Strange phone call from stranger alleging to be Wal-Mart security.

[gallo]

The other night, at almost 11 PM, I received a phone call. Instinctively, I answered the phone without checking the incoming number. The guy on the other side identified himself as Wal-Mart security, supposedly, calling me because a customer named XXXX left his wallet at the store and they found my name and telephone inside of it and he wanted to know if I new XXXX so that he could contact him. I said that I did not know XXXX. Then I asked from which Wal-Mart and telephone number he was calling. The guy gave me a 210 area code number and said he was calling from San Antonio. When we hung-up, I checked the incoming number on my cel. phone and it was listed as unavailable, The next day I called, from a public phone, the number the alleged Wal-Mart security guy gave me and it was a bad number. On my mobile phone statement, it shows as 999-999-9999. The phone company said it could not tell me where the call originated.

I don’t live close to San Antonio. The name of the owner of the lost wallet is Hispanic. Nobody in my family or circle of friends recognizes the name.

Normally, I call from an unavailable number would not bother me, except that this time the caller had my full name, a phony call back number, and lied about who he was. I’m wondering if this is some type of scam or casing scenario. Does anyone know if there are any scams of this sort going around?

FYI. I don't have any creditors on my tail, whom are the only people I can think of using these tactics.

I apologize if this is not gun related, but I do consider it part of my home security.

Thank you.

 

[2RCO]

You might want to check you credit in about 2 weeks to 30 days to see if anything strange shows up. Possible ID theft attempt???

 

[B yond]

It's very easy to get a name from a phone number. Almost anyone calling your number could easily get your full name.

Is your phone a smartphone per chance?

Due to some recent press coverage there has been an increase in the popularity of services that install small programs on smartphones which allow the phone to be "spied on" remotely. This includes monitoring your calls and texts, activating your microphone remotely and tracking your location. If you have a smartphone you might check the list of installed programs and uninstall anything you didn't install yourself.

I know that sounds paranoid but a quick internet search will verify that it is possible and does happen.

Any reason someone would want to spy on you?

 

[lev]

Sounds like it is an attempt to validate your personal info. It could be a precursor to an identity theft attempt. All you know now is that some one has your full name tied to your phone number. They may have acquired the personal info from someone else and it was an attempt to decide whether the info they recieved was good.

I would keep an eye on your credit reports. But you should do this in any case. Check out:
www.annualcreditreport.com

From the site: "This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion."

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Sounds like yer on a VOIP Phone and you are under attack in a way by making sure that your number or information is valid when you sprout the correct values.

Call all three of your credit information holders like experian etc and place a freeze on everything.

Call all of your credit cards, check your activity and have them halt the cards as a fraud alert.

Start checking all your banking activity. Challenge anything you discover to be fraudelent charges or sales made in your name in the first 24 hours. You are only liable for 50 dollars of it.

Then contact your phone company and stop the service and switch back to a old style landline or go celluar with a number no one knows about.

Start looking for other clues such as new lines of credit being opened and charges and such being made in your name using the information.

Refuse to participate in any further social engineering calls requesting information you dont know about. Document and turn over your incidents to your local law enforcement and to the FTC.

These steps are pretty extreme.

Or stop all telecommunications completely this month. Start using a pre-paid celluar with only your family and those who have a need to know for a while.

There is a whole underground that is capable of using information of anyone when sufficient critical mass is generated.


Your bank manager can easily provide you with a new checking account number and issue you your new checks, credit cards etc and you can call each of your vendors and have them issue you bills each month. Everything that was old will no longer be any good and you will have to contact each and every one of your utilties, loans etc to give them the correct updated information so that nothing bounces.

Go to a Staples store and look for Software. Then look for directories on commerical businesses etc. You will discover a complete and accurate listings of most if NOT ALL business phone numbers existing in the USA for the year that the CD was made for sale.

When everything settles down after about 6 months with no fraud attempts in your name, then open a normal touch tone telephone line to your home with privacy manager, caller ID etc.. and then list that phone into the FTC's do not call list.

Have your phone company refuse to allow computer generated, unknowns or private numbers to ring your new home number. Oh and call the whitepages and have them provide fake information tied to whatever that new number is when you get it. And have that phone number unlisted etc.

There were times we applied to sweepstakes and had to switch our telephone over to rotary mode to halt the spammer calls that resulted. You know, the kind that you see in front of walmart or whatever, enter your information for a cash or nice prize. Once they have that, they sell it and others bury you in calls and mailings.

I cannot tell you the disruption, lost time and aggravation that results from someone taking your correct information and using it to satisfy thier own gain at your expense.

One last item. I dont know what statue of limitations regarding ID theft etc is in your state but I would think 90 days. If so, nothing will happen for 90 days from the bad guys and you will have forgotten all about this call 3 months from now.

On the 95th day your credit cards are maxed out, you are buried in calls from the world over asking about stuff you ordered and where they would like to ship and collections etc etc etc etc...

No. Not happening.

This week start at the bank and make a list of all your normal billing. Change everything. Make everything that you had prior to tonight obselete and no good. It will take a few weeks to get the new credit cards, checks, account numbers and everyone changed over to your new account at the bank. Your branch manager can help with that quickly.

 

[gallo]

Thanks for the feedback.

Gentlemen/Ladies,

Thank you for your advise. I will keep an eye on my credit report and credit card activity.

 

[anyheck]

I would highly recommend a credit "security freeze." It really is a great way to prevent others from accessing your credit.

