I got a scam robocall earlier today from a premium rate number to tell me that Amazon had just debited my visa card for $714.thingummy, and to stay on line to talk to a Visa representative. So I hung up.
Clues it's a fraud: I'm a Brit: I have a Visa card, but I have never dealt with Visa directly. Visa is a franchise in the UK and my card is issued by my bank, who don't handle suspicious transactions that way.
(Also, it's easy to check my Amazon transactions: liar, liar, pants on fire!)
@cstross The first rule of scams is never "stay on the line". Always hang up and go through the website. Never click on emails from companies even if you deal from them. Make it a habit to always go to the website directly, and never through a link.
@cstross Off topic, but I used to get loads of calls offering assistance in making a claim following 'my accident'.
I shouldn't have engaged, really, but I once responded with something along the lines of 'Oh thank god you've called. Is an ambulance on the way, then? And what's the best way to slow the bleeding, do you think? Should I try to fashion some kind of tourniquet, or what...?'
It didn't end the calls, of course, but it ended THAT call, and raised an eyebrow or two among my coworkers.
@daveybot@revk@cstross I went the other way and responded with “yes it was a terrible accident, and unfortunately I was killed” and then just waited silently
@jamesoff@daveybot@cstross it is amazing how these days “Ethernet” finally allows VoIP calls to “the ether” and “the other side” so well, it is great to get your call after so long listening to the abyss, please don’t hang up…
@cstross Probably not a premium rate number (unless they are hoping you will call back) - just more VOIP trickery. Mine are all mobile phone numbers with a south asian "boiler room" callcentre on the end, and I need to press 1 or 2 to get through to that - after which they are invited to burn in hellfire for all eternity. (Makes me feel a little better, at least.)
@cstross Also, that's not how fraud protection works. Normally, if an issuing bank thinks a transaction is suspicious, they will decline the transaction at the time of the transaction and won't let it go through. You have to tell them that it's a legit transaction before they'll allow it.
And you're right: credit cards are issued by financial institutions and backed by Visa so if there ever is a dispute over charges, the first stop is the issuing bank. Visa works through the banks, not with consumers directly. Basically the middle man for handling the electronic money transfers.
Incidentally, that's also why scammers will generally run up $99 dollar charges on a card, because $100 is usually where fraud protection kicks in.
@SynAck You seem to think I don't know this already. (Hint: I wrote the back-end code for Datacash in the late 90s. A British payment service provider from the dot-com era, now experiencing a liminal afterlife as a trading arm of Mastercard.)
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