Phishing phone call?

This is a little scary. We all know about “phishing” emails where you get something that’s supposedly from PayPal or your bank. It looks just like a real email from that company with a link that looks real enough, asking you to click to login and verify/update your personal info. Usually it’s with some omnious threat that the security of the account has been compromised. Most of us know enough to steer clear of these, knowing that these are really from someone trying to get personal data so they can rip us off.

Today, Eric got a phishing phone call. He answered the phone and it was a recorded message, saying that they were calling from MBNA bank. The recording said that there was fraudulent activity on his account, and he needed to call a 1-866 # immediately. Trick is, when Eric lost his job last summer we paid off and cancelled most of his credit cards. We closed our MBNA account months ago. Eric called MBNA and reported the call, but unfortunately he didn’t get the complete phone number the phishers were using. Of course, MBNA told Eric that his account was indeed closed and there has been no activity on it since that time.

Eric said that had the phone call been about an account that he still had, he would have fallen for it. How easy it would have been to call the number, someone answers with the bank name and maybe takes you through a “dial one for…” maze for good measure. You speak to a human who says “account number?” You tell them. “Mother’s maiden name? Social security number?” **You tell them.** 10 minutes later the theives are going to town on your credit card.

I told Eric that from now on, any phone call like that and instead of calling the number on a recording he goes to the bank’s website and calls the customer service phone number listed (which he ended up doing). Be forewarned and do the same.