It is Monday evening, my phone rang and I picked it up. The voice on the other end greeted me by my first name only then thanked me for being a valued customer and would like to extend to me $400.00 in airline services, (by an internationally known airline) and also give me a voucher worth $100.00 in free gas from any gas station in the US. Odd enough, right? ANY gas station in the US?
He then asked me to verify my address, which he had correct. It didn't surprise me since he had my phone number too. He then asked me which bank do I bank with, I told him the name of the bank. He then asked for me to grab my check book to verify some information for him. When I got back, he recited to me the routing number to my bank, then asked for me to tell him the numbers to the right of the routing number. I replied, "This is my account number, I'm not comfortable with providing this information over the phone." He assured me that this is normal procedure for their company in order for me to recieve my free gifts and my information was safe with him. I told him, "If you must have my account number then I cannot proceed with this call." Without a thanking me for my time or ending the call in a professional manner, he hung up on me.
I called back the phone number that marketing guy had previously given me, and spoke with customer service and came to realize quickly that this was not a professional customer service rep that I was speaking with. Before I ended a sentence, she had already started explaining to me that it was not what it seems. Finally, frustrated enough... I said "can I explain to you why I am upset without you interrupting me." A very long pause came... I thought she had hung up on me too. I then said "thank you", then told her that I recieved this solicitation call unexpectedly in my home, the least this guy could do was thanked me for my time and for listening to him while he spoke.
Instead, when I told him that I was not going to give him my checking account number over the phone... He just hung up on me. The CSR told me that the marketing guy didn't hang up on me, we had just simply lost connection. Hmmm. How convenient? Well, I gave her a few choice words on how I felt about the rude invasion then I conveniently lost connection with her too. If this is not a scam... Then I'm not sure what to think one would sound like.
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