Got called from 928-858-9764 but was given this number 800-622-7747 to call back. Have to admit, they are quite convincing, which makes them that much worse. They are skilled at sounding friendly and helpful, and they tried multiple times to convince me that they were legit.
***You have multiple credit cards with a combined balance greater than $3000, right? We can lower your interest and your payments on that every month. (Why are they asking ME that, THEY called me. Why do they not seem to have any of my account info if they are Account Services for my credit card company? It's a clever ruse to get you to give them info. You need to insist THEY give YOU any info, the other way around is a scam. BTW, I don't maintain any balances, I pay off every month, so I was lucky to catch on to this immediately... you might be taken in by it if you pay monthly interest.)
***You have a card with either Chase, Bank of America, Capitol One, Citi... (...and so on... wait, why don't you already KNOW who I have a card with if you are offering to lower my interest on a card?? Again, phishing for you to confirm info)
*** I see, you would want your interest lowered on Cap One, right? Or does one of your other cards have a higher balance? (I on a little foolishly asked a question about Cap One, confirming I had that card - not that it helps them steal anything, and it helped me learn more about them, but I did give that info, you should not. - Phishing for confirmation again here... notice, he has not provided any info himself. He's asking you to tell him what your other card with a higher balance is.)
*** Once you give us your credit card number, we can pull up your statement. You know only your bank can do that, right? (My bank wouldn't need my number to pull up my statement, and this tries to get you to give the number first THEN confirm after - that's backwards a far as trying to avoid a scam is concerned. Once they have your number, they could just pretend that they opened your statement, or be using a credit inquiry somehow, or just claim it's not working right now. I can't say, because I couldn't give them a legit number.)
*** Okay, you don't have to give the full number... we know the first five, just give us the rest. (I read somewhere that the first 4 or 5 numbers are ALL THE SAME on everyone's cards from that bank... they just have to try every bank's set of first five then, maybe 5 to 20 number sets, and they probably have that automated so it fills in within seconds.)
*** I will give you my name and RepID to write down, okay? (This is useless if you can't get back to them, and could be fake. As I and other callers realized, this number is legit for MasterCard Assistant, and they will tell you that they would never call YOU to offer to lower your interest.)
*** Sure, our number is 800-622-7747, but you will see a different number when I call you. (I asked for a number to call him back at. As you can read in other posts, this is a legit number for MasterCard that has nothing to do with him. Again, a confidence game, con game, he is trying to gain your confidence. With each piece of useless or even fake info he gives you, he hopes you decide to give him all YOUR INFO. BTW, the number that actually called me was 928-858-9764. Most legit companies will not have to explain to you how the number on your phone is different - that's a scammers issue, real companies will show the same number they give out. I also think they hope people will call the MasterCard number, here the legit recording, and hang up - but the next time the scammer calls you, now you think maybe he's legit. You have to wait, wade through a phone menu, wait, and actually talk to a MasterCard Assistant rep for several minutes to get confirmation that THEY don't offer to lower your interest rate at that number, and never will. But how many people go all the way? How many just hang up once they feel comfortable the automated system is legit MasterCard? Con game)
*** I'm sorry, I see now that your deadline has passed. If you don't work with me now on this call and if you hang up, you lose the opportunity to lower your interest rate. (Boom! Classic scam pressure tactic. Now you know it's a scam. I had offered to hang up and call him back at the number he gave me, which is what you should always do, as you already know I'm sure. As soon as he realized giving me the number didn't con me, he switched tactics to PRESSURE. You can't get this deal if you hang up. You must close the deal NOW NOW NOW. No serious company will ever do this. But then he was so good, he let me hang up agreeing that I could call him back. He knew I could not, but he knew he'd already lost me.)
Bottom lines: No real company will ever make it this difficult or have to spend so much time gaining your confidence in them, nor will they really CARE if you are confident in them or make you take advantage of a deal NOW NOW NOW. They will give you their number and extension to call back, or better yet for the phone rep, tell you that you can speak with anyone else... less work for them. THEY will have all the info when they call, except for maybe useless security questions like your Mom's middle name. They won't keep fishing around for info from you. In fact, you'll never feel like they need you to take any leap of faith at all. This was a very good but classic scam and con game. They play the numbers... if they guess enough things right about the next caller, then they gain that callers confidence and score.
Good luck out there.
