I was duped this week.
On Monday, I had received a phone call from what I thought was Barclaycard informing me of possible fraudulent activity on my Arrival+ card. The call was automated, but did sound legitimate. It asked me to enter my card number, expiration dates, and PIN number, though I wasn’t too too concerned, as I know banks always have a ton of verification procedures, and I’m used to receiving these types of calls before, though for legitimate purchases. The call said my account had been suspended pending my confirmation of the supposed fraudulent charges and said it would connect me with an agent, which it never did. Thinking that maybe I had accidentally entered something wrong, or that the system was broken, I manually called Barclaycard using the number on the back of my card.
I told them about the call, and funny enough, they did ask me to confirm my last set of transactions and that upon confirmation, any block would be lifted. I confirmed, and was told my account was fully functional.
Yesterday, I happen to be reviewing my statement online when I noticed 3 cash advanced totally to more than $1600 from an ATM in Wayne, PA. I have never been to Wayne, PA, and haven’t left the area in 2 weeks, so I was surprised at the charge. I flagged the charges as fraudulent, though was wondering how someone got my number…and especially my PIN, since I haven’t misplaced my card at all or anything like that.
Today, while surfing Facebook, I came across a friend’s posting with this article, and that’s when it hit me. I had been duped, and I was the one who gave out my own card number, and PIN. I had fallen for a hoax, and some thief had tricked me into handing over the info. I had immediately called Barclaycard to inform them of the previous events, and that the reason for the fraudulent cash advance was because of the scam phone call earlier in the week. Now, unfortunately, things were starting to make sense and pieces of the puzzle put together. Fortunately, the charges were reversed to me, and a new card overnighted…though the representative did confirm that whoever was at the ATM did complete the transaction successfully, and that the money was in hand.
Apparently, I’m not the only one with this issue, and there are thousands of others in the same boat. It’s unclear how the scammer got my phone number, or knew I was a Barclaycard customer, though interestingly, the agent from Barclaycard did tell me that he’s received several reports of non Barclaycard customers receiving the same call. Interesting. The thieves are also changing the phone number they call from daily, and they’re hitting more people every day. Barclaycard has not been able to track down the source, and more people are being affected daily.
Here’s the moral to the story: If your bank calls on an automated number asking for information, hang up and call the number on the back of your card to be sure it is actually them. If you’re a Barclaycard customer, and you’ve received this call already, make sure you call them to request a replacement card with a new number…and make sure you don’t give out any information!
Has anyone else been affected by this scam this week?
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
I’m sorry you got caught by the scam. You always have to be on the lookout for scams, whether it be online, by phone, or throughout the day. The only time I enter my CC number by phone is when I activate a new CC. If scammers can somehow access that network, we would all be in big trouble.
You NEVER give out your PIN, not to anyone including the bank! They will never ask you for it.
Thanks for sharing, sorry you had to deal with this but at least we know and you are using your reach to make us aware.
Didn’t know about it either but will definitely be on the lookout for these types of calls.
Yeah they didn’t know you were a barclaycard holder. They will just choose a company that a lot of people use and then randomly dial numbers. That way when they get to someone who does have that company the person will be like well they knew I had barclaycard and think it’s legitimate. They do it with emails too. I have gotten a few emails supposedly from iTunes asking for information. How many people don’t use iTunes these days? You’ve heard of phishing I’m sure. When it’s over the phone it’s called voice phishing or more commonly vishing. And what’s scary is they can even spoof the caller id to make it look like the call is coming from the legitimate source.