The latest trick seems to be an authentic sounding telephone call which offers the person on the other end a chance to open a low rate credit card account.
Credit card scams are not a new thing, they have been around for a while, we have now learnt to hit the spam button on emails trying to obtain our details and promising a billion dollar lottery prize.
However the latest trick seems to be an authentic sounding telephone call which offers the person on the other end a chance to open a low rate credit card account.
The caller usually identifies as an officer with a card issuer and provides a unique opportunity for customers with good standing to open this low rate credit card account.
To open the new account, the caller then requests for credit card details, on obtaining the details the new account may or may not be created but the mysterious caller now has access to your personal information.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has provided warnings to consumers and advised them to not give up personal financial information to callers offering credit cards.
These callers promise to open a new account on your behalf in exchange for account opening fees that is charged to your credit card number.
Another consumer protection agency, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, also warned that companies behind the calls to lower your interest rates can’t do anything you can’t do for yourself.
There are three main things to learn from this new scam. The first is a no-brainer – never give away your personal information over the phone to a stranger, secondly always ask for the unknown caller’s name, company’s name and end the call, finally, if you actually intend to open a new credit card account do not use the telephone number provided by the unknown caller, call your bank directly using the number you find on your credit card statement.
Always be wary of something that sounds too good to be true, don’t believe anything a stranger over the telephone says, even if it does sound authentic or even if he mentions the names of your close friends who have supposedly joined this scheme.
