Every month or so, we get a recorded message from an “unavailable” phone number. It’s a so-chirpy-I-want-to-strangle-her female voice saying “This is Card Services. We’re calling about your credit card account. There’s no problem with your account, however it’s urgent that you call us immediately to discuss lowering your interest rate”. I’ve always hung up but today it annoyed me so I pressed 1 to speak to a human.
From the human, I gathered that this was actually a company named “Card Services”. The person I spoke with seemed startled that I was asking questions. I asked who they were and the guy said “we’re in Orlando”. “No, what BANK are you with?”. “We’re not a bank. We’re a company that acts as a negotiator to lower your interest rate”.
So - once it was clear that this was a company that I had no business relationship with, I informed the person that the recorded calls were illegal (I think they are though I could be wrong), and that I was on the do not call registry so therefore it was illegal to call me at all, and that if I received any further phone calls from them I would report them to the authorities.
My google-fu is failing me. I can’t find any links to a company by that name (probably why they chose such a generic-sounding, “we’re affiliated with your current bank” name).
Anyone ever heard of this outfit? Are they a bunch of scam artists? (well, clearly they’re scummy and misleading which would suggest the answer to that is “HELL YES”).
Now, off to find out why my “call intercept” did not block the number.
Concensus seems to be they’re hard-to-find scam artists trying to get your credit card number. I would concur, I don’t know why your bank would steadily increase your interest rate over time, and then spend money hiring an outfit to make recorded calls to you, offering to lower your interest rate.
They show up on our caller ID a couple times a week. Like any other number that looks remotely like a telemarketer, we don’t answer. Funny, they never leave a message…
Heh - my caller ID doesn’t show anything except “unavailable” - no phone number.
I don’t know how they’re managing to get past the call intercept (supposed to block all unknown callers) - I’ve got a message in to the Veridiots to find out what’s going on there.
control-z, thanks for the link. Though that doesn’t cite the company name, it sounds exactly like the calls I’ve gotten.
I wasn’t busy, so I held the line and talked to the nice lady. When I asked her what her name and address were, the nice lady hung up on me. Next time, I’ll be sure to waste more of their time.
Somehow I seem to have figured out the right phrase to get Google to perform:
‘“lower your interest rate” credit card telemarketer scam’
which leads to a couple of web pages that do indeed sound identical to this call.
They were calling me twice a week for months. I normally just let my answering machine pick it up, but the message was so fucking annoying that I couldn’t stand it. I finally pretended that I was interested in signing up and chatted with the tele-asshole for a while and then told him that I wanted to talk to his supervisor. He actually got on the phone and I let a string of profanities fly that was extreme even for me.
I reported them to the FTC via the Do Not Call Registry website. The calls stopped for about a month, and then started up again. I asked the guy what company he worked for and responded something generic like “Financial Services”. The next time they just hung up on me.
From here on in, I’m just going to scream “FUCK OFF ASSHOLE”. I suspect this will be quite therapeutic.
Interesting. I get several calls a week that I let the answering machine deal with; they actually leave a message about “Press 1 to talk to a representative.” I suppose there are the same calls you guys are talking about.
Pfishing Scams - Dangerous in that it can sound authentic because legitimate CC companies do call and leave messages with the intro “Please call XXXX card services at xxx-xx-xxxx” and it sounds just like one of these.
I answered their call once to ask them for a valid contact number for the SO to call when he got home since the number on Caller ID was not valid. The rep I was speaking with had the nerve to accuse me of trying to gain private information/Phishing because I would not give him the SO’s work number.
Here I was thinking companies are crackin down on security - but being refused to give a valid customer service contact number is definately a red-flag.
Them:This is blah blah blah, can I please speak to Jennifer [mangled last name, who does live here btw]
Me: I’m sorry, you must have the wrong number.
Them: Thank you, good bye.
And that’s usually the last call I receive from them. Not them as in “card services” but that specific telemarketer tends to stop calling. It’s worked surpisingly well.
I got a recorded message from these guys last night.
I do not have a credit card in my mane.
I have an AmEx card from work, and I have a prepaid Mastercard in my name, but I do not have any actual credit in my anme. My personal creditwortthiness is nonexistent.
Oh, and the caller-ID was 000-0000. Good job of making that look legit, losers.
I just looked up the phone number on our phone’s memory.
CARD SERVICES 702-520-1147.
I haven’t bothered trying to call back to see if the number works. Last time they called was Jan 31. I guess they finally gave up.
Big Tip: They ALL identify themselves as “card services”. Even the biggest, most legit banks (i.e. Bank of America’s credit card services who recently bought up MBNA). Still, if you didn’t ask to speak to them, then their inquiry is unsolicited.
They sound like “Tribal Merchant Services”, who called me to say a furniture order we had placed months ago couldn’t be delivered because they were having “trouble running your credit card”. This, by the way, ten weeks after the entire transaction had already posted to my account. Then I Googled the businesses involved and found all sorts of things about ripoffs and scams, went to my bank, and the bank refunded my money, as they often do in credit card disputes.
It’s amazing how people like this seem to stay in business when they appear to be thieves operating right out in the open.
After getting way too many of these calls myself, I did come across a site (maybe whocalled.us as Johnny L.A. mentioned) that said if you don’t hang up when asked to “press 1 to speak to…”, there is an option to press 2 to have your number removed.
The last time they called I used every bit of self-control I had to not slam down the phone, pressed 2, and the nice recording told me my number has been removed. It’s only been a week or so, but, so far, so good.
They call my house at least once a week. I work at home so I have to pick up the phone. I ask to speak to a person. After the first five times I told them do not call list. Now I just let lose a stream of profanities because it feels good.
I hope everyone who works there gets shriveled genitalia and endless constipation. They are scum.