No spam this is my credit card company

November 15, 2020

Fake Midland Credit, Genesis Credit, Comenity Bank, Synchrony Bank, Recovery Services, Discover Financial, Capital One, PayPal, American Express, Chase Bank, Bank of America, Transworld Systems (or another fake or real credit agency or bank name) phantom debt collection scam by madarchod criminals phoning from India This is what the Federal Trade Commission calls a phantom debt collection scam where the scammer pretends to be a debt collector, bank or credit agency, billing department, lawyer, or law enforcement and threatens to sue or arrest you using lies, harassment, and intimidation to collect on fake debts that you do not owe. Either the recording or the India scammer asks for you by your name in order to sound like a personal phone call to gain your trust, but they are auto-dialing thousands of numbers. The scammer may say "I am calling on a recorded line" just to sound official, but it is fake! The scammer either mentions an unpaid debt and past due amount that must be paid immediately or says that they have frozen your account due to fraudulent activity. The scammer then asks for your online banking login credentials, Social Security number and date of birth "for verification purposes", and either tells you that you can settle the debt by paying with a credit card or demands that you wire transfer the payment for the fake debt or asks for your bank account/routing number. More than 95% of North America phone scams come from India scammers who use hundreds of fraud, extortion, and money laundering scams every day such as posing as a fake pharmacy, fake Social Security officers saying your benefits are suspended, IRS officers collecting on fake unpaid back taxes, bill collectors threatening you for fake unpaid debts, fake bank, financial, or Fedex/UPS/DHL scams; pretending to offer fake health insurance, car warranty, student loan forgiveness, credit card and debt consolidation services; posing as Amazon to falsely say an unauthorized purchase was made to your credit card or your Prime membership was auto-debited from your bank; posing as Microsoft/Dell/HP/Apple to say that your software needs renewal or they detected a problem or virus on your computer; fake "we are refunding your money" or "your account has been auto-debited" scams; fake Google/Alexa listing and work-from-home scams; posing as Verizon/AT&T/Comcast or your electric utility to say your service is suspended; fake fundraisers asking for donations; fake political and lifestyle phone surveys; and the scammers try to steal your credit card, bank account/routing number, or Social Security number and personal information. One India call center may cycle through a fake Social Security, computer subscription auto-renewal, pharmacy, health insurance, and credit card offer scam during the week. People often hear different scams from the same spoofed Caller ID number. Scammers often use disposable VoIP phone numbers (MagicJack devices) or they spoof fake Caller ID phone numbers. Scammers use telecom software or a third-party service to phone using fake names and phone numbers that show up on CID. India scammers often spoof fake "8xx-" toll-free CID numbers. The CID name/number is useless with scam calls unless the scam asks you to phone them back and the CID area code is almost never the origin of the call. You waste your time researching the CID number since scams use spoofed CID numbers from across the U.S. and Canada, totally invalid area codes, and also fake foreign country CID numbers; e.g. fake women crying "help me" emergency scams often spoof Mexico and Middle East CID numbers. India scammers also spoof the actual phone numbers of businesses such as Apple, Verizon, and U.S. banks to trick you into thinking the call is valid. How can you avoid being scammed by phone calls? NEVER trust any unsolicited caller who sells something (most unsolicited sales calls are scams so your odds of saving money are very poor); offers of a "free gift"; legal or arrest phone threats or a caller or recording who says you need to reply back soon (pressure tactic); callers who ask you to access a website, download a file, wire transfer money or buy gift cards immediately while they stay on the phone with you; claims of suspicious activity on an account or refunds or auto-renewed/auto-debited accounts; and all pre-recorded messages. Recorded messages are far more likely to be malicious scams, and not just telemarketing spam. A common India scam phones you with a fake Amazon recording about a purchase of an iPhone, but Amazon never robo-dials you like this and Amazon account updates are communicated in emails. Many banks do use automated fraud alert phone calls to confirm a suspicious purchase, but always verify the number that the message tells you to phone or just call the number printed on your credit card. Any unsolicited caller with a foreign accent, usually Indian, should immediately be treated as a scam. Many scams tell a lie that you recently inquired about a job, insurance, social security benefits, doctor appointment, or that you recently contacted them or visited their website. Many scammers try to gain your trust by saying your name when they call, but the autodialer is automatically displaying your name to the scammer or saying your name in a recording when your number is dialed using widely-available phone databases that contain millions of names, numbers, and addresses. Many India scammers phone you with an initial pre-recorded message speaking English, Spanish, or Chinese that is easily generated using text-to-speech translation software to disguise the origin of their India phone room, but then you speak to the India scammer when you respond to the pre-recorded message. Some speech synthesis software sound robotic, but others sound natural. To hide their foreign accents, some India scammers use non-Indians in their phone room and many India scammers begin calls using interactive voice response (IVR) robotic software that combines voice recognition with artificial intelligence, speaks English with American voices, listens to your speech, and responds based on your replies. Four common IVR setups begin the call with either: "Hi, this is fake_name, I am a fake_job_title on a recorded line, can you hear me okay?"; or "Hi, this is fake_name, how are you doing today?"; or "Hello? (pause) Are you there?"; or "Hi, may I speak to your_name?" IVR scam calls quickly ask you a short question to elicit a yes/no reply so it hangs up if it encounters voicemail. The quick question is often followed by fake background noise and a fake phone ringing to simulate a call center. The IVR robot can understand basic replies, yes/no/what? answers, and basic questions. To test for an IVR robot, ask them, "How is the weather over there?" IVR software cannot answer complex questions. IVR robots keep talking if you try to interrupt them in mid-sentence. The IVR usually transfers you to the India scammer, but some phone scams entirely use IVR with the robot asking for your credit card or SSN. A common myth is these IVR scam calls try to record you saying "yes" so scammers can authorize other purchases and charges just using your "yes" voice, but scammers need more information than just a simple recorded "yes" from you, i.e. your credit cards and SSN. Phone/email scams share two common traits: 1) The Caller ID name/number and the "From:" header on emails are easily faked; and 2) The intent of a scam phone call is malicious just as the file attachments and website links on a scam email are malicious. Phone/email scams snowball for many victims. If your personal/financial data are stolen, either by being scammed, visiting a malicious website, or by a previous data breach of a business server that stores your data, then your personal data gets shared and sold by scammers on the dark web who then see you as fresh meat and prey on you even more. If you provide your personal and financial data to a phone scammer, lured by fake 80%-discounted drugs or scared by fake IRS officers, you receive more phone scams and identity theft can take years to repair. India scammers do not care about the National Do-Not-Call Registry and asking scammers to stop calling is useless. You do these scammers a favor by quickly hanging up. But you ruin their scams when you slowly drag them along on the phone call, always giving them fake credit card numbers and fake personal data (16 random numbers starting with 4 for Visa 5 for MasterCard), asking them to speak louder and to repeat what they said to waste their time and energy.

July 2, 2020