Me, a 419 scam, and my bank

[TheRedHawk]

Don't know if this should go here or in Off Topic, or elsewhere. Mods, feel free to move as you see fit.

So I'm at work a few days ago when I get two text messages, one right after the other. Both say basically the same thing: Due to suspicious activity your Visa card has been frozen. Please call this number XXXXXXXXXX. Each text had a different number.

Now I'm not an idiot, so right away I was 99% sure this was a scam. But there was still that 1% nagging doubt that it could be legit, so I pulled out my Visa card, found the customer support number listed on the back and called it. After going through their little automated phone tree and getting an actual person surprisingly fast for a major bank, I explained the messages to him. Not surprisingly, he confirmed they were scams. He then said he would transfer me to their fraud department so I could report the scam.

So I sit on hold for a minute before a woman picks up and goes into a rapid-fire spiel offering me identity theft protection, only one dollar for the first month, then $XX.XX a month after that. She goes on to explain that because I am a (Bank) customer, I get a special discount as well. I explain to her that I was transferred to her to report a scam, not buy identity theft protection. So then I learn that she doesn't work for my bank, she works for a third-party company that sells said protection. They're not a fraud department at all.

I hung up on her. I'm sorry, but I don't need identity theft protection because I'm not an idiot who falls for scams like that. And I am insulted that my bank, on the pretense of transferring me to their fraud department, tried to get me to buy protection from this company.

Later on that day I successfully bough dinner with my supposedly frozen Visa card. So suck on that, scammers!

[Nashida]

That's the first time I've ever heard of a bank transferring somebody to a third-party when they were told they were going somewhere else. Unless this is something new...I've never heard of it.

[Kiwi]

I would call your real bank (the one that issued you the VISA) and complain offically. Im not sure if your state has a banking ombudsman but thats totally unethical of them to sell you a product instead of dealing with your issue.

[Bandit]

I can see that happening - having worked for a bank.

They'd rather upsell you on the "protection" than actually deal with just a potential fraud. Now a real fraud, they will go after you (the customer) and the scammers pretty hard.

Sad, but it's the way it is.

B

[redsox33413]

Also, you can always save the scam texts and go to your local police agency and have them file a simple "non-crime" or "information-only" report. No crime has been "officially" committed, but you can request that they document it in case you or your bank run into problems in the future, or if the scam texts continue and become a nuisance.

[bainsidhe]

Also makes me wonder if the bank isn't sending out some of these "scams" if it gives them the option of upselling. Yeah, guess I'm cynical like that.

[Misanthropical]

bainsidhe, I was wondering the same thing. I guess we are both cynical like that.

[Nohbody]

On the other hand, given that banking regulations aren't likely to loosen up any time soon, whether or not they took bailout money, they would have to take into consideration the costs if they were busted for it.

Like most major corporations, banks tend to be somewhat conservative, in terms of what they do or don't consider acceptable behavior. The big scandals that hit the news are, by and large, the exception, not the rule. They just don't seem that way because they're the examples you do see.

I mean, think about it: if the various woes of the world were the standard, and good things a rarity, like one might think from reading the paper, society couldn't function.

[Pagan]

Could it possibly have just been simple human error and the first person you spoke to just accidentally transferred you to the wrong number? I know I've done it.

[Red_Dazes]

I just had a few similar messages pop up on my phone. I called my phone company, because I only get X amount of texts and this made me displeased.

they said the FCC has been trying to crack down on this sort of thing and texting the word "STOP" and sending it as a reply to the number, will not only stop these texts from X number but also alert the FCC.

[Hyena Dandy]

bainsidhe, I was wondering the same thing. I guess we are both cynical like that.

I wouldn't be surprised, and I'm barely cynical at all.


Mind you, I'd believe it because while not cynical I can be a manipulative son of a bitch, and that sounds like the sort of thing I'd come up with.



As usual, Hyena Dandy does not condone scamming for any reason. He may be a manipulative son of a bitch, so he would come UP with that, but he's also nice enough not to actually DO it. Sorta like the guy who invented the Gatling gun.

[smileyeagle1021]

RedHawk, I have two words for you
Credit Union
I have only once made the mistake of going with a commercial bank and they did everything barely legal that they could get away with to scam me (they signed me up for overdraft protection without telling me, and then when you did a balance check it wouldn't tell you whether or not you had used overdraft and overdraft only came in increments of $100, so you could go over by $2 and still be given a $100 loan... which of course they weren't telling you about). That was one of many problems I had with them.

I so far have had two credit unions and both have been amazing.

[Andara Bledin]

Wow, Smiley, your bank sucked!

BofA has never pulled any of that crap with me. Maybe I've just been lucky.

However, with all of the hoops I helped my mother jump through while she was with the credit union, I just don't have the time and patience to deal with that much inconvenience.

^-.-^