August 3, 2015. Western Head, N.S. Fraud.

I have always thought that if the folks who try to cheat you would take as much effort in legitimate business they would make a lot of money.    These cheaters certainly go to great lengths to try to get your money.  This morning at 8:30, I received a call from a man saying that someone was using my credit card.  He was pretending to be from Visa and said that someone ordered something on e Bay and as I had never used e Bay, they wanted to ask if I had made the charge.

The call was sophisticated but not quite right.  He asked me to get my card to confirm that the card was in my possession.  Then he wanted me to confirm my account number.  Then I was suspicious so refused.  He got cross with me and hung up.  We have been called often by scam artists but it is always obvious.  But this call was different and clever.

Perhaps because we have a land line in Nova Scotia that we have received several of these calls this summer.  We have just won a cruise and all I must do is give them my credit card to get the credit.  Or they tell me they will reduce my interest rate if we just give them my card number.  Those calls are easy.   I just say no but this morning the call was almost believable.   Over the years we have had credit cards tampered with but the conversation with the fraud department of the credit card company is different than the one from this morning.  But it was close enough to make me wonder.

I immediately called Visa and no charges were made on my card so it was a scam and an attempt to get my card number.   These fraud artists are busy and a nuisance.   Makes me think I don't want a land line.