What Do You Do If A Credit Card Employee Calls You?

I would definitely call myself a nervous nellie when it comes to scams. If something doesn’t seem right, I question it. That includes all telephone calls that I receive from people that I don’t know. I don’t usually agree to anything over the phone and I never give information out unless I am certain the call is for real. Sometimes I feel like a ‘b’ with an ‘itch’ but nowadays you never know.

On Tuesday, I received a call but I was unable to catch it before the answering machine picked up. It turns out it was someone claiming to be from my credit card company and he needed to talk to me. He gave a number to call him back.

First thing I did was look at the caller ID. It came back “Unknown.” Hmm…

There are some scams out there that hope to get you to call back. So I didn’t. Instead, I took my credit card out and called the number on the back. I have to say, I’ve been having great luck lately with very helpful customer service representatives.

I explained to the woman that I had received a call and was given a number. I also told her how I am hesitant to call the number and I would like to see if she knew what it was about. I thought maybe it was because of my call a few days before when I requested to be taken off their marketing list.

The representative didn’t see anything on my account about them trying to contact me. So she asked me for the number I was given and she and put me on hold. She was going to try to look it up really quick. After a few minutes, she came back on and told me she couldn’t find it right off bat, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a number from their company. She said that their directory is many pages long. I believe it.

I asked her if there was anything that I can do to try to ensure that when I call the number, I am dealing with the actual company. She gave me some pointers:

Always get the representative’s name and their department. Asking for this information can narrow things down if you still feel uncomfortable about the call and want to call the number on the back of your card again.

The representative should be able to answer your question about your current balance and due date. If you are wondering about the validity of the call, ask the representative to tell you your current balance and your due date. They are allowed to give out that info, and it should be correct. If not, a red flag should go up.

By law, the company cannot give you your personally identifiable information over the phone. This is why they always ask you to verify your name and address. They cannot give you that information. You have to provide it to them. That said, they should not be asking you to verify your social security number.

Calls from their company (and likely many other credit card companies) will come up on a caller ID as “Unknown.” The representative explained to me that their phone system is complicated and it doesn’t show a number on a caller ID.

If you are still concerned, call the number on the back of your card and give them the information you collected. They will look into it and possibly report the incident to their security department.

In my case, the call I received was valid. As soon as I asked what department, they told me that it was for new card application division. I had just applied for a card, so it made sense. To seal the deal, I asked them what card I applied for. They got it correct. Continuing with the call, they knew my credit limits for the other cards I had with that company so I knew I was scam-free with this call.

It took me a few more minutes to question the call, but I found out some good useful info that I was able to share with you

Posted by Tricia on September 7, 2007 at 12:04 PM in Credit Cards | 26 Comments »
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Rich responded:
Posted: September 7th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Very helpful info! Thanks Tricia!
AllFinancialMatters » Blog Archive » JLP’s Weekly Roundup (Week of September 3, 2007) responded:
Posted: September 7th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
[...] Tricia has some EXCELLENT tips on credit card safety. – Tricia listened to her gut and her gut was probably right. Bookmark to: [...]
Mrs. Micah responded:
Posted: September 7th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Good way to handle it. Phishing by phone is getting a lot more common, it seems. I’m glad it wasn’t anything so dangerous.
Lynnae @ Being Frugal responded:
Posted: September 7th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Thanks for the great information! I’m always leery when my bank calls my home. Now I know what to ask them!
louise responded:
Posted: September 7th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
This is really good advice. I got my credit card and bank account details stolen by phishsers a few days ago and it has really made me think a lot more about security. I never give out details on the phone or click on email links but I neglected to keep my browser and virus protection up to date.
Glad you didn’t fall for it and lose any money.
Mark responded:
Posted: September 7th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
You can always look up the number using a Reverse Directory lookup, such as whitepages.com.

Anytime I get a number that I don’t recognize, I always do a reverse lookup to verify the number.

Good advice on calling the company itself.
Planning For Wealth » Blog Archive » Posts I’ve enjoyed this week September 7 responded:
Posted: September 7th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
[...] 12 Secrets Your Car Insurer Won’t Tell You from Beachgirl’s Budget Blog What Do You Do If A Credit Card Employee Calls You? from Blogging Away Debt Emotionless Investing from Growing Money What I Learned from the 2001 New [...]
boomie responded:
Posted: September 7th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Type the phone number into Google and you’ll quickly find out who it is. Plus, you can file a complaint. Try it and let us know what pops up. Thanks.
Weekend Roundup - Mishmash Edition | beingfrugal.net responded:
Posted: September 8th, 2007 at 8:35 am
[...] from your credit card company calls you, and you don’t know if the call is legit?Â The answer is at Blogging Away Debt.Â In a day and age where ID theft is rampant, this is a must [...]
Tricia responded:
Posted: September 8th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Mark – in this case, the call came up Unknown. But I have used reverse lookup sites before to try to make sure certain callers are who they say they are.
jim responded:
Posted: September 8th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
When in doubt, say you’ll call them back.
Personal finance at KMull.com responded:
Posted: September 10th, 2007 at 8:14 am
[...] Blogging Away Debt gives us some pointers on How to verify it is your credit card company calling. [...]
The Carnival Review : A Penny Closer responded:
Posted: September 11th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
[...] What Do You Do if a Credit Card Employee Calls You? @ Blogging Away Debt – Good information on how to know if it is a scam or the real deal.Â [...]
c responded:
Posted: September 12th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
I have a Citi Card, and I got a call from them earlier this year. I forget the specifics of the call (I think it might have been related to fraud prevention).

