harpua2002

Just a word of caution to you all...

I'm a Verizon Wireless customer, have been for years. I got a call a few minutes ago on my cell phone from a caller that claimed to be a Verizon employee, saying that my number had been randomly chosen to win a $100 bill credit for next month. Since it's the holidays and all, it sounded plausible to me... until I was asked for the last 4 numbers of my SSN. Since I hadn't heard about any promotions, I offered to give my account password instead of my SSN (my account is password protected). I was told that he needed the last 4 digits of my SSN and then the computer would prompt him to get my account password. I asked the caller to hang on so I could ask my husband's opinion, and he hung up on me after I muted the call.

I called the number back that had showed up on my caller ID, and got the "non-working number" message. Then I called Verizon and sure enough, there is no such promotion.

If any of you get a call like this, it's a scam! I'm very careful about giving out personal info, and it saved my butt this time.

Borisbbadd

Thanks for the heads-up.

Tony G.

Wow... please be careful guys! One time my mom got a call from our cellphone company saying we had won a car... luckily we didnt give any info out.... darn spaming people! LOL

Lucy

Scary stuff, thanks for the warning!

peacemaker92

Glad you didn't get caught in this scam. I nearly fell for such thing too. Some woman called me and said I won a share from 9 million ringgit (more than 35 million US dollars!) and she said all I have to do is give her one of my bank acc. numbers and the password so she can make in the transaction. So I told her I'll call her back and the same thing happened, the number was a 'non-working' number.

aquarist48

Thanks for the "heads up" Harpua.
Ken

bolivianbaby

Thanks for the warning, Harpua! People are getting more and more desparate and con-artists and getting more and more clever!

sirdarksol

And 'tis the season for cons (and other money-related crimes). When I worked in fast food, there would be a steady increase in people trying to pull fast ones over on us ("I wanted this without onions. Make me another one. Oh, and I want to keep this one as well.") after Thanksgiving. It would then start tapering off after Christmas, usually being noticeable until mid-January. There was also a steady increase in thefts and robberies during this time.

As far as people asking for information; Never give personal info of any sort (including, but not limited to; SSN, in part or in whole, usernames/passwords, insurance ID, account numbers) to people who contact you, unless you are 100% certain of their identity. In other words, if someone calls and says they're from a clinic and need to verify insurance info, don't give it to them unless you recognize the number. Let them know that you'll call the clinic in a few moments and verify the info (don't use any phone number the caller gives you, by the way, though you should write it down to give to the authorities if it turns out to be a scam). Same with your phone company, internet company, whatever.
If you get a scam via e-mail, many major companies have their own resources that they use to hunt phishers. Pass the offending message on to the company in question and they will work at finding the person behind it.

mosin360

I sometimes gets people trying to sell magazines or such to me over the phone. I generally try to get a huge order then tell them to wait while I get my 'credit card' then see how long they'll stay on hold.

MissMTS

Thanks so much for the heads up Harpua! I have Verizon as well, so I'll know to keep an eye out.

Tavel

there's another common one about jury duty:

http://www.FBI.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm