The ever developing cunning of scammers

1 Jul 2024 20:47:16

Lionel Ogden

I received a text recently apparently from my bank saying that my debit card had been used for a payment of £0.00 and that I should contact them. The gave me two numbers one a normal landline number and the other an 0800 number. It all looked straightforward but to be sure I checked the numbers on the back of my debit card. Sure enough the normal landline number was the same but the 0800 number was different. This was Saturday afternoon and the landline number was not available till Monday.

However, I contacted my bank via their own number (not the one on the text) and they confirmed that someone had tried to use my card details with a Carpet Shop in the USA. My bank had noted this as unusual and blocked my card. Their email to me advising me of this was there in my mailbox. They subsequently issued me with a new card. Had I used the alternative number offered in the text I could have been in trouble.