I consider myself to be relatively smart when it comes to those calls we have all received about winning free trips or getting a better credit card rate, etc. But I must say these people are becoming much more clever and I can see seniors falling for their tactics.
A couple of months ago, I received a call from someone at “Visa” informing me they wanted to let me know that $300 had fraudulently been taken out of my account. The man told me someone got my Visa account number from the Internet and took the money. He went on to tell me that Visa had rectified the situation and the money been safely deposited back into my account.
He then proceeded to tell me that he needed my account number so we could go over my latest transactions on the phone.
He also told me I should change my PIN and that he would help me do that over the phone.
I told him that I never give my account number or PIN over the phone to anyone and thanked him for returning my money. He tried everything he could to get my number, but of course I wouldn’t get it to him.
Another time received a call from someone saying they were from Telus and their first two questions were, “are you over 30 and do you have a credit card?” They informed me that because I am such a “good customer” they were offering me a discount trip to Mexico. For only $999, I could get an all-inclusive six-day trip, and all they needed from me was my credit card number.
When they realized that I was “interested”, I was handed to someone else to talk to, I guess to close the deal, but this guy was pretty slick and had an answer for all my questions. He was pressing me for my credit card number but I told him I couldn’t make a decision right away and asked him to call me back the next day. I could sense the frustration in his voice but he kept pressing me to make a decision.
I finally told him that if he couldn’t call me back in the morning, I wasn’t interested in the trip.
These two particular clever scams are ones that I worry seniors could fall prey to. We need to make them more aware of these slimy schemes, and that fraudsters are only trying to get their credit card numbers.
S. Jane Stevens, Surrey
