HONOLULU — AARP Hawai‘i is warning consumers about a new twist on the utility-imposter scam, involving cable and credit-card company imposters.
An O‘ahu woman recently notified the AARP Fraud Watch Network that she received a voicemail from her cable company to schedule an appointment to upgrade her cable box.
When she called the number on the voice message, they asked for her preferred time, already had her address, and then asked for her credit-card information to pay a $4 surcharge for the cable box. The imposter told her the card was not good and asked for another credit-card number.
She didn’t think anything of it until she got another call from someone claiming to be from her credit company “Bank Fraud Investigation Unit.” The caller told her that someone had made a suspicious purchase of $500 in Florida.
The imposter told her not to worry and that they would alert her other credit-card company and confirmed the other credit-card number that she had given the utility imposter. The credit-card imposter then asked for her birthday and mother’s maiden name to confirm her identity and credit cards and proceeded to also ask for her Social Security number.
At that point, the woman became suspicious and asked the imposter to read her last four digits and she would confirm it. When the woman persisted and asked the credit-card-company imposter for an office number to call back, the imposter hung up.
“Scammers are slick,” said Jackie Boland,…
