May 14
On May 3 at 4:26 pm I received a call on my cell phone from a blocked number. The man said he was from a company called CompuPlus. He informed me that I had applied for a credit card, which I had indeed applied for several recently, and that I was approved for a MasterCard with a $2500 spending limit.
Well, I should have known better but I ended up giving him all my information, including checking account number, routing number, and social security number, for identification purposes.
He told me that to activate the card I would have to pay a one time start-up fee of $354.90 out of my checking account, to be withdrawn on May 13, and that I would have my card in 10 to 14 days. I told him I didn't have that much money in my account and had no idea when I would.
He replied that I could call customer service and make different payment arrangements, such as using the $500 cash advance feature on the credit card to pay the $354.90 when I got the card. The number he gave me was 1-866-860-8660. I said I would go ahead and get the card ONLY if I could indeed pay the fee with the card, and not with my checking account. He agreed that thats what we would do, I just had to call customer service and make the arrangements.
After that he told me he was transferring me to the verification person to finalize everything. He claimed it was being recorded and not to say anything until asked to or interrupt her until she finished because it would cause her to have to start over. That in itself seemed strange to me.
Before he transferred me he told me he would be calling me back in about 15 minutes to make sure everything went okay.
The woman doing this verification process started rattling of all this information so fast I could not understand most of it, though I did catch something about a free computer and a vacation. After she finished and hung up I decided that something seemed fishy. I waited for fifteen minutes to see if the man would call back, and if he did I wanted to cancel and revoke everything. Obviously, he never called back.
I then attempted to call Customer Service and get this deal stopped. I called the 1-866-860-8660 number that he had given me. This is the message I got at that number. Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and try your call again, or contact customer service. Five. Zero. One. Four.
So basically this meant I was going to be charged $354.90 on May 13th, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I went to my bank May 12th and related the story to my banker. She said I could issue a stop payment, but at the time I didn't know the name of the company (CompuPlus) or the exact amount of the charge ($354.90).
(I didn't remember the name of the company or the exact dollar amount until May 14th when I got that information from my bank records.) We decided the thing to do was take all my money out of the account so when they tried to take the money my bank wouldn't give it to them, since I didn't have it.
I checked my account balance on May 14th and I was $354.90 in the negative. They had gotten the money. Upon reviewing my transaction record I came to learn the companies name, Compuplus, and their phone number, 1-866-860-8661. This phone number is different that the one he gave me and it does go to a customer service place, though when I called it was closed. This was on Saturday morning, May 14th.
With that information I was able to do a little research on the internet where I learned that this business is a TOTAL SCAM and I am not the first one they got money from.
I called customer service at my bank and filed a dispute on the charge. They are supposed to call me monday and until then thats all I know.
Jay
Selah, Washington
U.S.A.
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