I fell for the same stupid scam and just found out today that it was a scam. On April 4, I received a call at about 10AM from a guy saying that I had been approved for $2500 credit limit. The week before this, I had given my cell number on e-quest.com as part of the information required to see which credit cards I qualified for. The so called "Credit Education Group" probably got my phone number from there.
Anyway, I was hesitant when the guy asked me if I was interested but I eventually said yes, because I'm a student with no credit and needed a credit card. This guy then transferred my call to the so call "senior account manager" by the name of Paul Frank. He went over all the details and terms of the card. He said it was a CG MasterCard with no annual fees, etc... With a fixed 8% APR. After all of this, he said that there was a one time activation fee of $296 that will be withdrawn from my account on April 14. He asked for my checking account number and I was hesitant.
I would not give it to him and he was saying all sorts of stuff to asure me that he was not a scam. I had a nasty feeling about this, and argued with him for 10 minutes before I gave in. He asked me to read off all the digits at the bottom of my check book and the reason for this was that he needed to verify if it existed because he's had customers that gave false checking account numbers. He said that he had a system where he can run my checking account number through to verify its validity. When I read my numbers to him, I noticed that I did not hear any clicking of the keyboard.
I thought to myself that that was odd, but continued... So stupid of me. He verified that it was all good and that I should receive my card within 10 working business days. He then told me that he's going to transfer me to the shipping department to get my information to ship out my card. He was really patient and said that I can call him back anytime at 1-888-414-0068 ext. 18207. He also gave me the pin number to the card.
I was transferred to a lady by the name of Jody who sounded real nice. She recorded my voice for authorization and gave me a contract # of IV followed by the last four digits of my social security number and a tracking number of 201109. She claimed that if I called the customer service number of 1-888-414-0068 then they would ask for my contract number and that they're open 9-5 eastern.
I've had a gut feeling that I should go and change my account number at the bank but didn't trust my instincts until today. The $296 was automatically drawn out by First Choice with the phone number 1-866-310-0695. I told my friend, who scolded me for my stupidity and we went online to verify the phone number and company name. The phone number did not come up. We called it and a machine says customer service is closed. I searched further and found this site.
I immediately called my bank to see if they can do a stop payment or a reversal, but they said that my account had already been cleared yesterday. The will send me and Afidavit form to fill out and try to get my money back. And that I can change my account number. I wanted to do that now, but I still have some written checks outstanding so I went ahead and withdrew everything except for what ever is left to cover for my outstanding checks which is only 246.00. Hopefully they clear soon so I can change my account number.
I don't remember giving my whole social security number, but did give my last four... What else can they do with my last four digits?
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