I got a call tonight from a company called CPI, purporting to be working with the federal government (Dept of Power & Energy) along with several major gas retailers offering $200 in Gas Vouchers. They claimed that they were selecting people across the country based on whether they had paid their taxes on time. She said that their website was www.ucan.org (which is a legitimate consumer action organization). She gave her name as Rose Cooper (ID #0161) and their phone number as 800-207-0174.
The presentation was VERY slick - I am extremely con-savvy and have never been scammed before. I mulled it over before giving my account information, waiting for them to "reveal" themselves as a scam by asking for my SSN - they never did. While I was going through their "authorization" process, I cross-reference the phone number and came up with this site. I had (unfortunately) already divulged my account info, but had not gotten their "confirmation number" at the end (more on that in a bit).
When I saw this site, I immediately advised them that I was aware of this being a scam and hung up on them.
A moment later they called back, asking why I had hung up. I explained that I had found this inforation and they were quite apologetic, saying that they were not UTalk, but that UTalk was just one of the "sponsors" - they insisted that they were CPI and working with the government. After all, they claimed, I had already given them my account info, if they were just going to scam me, why would they call back? They assured me that there would be no other transactions on my account and tried to get me to go through the verification process again - stressing again, that I needed to note down the confirmation number at the end. I started to do so, then saw the full extent of the complaints here, and hung up again. I immediately phoned my bank this time and had them on the line explaining the situation to them when they called back AGAIN! This time, I had my bank rep listen in on the conversation, as I have two lines. The UTalk rep explined that he understood my concern and that I just needed to go through a "voice validation" process to have my inforation removed from their web-based software - for security purposes, he said. He advised that the "voice validation" process was similar to the authorization process and that I needed to wait for the confirmation number at the end to be certain that my infomation had been deleted. The process was not just "similar", it was *exactly* the same as the authorization process. I refused to comply with it and the UTalk rep kept saying (in a Middle-Eastern accent, for what that's worth - come to think of it, the initial rep was also Middle-Eastern — now I'm not one to cast dispersions in general, but one can't help but wonder if there's something deeper going on there). Anyway, the rep kept saying that if I didn't complete the deletion process, that I would be solely liable for my informtion being "out there for any net-hacker to discover". Fortunately, my bank rep was listening to all of this and advised me that I would not be liable for any unauthorized deductions from my account - and that this call did not constitute an authorization. He noted everything in my account and I will be summarily closing the account first thing in the morning.
I noticed that several of the complaints posted here indicated that their banks said that they would not cover the "additional" withdrawals because the person gave authorization - I suggest double-checking with your bank manager (not just a phone rep) - and if that's still the case, switch your bank!
I'll post an update after the account is closed.
I'm also going to be reporting this to the California Attorney General's office for hopeful prosecution.
A
Palmdale, California
U.S.A.
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