Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

Okay... Keith got a phone call this afternoon from some dude that said he was with a Grant & Loan Assoc. He had our checking acct # AND routing # and said he was taking $250 out of our account on the 1st for a finder's fee, and that we were guaranteed a 5k student loan.

?????

First, we never authorized this and don't need any student loans... blah blah blah.
Keith pressured him for info and asked him for his phone # (it came up as a private # on our ID) and the guy said he was at a phone center routed through India. He had a thick accent, maybe that's where he was then.

????

Keith pressured him some more about where he obtained this info and the guy hung up on him.
So we went to the bank... long story short... the bank tells us not to worry and that they would need an authorization code to do this.
This is all very strange to me. I don't know where he got this info, maybe someone hacked in to something... I dunno.
We're taking measures to protect ourselves, but I'm just wondering if anyone else has heard this?

Thanks,
Em

[atomic charvel guy]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

that is fukkin' scary. i hope you don't get hurt.
fukkin' thieves!!!

[Tetsuo]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

It is pretty easy to pluck a lot of that info nowadays... Scary

[tonemonster]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

WOW! thats pretty scary shit Em!! Its amazing the scams that are out there. The are all nasty, but at least you and Keith are smart enough to catch them! I really feel sorry for old folks that are gullible and fall victim to those scams. Our local and state police departments are reminding old folks about that on the news all the time to be aware of phone scams, etc....

Scary fukkin world we live in [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[lerxstcat]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

Your checking account and routing numbers are on the bottom of every check you send out, so anyone who has or views a photocopy has access to that info. A scammer could probably pass a bogus check by phone if they could deduce the next check # in your sequence. The bank would have to give you the money back if you can prove it was invalid though, but if the scammer got you to give him your next check # in your checkbook it would probably be harder to get it reversed.

[Hollywood]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

You have to be real careful these days. They can catch you at a moment when you just aren't thinking, or in a rush, and it can turn out to be a bad situation. Glad you guys didn't become victims. Thanks for the heads up too. Always nice to have something be familiar if/when you get a call like that.

[Mrs Tekky]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

Apparently this is not that uncommon. Snopes did a thing on it ==> http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/govgrant.asp

It's scary that this type of thing can happen.

[Emthrax]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

Mrs. T,

That is it!! That is exactly the scam. They already had all of our information, however, so we don't know yet if we are victims or not. Keith says he didn't verify the info the man gave out as being correct and he certainly didn't give him permission to withdraw this money. We don't know what will happen or if anything will happen at all. Our bank manager said that one has to purchase goods from a company or sign something in order for a transaction to take place. So who knows?
This whole thing pisses me off. I never ever answer the phone if no number comes up (as it did this time) and if I don't recognize the number I still won't answer. If people want me to call them they'll leave a message.

Em

[hippietim]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

Em, you should be on the phone with the police.

[Emthrax]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

Tried. Policia won't do anything unless something actually happens or we are threatened with bodily harm... yadda yadda yadda.
Anyways... if these fukkers try something they're gonna be in for a treat. We completely moved everything over to a backup account so there aint SQUAT in that one! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
The bank is aware of the matter.
The scammers said they were going to withdraw the money on the 1st of March (??). I would think that they would have tried by now if they were going to. I think (and hope) they were scared away because we aren't an easy target and didn't fall for it when they called.
I hope they catch consumption so they can watch their flesh rot.

[hippietim]

Re: Has anyone heard of this kind of scam??

I wonder if this is related to that sick scam that Pat posted a link to.