Monday, March 28, 2011

Weekend Assignment #363: Scammed!

Weekend Assignment #363: Scammed!

Have you ever been successfully scammed? Was it a phone fraud, a phishing email, a trojan worm, or something else? How did they fool you, and what have you learned from the experience?

Extra Credit: Tell us about a scam that didn't succeed in tricking you.

Either I have never been scammed, or I am so oblivious that I still don't know I have been scammed.  I do not suck with money, but is probably the latter.

There was one time, at Noodles and Company, when I handed over my Visa to pay for lunch and it was declined.  I called Chase to rip someone's head off and found that two hours earlier, someone tried to use my card to download music in Brazil.  Had I tried to use my card to download music in Brazil?

Of course not.

It was only one song, so Chase's theory was that the charge was a test run.  The Bad Guy was going to do something very small with my credit card number, and if no one caught it, would go for the Big Catch.

People aren't saying many nice things about the banks lately, so I must give credit to Chase.  I use plastic for pretty much everything, so for them to determine - again, within hours - that something was up, and to shut down my card to investigate...that was Heads Up.

How long would it have taken me to figure out?  Not more than a couple of weeks.  But you can do a lot of damage in a couple of weeks.  


1 comment:

Karen Funk Blocher said...

It's in the bank's best interest to be on top of such things, but it's still great when they actually are. May you continue to have no successful ripoffs!