So here it goes...
I'm on my way home from work for lunch and I receive a call from 727-683-1112, unsure of who it is, I answer. The caller states that they are affiliated with my bank, Florida Telco Credit Union and that they are contacting me to notify me of a prize I've won. Curious, I listen to the 'speech'.
The caller says that because I am a "Valued Florida Telco Member" and I recently (within the last 6 mths) made a purchase online using my checking account, I have one a 3 night, 2 day vacation PLUS $400 in airfair to the LOVELY Orlando/Disney Resort. Nice right?
The caller then says I just need to verify some of your information to confirm that we have the right "Valued Member". This is when my couriosity really peaked. I thought to myself, ok what kind of information does he need to verify. So he starts out by stating the 9 digit bank routing number to me. Knowing that this information is available to virtually anyone this does not peak my concern until...
He then recites my checking account number EXACTLY to me. Now I know this is a scam because I've had to call my bank and ask for this information and they would not provide it to me. Trying to dig deeper and get some more information I say "ok so now what" the 'ripoff artist' then proceeds to inform me that I needed to go onto a recorded call in order to verify and confirm my acceptance of the prize. When he places me on hold I immediately hung up.
I redialed the number from which the call originated. My call was answered by a recording and the very first thing that caught my attention is there was no 'Thank you for calling Travel Agents Direct' or anything that stated the name of the company. The greeting simply said 'Thank you for calling'.
It then went in to the automated options. Press 1 to discontinue receiving calls, Press 2 continue receiving calls and Press 3 to cancel a previous order (I'm pretty sure that's what they were). I pressed 2 and then returned to eating my lunch.
About an hr later I received a 2nd call originating from the same area code, although the number was slightly different 727-683-1118. I thought boy are these people relentless. I answered the phone and a young lady politely informed me that my call had been previously disconnected and the only thing left for me to do to claim my prize was the recorded confirmation. I nicely told her that I was not interested and she refused to take no for an answer.
After about the 3rd contest of her offer I said "Ma'am I've politely told you 3 times, I'm going to tell you once again, I am not interested in your offer. I'm also going to ask you to please remove all of my contact and banking information from your system." I then warned her that if there were any erroneous charges or activity on my account I would file a law suit.
After she spit out about 100 words in 2.5 seconds (the only thing I caught was something about a customer service number) she hung up on me.
Now, as a former victim of Identity Fraud and a former employee of CitiBank's Credit Card division. My concern grew. I immediatly called my bank, transferred all of my funds to another account, and closed the account that "Travel Agents Direct" had recited to me.
Here's the most amazing part - "Travel Agents Direct" called me AGAIN this morning to inform me that my order had not been processed due to an invalid account number.
HEED THIS WARNING! No one that you hold any sort of financial account with will ever solicit you via phone, mail, or internet, requesting your banking information.
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