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Visa and Mastercard Scam
ALERT 'Visa and Mastercard scam'
Calls are received from 'VISA' or 'MasterCard', the caller states their name (which is false) and says they are calling from the Security and Fraud Department at " VISA" or "Master".
The caller states that your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern and the caller is calling to verify. The caller will ask if you purchased a device or any expensive item for £3497.99 from Anti-Telemarketing Company, a marketing company based in a particular town which the caller will quote - various towns have been quoted. When you reply that you have not made any such purchase, the caller states that a credit to your account will be arranged.
The caller will also say that this is a company that they have been watching and the charges range from £3297 to £3497 which is just under the £3500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. The caller declares that before your next statement, the credit will be sent to your address (they state your address) and you are asked to confirm your address is correct.
Once you have confirmed your address the caller states that a fraud investigation will be instigated and if you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number listed on your card and ask for Security. The caller will give you a 6-digit number which you will need to refer to as the control number. The caller will ask if you wish for the number to be repeated.
The caller will then says he 'needs to verify you are in possession of your card'. This is where the scam takes place as up until now they have requested nothing. The caller will ask you to turn your card over, there are 7 numbers and the caller will quote the first 4, as they have these numbers anyway. Then the caller will ask for the next 3 which are the security numbers that verify that you are in possession of the card, these are the numbers they are really after, as these are the numbers you need to use to make internet purchases to prove you have the card. Once you have read out the 3 numbers the caller confirms this is correct and they just needed to verify that the card had not been lost or stolen and you were still in possession of your card.
The caller will ask if you have any other questions and says that you can call back at anytime if you have any queries. You actually say very little as the caller never ask for your card number.
In one incident after such a call, an attempt was made to call back the caller, however the VISA security department confirmed that this was a scam and that in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of £3497.99 had been put on the card. A fraud report was made and the VISA card was closed and a replacement card issued.
What the scam requires is the last 3-digit of the security number on the back of the card and once the purchase goes through, more purchases are made every few days. Once you receive your statement expecting to see the credit, you actually see numerous unknown charges to your account and due to the length of time it becomes more complicated to lodge a fraud report.
The real Visa or MasterCard department reinforced the point that they will never ask anything about the card since they have all the information regarding the card.
What makes this even more remarkable is that one person was targeted twice within a week by the same scam. The person concerned just hung up and reported it to the police as instructed by VISA, who also advised that a warning message should be passed to friends, relatives and co-workers and so on.
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