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Did I just get lied to?

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The other day I got a phone call about 9am from my Capital One credit card company. It was the fraud department asking if I’d tried to make a $200-some-odd dollar transaction that morning.

  • Me: What? No! I haven’t used the card in months!!
  • Representative: Well I’m glad we got in touch with you then! Yes, our records indicate no activity in over 6 months, so this transaction was flagged as fraudulent and was declined. No need to worry, but we will be issuing and sending you a new card.

The conversation goes on for a bit with them verifying information and me worrying about how my credit card information was “leaked.” FYI – I checked and I still have the card in my possession (I never use it, but keep it locked in a safe in our house).

Then after the call I started thinking……is this a new tactic credit card companies are using to try to get you to use your card? They come up with some excuse (e.g., fraudulent activity) to send you a new card so its fresh in your mind and right at your fingertips for the using (as opposed to being locked away in a safe)?

Am I being overly paranoid or skeptical? Or did I totally just get lied to about a fake fraudulent attempt at using my credit?

For the record, I checked online and there are no recent or pending charges. Of course, the woman said the attempted-fraud charge had been declined so I suppose it wouldn’t show up, but now I’m suspicious. If I never use my card (never even log into my account – I had to do the “forgot my password” option because its been so long!), and still have the card in my possession, then how on Earth would someone get the card information in order to attempt a charge?

I’ve been known to be a bit on the skeptical side….but I’m calling BS on this one.

Anyone else have this experience before???


23 Comments

  • Reply Abgurl |

    Were they the ones to confirm your info with the card ( personal ,etc and an other info used to identify you) or did they ask you for that info as you conversed? I ask because that is common fraud tactic- you get the call from your supposed credit card company that there has been a possible fraud attempt using your card. They then during the course of this call get you to reveal the necessary personal info under guise when in fact they are the scammer. When these calls come to me home, I reveal nothing and instead tell them I will call back in a few minutes. At that time I then make a call to the actual credit card company who can then confirm they really were making the call. 9 out of 10 times they did not. If this is the case and even if not you Need to call your credit card company and get confirmation that it was indeed them you were speaking to. If it was great but if not…… You can now let your cc company know and take corrective measures

  • Reply Kristina |

    Too me it sounds like you got phished. I’m hoping you didn’t reveal PIN numbers and Social Security numbers.

    I once got an email from “Wells Fargo” telling me I had fraudulent charges on my card and that I should contact them. Only problem…I don’t have an account with Wells Fargo.

  • Reply scarr |

    I would call the number on your card and ask them if it was a legit call you received. It sounds like you were phished, like another poster pointed out.

  • Reply Ashley |

    Oh, dear lord – am I really “that” person!? I am mortified! Racking my brain trying to remember what info was asked…and calling the CC now

    • Reply Ashley |

      So, when I called the representative said they’d send a new card with new number and close the old account, but didn’t have information to say if they had, in fact, called me or not. Someone from the fraud department is calling next week to get more info, so I guess I’ll find out then???

      • Reply Abgurl |

        As I commented below, didn’ t you say the first caller from the “fraud dept” say they were closing your account and issuing a new card? So why when you called did the rep not say this was done already INSTEAD of telling you they were doing it now as a result of your calling. The account would have been closed at the time you called them and this info would have indeed been showing on your file for the rep to tell you.

  • Reply Abgurl |

    Glad you called them – given they are closing the acct and issuing a new card AFTER this call you just made but could not tell you if they done so earlier as per the original call you received tells me that it was not them calling. The cc company rep would have had a note on your file that a new card had already being issued as they supposedly told when calling about that transaction.
    Hence why fraud will call you next week to get more info…if it was your cc company’ fraud dept. that placed the first call then why would they need to get more info from you after you have called them and told them abt the call.
    But don’ t fret about this as you have now made the cc company aware of a possible fraud and taken steps to ensure it will not progress

  • Reply VerGrrl |

    When my debit card was compromised after the whole Target breach, I got a call from a Fraudulent Claims Dept (or something similar, don’t remember the exact name) telling me there were suspicious charges and asking going through some recent charges, etc. I was suspicious during the phone call and after I googled the phone number and it was a legit company; a lot of banks and cc’s have these separate companies tracking potential fraud charges as a service. I also called my bank and they backed up the charges that had been attempted.
    Not to say you weren’t phished or something along those lines but if you’ve ever used the card for internet purchases, its entirely possible that it got hacked along with the many sites that have been recently affected. But your c.c. company should be able to tell you for sure next week. And if they called you on your cell phone and you have the number, you can google it to see if it leads to a reputable fraud company.

    • Reply Ashley |

      Thanks for the tip! I just googled it and its a legitimate number. The more I thought about it the more I thought it seemed “legit” (from what I remembered of the conversation), but this really helps put my mind at ease. I was so embarrassed, too – how could I be the victim of one of these scam things? It now seems easier than I’ve always thought, but I’m glad that this situation wasn’t a scam!