Only caveat is that it incurs a small cost (<=$30) to "unfreeze" your credit when you want to say open a new credit card or apply for a loan etc.

I'd say that unless you are the type to be opening store credit cards every time someone dangles a one-time 20% discount in front of you then it wouldn't be an issue at all.

Here's some info by state:
http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html

 

[Hungry Seagull]

For those that dangle 20% discount, you are going to get bent over with 25% interest and 8 day double cycle billing. My spouse did that one day over the holidays.

I brought her back to the store and paid off and closed the card sooo fast that the manager had great difficulty halting her HIGHER in the Ivory tower from cranking out the first bill. Slash and burn credit baby.

I did that myself in a store for a mower. 2600 dollars, 500 off plus 15% off for new store credit card and paid off cold cash the following morning. The manager told me that I was not to be welcome there again for 6 months.

No problem.

 

[colorado_handgunner]

Call one of the credit bureaus and have them put a fraud alert on your file, it is free and they are required to do so if asked (they will then notify the other bureaus). This will block all credit applications that are not verified by you directly. To verify, the credit bureau will first call you home number to ensure that you are the one applying for credit. This will remain active for 90 days and will give you free access to each of your credit reports during the period. Do it today. It costs nothing, takes little time, and protects you!

 

[Archery Ham]

LifeLock. $10 per person a month. Not bad.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

We signed up for credit protection from another provider once years ago.

The first month passed (4 weeks) 9. dollars and change. No problem. Then the paper billing accelerated faster each week or even days. Before we got it canceled and refunded we had paid 1.2 years worth of 9 dollars per month in a total of about 3 months even a cool 145 dollars out the window.

Nah. We provide our own credit protection now. Cold hard cash backed by remington and Smithwesson.

 

[Jim K]

Anyone can be a victim of ID theft, but anyone can do a lot to stop/prevent it without paying for some program.

Don't give out bank account or credit card info to anyone over the phone or on the net unless you KNOW who it is and YOU intiated the contact.

Don't fall for "phishing" by telephone calls from your bank or phoney e-mails linking to what appear to be genuine bank web sites wanting you to "verify" your information.

Your address and phone number are readily available even if not listed, but other info is not, and ID thieves won't go to a lot of trouble to get it. If you don't fall right into the trap they will go on to the next sucker.

And, it doesn't have to be a complete stranger. A while back, my wife's brother told her that he had been contacted by an old acquaintance who owed him money and wanted his bank account number so he could send it.

My BIL thought he would finally get his money back (it was a substantial amount) but asked my wife about the idea. She advised him to open a new account with $10 and give the guy that number. The BIL took her advice. The next day, the $10 was gone. Had he given out his regular account number, he could have lost a lot more than $10.

Jim

 

[TAB]

I'd call all 3 agencys and have them put a furad watch. I think I would also call all my credit card companys and speak with thier fruad departments. They will be more then happy to close your account and reissuse a new account number.

Generally speaking when some gets your credit, you will see a couple small transactions, then several big ones with in hours.

 

[musick]

Personally, I would call my CC companies and ask them to cancel the card(s) and send you a new one(s) with another number. Tell them you think the card has been compromised. Its free, and I do it every year, just in case.

 

[musick]

Generally speaking when some gets your credit, you will see a couple small transactions, then several big ones with in hours.

Vert true.

The only issue I had is I got a call from Visa asking me if I use paypal. I despise them and told them I never had. They noticed a $0.09 payment to my card and found it suspicious. I asked them to cancel it and send me another card, with a different #. When I got the bill a few days later, I saw the 9 cent credit, a 27 cent debit and then a $500+ charge. Visa took care of everything and I was never liable for any charges.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Looks like that little .09 charge is a way for Paypal to verify the credit card number tied to a checking account and a attempt was most certianly made to use that card via paypal.

Im very happy to hear of you closing out that card and refusing/not being liable for those small and large charges.

However, It would be MOST interesting to see how your Card Issuer and PAYPAL went after the person who did this.

Through the website called Internet Storm Center (Sans dot org I believe) they occasionally dip into credit card/voip phone fraud and how it's done underground.

Once a valid card gets underground, it can spread across the globe at a pace to it's credit limit in minutes or hours.

I took a trip to the east coast once on a new card and my first fuel stop was delayed a hour while my card issuer confirmed with the spouse that it was ME working on the trip as gas stations are common try outs for stolen cards etc. I learned something that day. No problems with the entire trip. But always have cash with you should your card fail for some reason.

It would have been cheaper to fly and rent a car in place a few days than driving there and back.

 

[musick]

Looks like that little .09 charge is a way for Paypal to verify the credit card number tied to a checking account and a attempt was most certianly made to use that card via paypal.

Im very happy to hear of you closing out that card and refusing/not being liable for those small and large charges.

However, It would be MOST interesting to see how your Card Issuer and PAYPAL went after the person who did this.

Yes, I agree, I would love to know if Visa dug further into it. My guess would be they didnt. In the grand scheme of things, $500 is just loose change to them. I imagine they would say it wasnt worth the effort.

Of course we (well, you is more accurate since I dont carry a balance, EVER) all end up paying for it with higher interest charges.

 

[gallo]

I got confirmation by mail from all 3 credit agencies that my credit is on hold for 90 days. I will continue paying to Expedia for their credit monitoring service after the 90 days. It is only about $4.50/month. I also pulled my credit report and there is no unusual credit activity.

Thanks for all the feedback. It has been very helpful.