.

One other thing that people often fail to realize is that paying with a check is an easy way to become a victim of identity or other theft.  Your bank account number is on your check.  And if you’re like most people, so is your phone number, address, middle initial, and maybe even your drivers license number, as used to be the norm a mere 10 years ago or so.

My last tip for the day: using a credit card is much safer than using a debit card.  At least if someone steals your credit card number, they can’t suck all of the money out of your bank account and make your rent check bounce, just for example!

When paying with a debit or credit card, don’t let the card out of your sight.  A common scam in the last few years has been for Scammers to pay waitstaff and other cashier type workers to skim card numbers.  It takes a split second for them to scan the card a 2nd time into a handheld reader, and the numbers they collect are sold to the scammer who gave them the machine to use.  Then, they make a copy of the card and use it a month or two later and max it out quickly before you know what’s happening.

In 2009, the town where my parents live became victim to a similar scam, where someone tampered with the ATM machine at their bank, and was able to record the debit card numbers and pin numbers.  The bank caught it after only a few days, but it put thousands of debit card users at risk, who then had to get new cards “just in case”, since the bad guys weren’t actually caught, just their equipment was.

This concludes today’s informative rant about scams and keeping your financial information safe.  I hope you learned something, and that it helps keep you safe in the future.   Remember, a fool and their money are soon parted… be skeptical and be safe!

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Jessica Franke is the owner of Green Web Design, a full service Website Design, Web Hosting, Domain Registrar, and Online Marketing firm.  She is also the owner of 50 States Classifieds, and has been providing Free Classifieds online since 2002.  For more articles written by Jessica Franke, visit her blog.