But anyway they asked me to verify something and I said, wait a minute, how do I know who you are? The operator was very polite and told me that she understands my concern, and if it would make me feel better I could call the number on the back of my card, and I would be automatically redirected to her department. I did. It was cool.
nstuff responded:
Posted: September 12th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
A few days ago, I had a voice mail waiting for me from Citi Card’s fraud department. All they left was an 877 number, some confirmation number, and that I should call them back by the following day. Not trusting the message, i looked up Citi’s fraud proteciton number on their website and the 800 number was different. I called the number on the website and they confirmed they were trying to get a hold of me to confirm some charges i made while traveling out of state the day prior.

I would never call a number provided over the phone, but rather look it up myself. Even if it means i have to be transfered several times to get to the correct department, I at least know it is safe.
Money Links For 09-13-07 responded:
Posted: September 13th, 2007 at 8:10 am
[...] What Do You Do If A Credit Card Employee Calls You? by Tricia @ Blogging Away Debt. Watch out for these scams. [...]
Ferin responded:
Posted: September 13th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Got a call like this from Capitol One’s fraud dept. It was legit, but I sent them a message asking them not to do that kind fo thing, it’d be all too easy for people to ignore legit fraud alerts cause they thought it was a scammer. What they should do is just ask you to call the number on your card, and then have an easy way to navigate to the fraud people from the menu. I.E. “if our fraud dept. asked you to call, press one.”
Food For Thought - Articles From My Blgoroll About Credit Card Limits, Time Management, And 401K Mistakes responded:
Posted: September 13th, 2007 at 10:28 am
[...] Blogging Away Debt (still the best personal finance blog name in the whole world) writes about how to talk to credit card companies. [...]
The Friday Gathering for 9/14/2007 | Gather Little By Little responded:
Posted: September 14th, 2007 at 8:22 am
[...] Blogging Away Debt shares probably the best article of the week(next to mine of course): What Do You Do If A Credit Card Employee Calls You? [...]
Me & Me blog archive » Calling out scammers responded:
Posted: September 14th, 2007 at 11:45 am
[...] have graduated from the old-school way of doing things. Check out this post on BloggingAwayDebt for tips on what to look out for when someone calls claiming to be your credit card company. Protecting [...]
Far removed from the womb»Blog Archive » Bored / Sick. Bored myself sick. responded:
Posted: September 16th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
[...] Identifying if the call you get is from a credit card company. • • [...]
Damien Hurst responded:
Posted: September 16th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I like your list. I have one topic that I’ll make special mention of.

Please don’t believe the agent’s claim that their “phone system is complicated” as their excuse for not displaying a caller ID number on your telephone.

Over the past fifteen years, I have worked for much larger phone operations than these companies call centers, and my teams have set up many multi-line call systems across multiple locations in multiple countries.

If the company that hires me wants to me make a number public when their operators make outbound calls, I can do it. In some cases, it’s a little more hassle than in others–but by no means is it so “complicated” as to be undoable.

It is a deliberate decision by the credit card company to _not_ present a number to your caller ID display.

Many call centers choose to do this because they do not want to receive any inbound calls. They take this step largely to make it more difficult for you to contact them in the event you are dissatisfied with their service.
FIRE Finance responded:
Posted: September 23rd, 2007 at 1:51 am
Sunday Review #37 – Money Confessions, Credit Card Scams, Lessons as a Kid!…

Sunday is here to take us on a trip to the various carnivals and festivals hosted this week. We took big mugs of organic green tea and eased ourselves into our chairs for a long session of reading. From the readings emanated our favorites of the week:….
Susan responded:
Posted: January 31st, 2008 at 6:13 am
Excellent tips, you have done a great job. Absolutely, these was much needed tips for me. i have been called several times by my credit card employees for different activities. Now this post surely will help me to get rid from those employee who usually waste valuable time. Thanks again.
CreditCredible responded:
Posted: May 31st, 2008 at 12:14 am
Good piece, great advice, vital information. Go with your gut instincts and take the necessary precautions. It can never hurt to take the steps needed to give you ultimate comfort.
Lookup Reverse responded:
Posted: March 28th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Thats what I thought and you really helped me prove my point with this post. I cant wait to show my friend so he can see he was wrong. – Walter