Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Latest Phishing Scam: Text From Bank Telling You To ‘Reactivate’ Your Debit Card
Another day, another high-tech illegal ploy to separate you from the cash in your bank account.
CBS 2’s Mike Parker reports.
If you get this text message, ignore it. It reads: “H & R Block bank alert. Your card has been temporarily deactivated. Please call our card services line.”
It is not from H & R Block. It’s sent by thieves, and this is what you hear at that number:
“Due to our recent banking software upgrade, debit card reactivation is required.”
When Parker called the number he was then asked to enter his 16-digit card number, the pin number and the expiration date. He entered totally phony numbers.
If the info had been legit, his bank account would have ripe for the picking.
One Bridgeport mother got that text two days ago, but was gun-shy.
“They could scam you anywhere. I’ve had my bank account tapped into a couple of times already,” Karen Woodman says. “That’s why I posted it on Facebook notifying my friends to beware.”
H & R Block says it is “advising recipients not to respond to the text.”
The company says it “does not send urgent text messages asking clients to provide sensitive data.”
Who does? People that want your money.
“They hide behind phone numbers and they hide behind fake addresses, and they’re probably in some other country somewhere in a coffee shop laughing about this,” says Steve Bernas of the Better Business Bureau.
It is almost impossible to track the addresses of scam connected phone numbers. Google may show you an address, but in almost every case, it turns out to be bogus.
Thieves almost always give phony addresses to their phone providers.
Tags:
Card, Debit-card
CBS 2’s Mike Parker reports.
If you get this text message, ignore it. It reads: “H & R Block bank alert. Your card has been temporarily deactivated. Please call our card services line.”
It is not from H & R Block. It’s sent by thieves, and this is what you hear at that number:
“Due to our recent banking software upgrade, debit card reactivation is required.”
When Parker called the number he was then asked to enter his 16-digit card number, the pin number and the expiration date. He entered totally phony numbers.
If the info had been legit, his bank account would have ripe for the picking.
One Bridgeport mother got that text two days ago, but was gun-shy.
“They could scam you anywhere. I’ve had my bank account tapped into a couple of times already,” Karen Woodman says. “That’s why I posted it on Facebook notifying my friends to beware.”
H & R Block says it is “advising recipients not to respond to the text.”
The company says it “does not send urgent text messages asking clients to provide sensitive data.”
Who does? People that want your money.
“They hide behind phone numbers and they hide behind fake addresses, and they’re probably in some other country somewhere in a coffee shop laughing about this,” says Steve Bernas of the Better Business Bureau.
It is almost impossible to track the addresses of scam connected phone numbers. Google may show you an address, but in almost every case, it turns out to be bogus.
Thieves almost always give phony addresses to their phone providers.
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