The automated call rang my wife’s phone a little after 3 a.m., saying it was the big box store’s automated fraud prevention line, complete with the company’s number on the caller ID.
It had just sent a numeric code to my wife’s text messages, according to the message. It just needed her to type in those numbers to prove she’d received the message.
In an early morning stupor, she followed the directions. About a minute later, she heard the ding from the first email, saying she’d just bought a $100 gift card. Then another email hit, saying she’d changed her password on that company’s site.
She’d unwittingly just fallen for an identity theft scam. That text message had been a security feature by the retailer, making sure it was really her trying to access her account. The phone call was not authentic, though. It was someone who wanted that information to take over her account.
Before she had the sense to disconnect our credit cards from the company’s site, someone had also purchased another $200 gift card.
When the people committing fraud claim to be part of fraud prevention units, you know they’re getting clever.
It’s getting harder and harder to tell the good guys from the bad guys nowadays. The call sounded so authentic to her, and companies ask for codes all the time anymore.
When people in public ask if I’m the guy from the newspaper, I’ll joke that I can’t imagine why anyone else would want to be me. It turns out there are plenty of people out…
