Heartland

We have just received the following message from the Britsh Transport Police (AKA plastic police).

Got this through from someone today....
BE AWARE....THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU (GOD FORBID!)
Just been warned about this, and could potentially be financially fatal so
close to Christmas.
Please pass on to all people on your mailing list. I got this from a
contact in the Halifax Visa team so it is happening!!
Visa and MasterCard Scam. A friend was called on the telephone this week
from 'VISA' and I was called on Thursday from 'MasterCard'.
It worked like this: Person calling says, 'this is Carl Patterson (any
name) and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My
Badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase
pattern, and I'm calling to verify. Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing
Company a device/any expensive item, for £497.99 from a marketing company
based in (any town?)
When you say 'No'. The caller continues with, 'Then we will be issuing a
credit to your Account. This is a company we have been watching and the
charges range from £297 To £497, just under the £500 purchase pattern that
flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to
(they give you your address), is that correct?'
You say, 'Yes'. The caller continues . 'I will be starting a fraud
investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number
listed on your card and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this
Control number. They then give you a 6-digit number. 'Do you need me to
read it again?
Caller then says he 'needs to verify you are in possession of your
card' (this is where the scam takes place as up until now they have
requested nothing!). They then ask you to turn your card over.
There are 7numbers; the first 4 are 1234 (or whatever, as they have your
number anyway).
The next 3 are the security numbers that verify that you are in possession
of the card' (these are the numbers they are really after as these are the
numbers you use to make internet purchases to prove you have the card).
'Read me the 3 numbers.' When you do he says 'That is correct. I just
needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you
still have your card. Do you have any other questions?
Don't hesitate to call back if you do.'
You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card
number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we telephoned back within 20
minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISA security
department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase
of £497.99 WAS put on our card. Long story made short.
We made a real fraud report and closed the VISA card and they are reissuing
us a new number. What the scam wants is the 3-digit number and that once the
charge goes through, they keep changing every few days. By the time you get
your statement, you think the credit is coming, and then it's harder to
actually file a fraud report.
THE REAL VISA/MASTERCARD DEPARTMENT REINFORCED THE POINT THAT THEY WILL
NEVER ASK FOR ANYTHING ABOUT THE CARD SINCE THEY ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING
ABOUT IT!!!!.
What makes this even more remarkable is that on Thursday a friend of mine
got a call from 'Jason Richardson of MasterCard' with a word for word repeat
of the VISA Scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up. We filed a
police report (as instructed by VISA), and they said they are taking several
of these reports daily and to tell friends, relatives and co-workers so
please pass this on to your friends..........

Dont say you have not been warned..............................

f**king f**k Fuckers

fortunately its a hoax

clicky

and

clicky again

A useful warning, definitely worth passing on. I have seen an almost identical warning elsewhere.

From the clicky:

1) Is this possible? — Yes, it's possible that scammers might get ahold of credit card numbers and then use the technique described above to obtain security codes and process phony transactions against the accounts.

2) Is this plausible? — The scam as described above is not extraordinarily difficult or expensive to pull off; all it requires is access to a telephone and the establishment of a merchant account for processing credit card transactions. It also assumes the scammer already has the names, addresses, phone numbers, and credit card numbers (plus expiration dates) of his victims, but that information might be obtained in a variety of ways (such as breaking into and stealing customer data from merchant web sites). Whether the same scammer could process more than a handful of phony charges before complaints caused his merchant account to be shut down is problematic, though.

3) Are there known instances of this occurring? — We talked with a representative of MasterCard, who told us that although she couldn't verify the specific details of the message reproduced above, this type of scam does occur and isn't new; it's been going on ever since MasterCard started putting CVC2 security codes on all its cards back in 1997. (Visa put CVV2 codes on all its credit cards until 2001.) She also reiterated that MasterCard would not ask a cardholder to disclose security codes or provide any information verifying physical possession of a card; any such inquiries regarding security matters would come from the financial institution that issued the credit card, not from MasterCard itself.

4) Is this a widespread phenomenon? — Unfortunately, MasterCard was unable to provide us with any statistics regarding the specific scam described here, other than to note that using the telephone to trick cardholders into divulging their security codes is a type of fraud that has been occurring for several years and is ongoing.

5) Is this something that might affect the average person? — Yes, anyone who holds a credit card is a potential victim of this type of fraud.

I think it is worth emphasising the sentence again from the quote: using the telephone to trick cardholders into divulging their security codes is a type of fraud that has been occurring for several years and is ongoing

Practical upshot: You should NEVER give ANY details from your credit card to someone over the phone unless YOU CALLED THEM (whether to order something, or they're your credit card company.)

that warning had too many capital letters, exclamation marks and references to friends of friend's donkeys to be a legit warning.

I think we're all getting pretty hip to this kinda shite now, hey-ho