Sunday, November 25, 2007

Scammers on Credit Cards - Big Numbers this Holidays

Holding a Credit Card in the Philippines in your hand today? If you are, you better stay tuned to this post and pay attention as there are new high tech-low tech ways these days to scam you out using some quick question-asking using credit card related words that will surely drive you to believe him/her where the aim is to drive or make you give your credit card details and personal details. This will come from somebody calling you right in your office posing through his/her words as a representative from a bank you happen to have accounts with. By the sound of his words and company name you wouldn't doubt at all that you are being scammed.

I learned about this when my supervisor at the office talked to me and asked if I know any company named as City Limits (Citi Limits). Of course I said no as I really haven't heard any business name by specifics related to credit cards like City Limits. He admittedly at once told me that he got scammed by the people behind the said company, according to him. The amount was not much big he said but ti took him sleepless overnight because of that.

Here's the modus operandi: Someone will call you, posing using some great deals and offers regarding some VIP card which will entitle you to get bigger discounts upon use of your credit card and has many affiliates where you can use it for. Afterwards, he will say that he is from a certain company ( usually this will sound like the bank that you have accounts with in your credit card). In this case, my supervisor had a newly approved credit card from Citibank so the posing scammer used Citi Limits as the business name. Note of the similarity of the business names. With his words, the scammer will try to sound as if he knows stuff about credit cards and will manipulate your decisions with the use giving and citing big advantages if you get their card that will only take a few minutes of your time and will tell you straight that you are an entitled recipient of this program. With the use of quick words and quick question asking about this or that which will later on lead to asking about some details about your credit card, the person talking to you will then be able to get your details and this is presto as according to my boss, after the talking session he had with the guy, he immediately called the bank he has a credit card account with (in this case Citibank) and the person he talked to told him that just a while ago, someone just got off with using his credit card details and took a quick 5,000 PHP from his account for whatever reason.

Now what does this implicate? Simple, either the person whom my boss talked to is online and he is already doing the transactions online or he must be right in the bank to do the transaction or he has someone else behind the conversation who has a direct access to the use of the credit card to be able to debit that amount and is already doing the transaction as the debit of his account for 5k is as quick as how the person got my boss's credit card details. Right on time and no delays. Well, whatever this means, it will all fall as simple as this, never enclose any detail about your credit card or credit cards to anyone especially here in the Philippines if your transaction is by phone or cellphone(text).

Note: This post is not the opinion of the writer and in no other way related to or the exact experience of the writer himself and takes no claim or responsibility on whatever cause it may contain and may provoke for readers to understand wrongfully regarding credit cards and banks. Specific names were given only to give a clearer outlook of the exact way the situation happened.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just got the same call this day. Someone representing himself as an agent of City Limits (or Citilimits) asked me details of my credit card account (Citibank). I already had suspicions and I actually gave almost all of my account info correctly except the last 3 digit number to be seen at the back of my credit card. I purposely gave an incorrect 3 digit number. After our conversation, I called Citibank and asked if there were any transactions made on behalf of my account. And to validate my suspicions, an amount of 5,850php was being charged to my account by City Limits. Thankfully, the amount wasn’t charged due to the incorrect info they used. Lesson learned: “Don’t give any information about your credit account to anyone unless you are sure of the person whom you are dealing with”.

Tristan Tan said...

Thank you to this blog! I just received a call from CitiLimits (City Limits) this morning and the woman on the other line did exactly as what was described here. When she started asking me my card details, I got suspicious (she sounded wierd anyway) so I told her I was not interested. In reality, I was reading this blog as we were talking. As some of you might also get a call from this fraudulent company, please note the number they used to call me: 02-7283238. Beware.

masterofthe said...

You're welcome, Andrew. Hope this spreads because it seems widespread ( the scam).