  • Reply Marzey doats |

    And depending on what you told them, you may want to put a freeze on your credit reports at the three major credit reporting bureaus. This way they can’t open new credit cards in your name you don’t even know about. Only thing annoying is that it gets hard for you to get new credit (have to unfreeze first). But you aren’t getting new credit!

    • Reply Ashley |

      Yes – I actually called the number this afternoon and its legitimate. I didn’t talk to another representative (it starts with an automated system so you’re not immediately speaking to a person), and my husband was still suspicious but then I googled the number (like someone else recommended) and it is, indeed, a legitimate Capital One number. This does NOT explain why the representative earlier couldn’t confirm the call, and it still does NOT explain how this attempted fraudulent activity took place. I haven’t used the card (online or in person) for over 6 months so its a mystery to me!

      • Reply gloria-victoria |

        It may be because Fraud has a different level of knowledge and the bank limits what an individual employee knows on a ‘need to know’ basis. Many companies do this. It does not give every employee the same access to their system information.

        • Reply Jen From Boston |

          I agree. I work for a large financial company and they keep a lid on who has access to what.

  • Reply Mary |

    As you know now, never do business over the phone. Next time, call the phone number on the back of your card, after you hang up of course. My mother always had a rule whenever anyone asks for information….she would tell them that she doesn’t do business over the phone.

    I got a call last year from my bank notifying me about a possible fraud alert. I didn’t give them any information but instead, went to a local branch, sat down and spoke with someone and then they called their fraud alert division. Yes, it was a pain but I didn’t feel comfortable giving information over the phone.

    I worry about fraud a lot now, with all of the security breaches in the news so I try to never use my debit card in public anymore. (For a while I used my business debit but decided against using that too.) Now, when I want to make a transaction and I don’t have cash on me, I use my credit card and then pay the credit card later with the app on my phone. That way, if there are breaches, I can get a new credit card but I don’t have my main checking account hacked.

    I did have someone commit fraud on one of my home shopping accounts last year. They hacked my account and ordered an item. They changed the shipping address and had it billed to me. I caught it because I had an alert on my account to notify me when anything changed. I filed a police report. Incidentally, the home shopping network didn’t do anything! So now, on any of my online stores that I order from, I never leave my credit card data in the account. Of course it’s easier to order if your information is already in their system but lesson learned.

    Also, if you do carry your debit and credit cards with you, you need to get those shields to put over your card so someone can’t scan the cards in your purse. They sell some on Amazon and you want the ones that are made according to the FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards).

    And finally, I never give my social security number over the phone. Sometimes vendors will ask for it (most often related to medical claims or medical insurance) but I tell them I don’t give that information out and ask them if I can give some other form of identification. I also never give out my mother’s maiden name. You have to be smart today and it’s hard to be careful in this ever changing world!

  • Reply CanadianKate |

    About giving out mother’s maiden name – my daughter gives out her mother’s mother’s maiden name instead. That way people who know me, don’t know the ID confirmation that dd is using.

    So many women use their maiden name these days, it is no longer a secure question.

  • Reply Marcy |

    Regarding how a little-used card can get hacked in the 1st place, unfortunately there are large cyber-syndicates in Eastern Europe that specialize in perpetrating just this kind of fraud. They have super computers and hardware/software that crunches credit card numbers out that these criminal syndicates then try to use, almost always with an online transaction. They don’t need your physical card. It’s just luck and odds as to when — not if — your credit card will be hacked. Unfortunately this is reality …

  • Reply Kristen |

    I hadn’t thought of the phishing aspect. I think your original suspicion was correct, that they were just trying to get you to start using your card again. I distrust the banks the same or more than I would the hackers out there.

  • Reply Abgurl |

    Hmmm- what strikes me as not adding up to be legit is the fact that in the call YOU received, you were told that they would close the account and issue you a new card yet when YOU called the actual cc company, after you explained told you that they would close the account and issue you a new card. How is it that your account did not have the information that it had AREADY been closed a few days earlier and a new card was Being issued as per what you were told in the original phone call to you? This info WOULD have been on your file and the rep you called& spoke to WOULD have told you that info immediately- not that as a result of your call they would now do this. Again something is clearly Fishy in Denmark, so to speak

    • Reply Jen From Boston |

      This is actually pretty standard practice. I’ve had my Citibank card reissued several times because Citibank detected fraud. Ditto for my Discover card. They call me up, tell me what happened, and tell me they are sending me a new card. Heck, one time they didn’t even call – they just mailed it out.

  • Reply OC Budget |

    This is happened to me before on a card that i had but never used. I’m just glad that they have that system in place although it’s abit inconvenient.

  • Reply Jean |

    Do you have online access to your accounts? I was a ‘victim’ of the Target debacle back in November; I had used my card for Black Friday shopping to get the rewards. I saw some fraudulent activity on my Discover card, and received a call from them before I had a chance to call them. SO, when I received their call & they told me about the suspected fraudulent activity, I already knew about it so there wasn’t any question about if what they were telling me was correct or if it was a phishing scam. I check my credit card (and bank) activity online fairly regularly, so hopefully I would catch anything that didn’t look right.

So, what do you think ?