Scam call

[i4got]

Today I had a scam call from someone (well spoken) purporting to be Santander's fraud department.

Obviously pretty suspicious immediately but thought I'd play it out.

They asked if an online transaction was mine (£400 odd at an online babies equipment site).

I said not and he said we're just sending you a text to confirm.

Immediately received the normal Santander OTP sms (same phone number as always).

So he then asked me to read him the OTP code.

Obviously he'd just attempted the online purchase with my card details and expected me to give him the OTP to complete the purchase.

At this stage I said I'll call the fraud department myself and hung up.

So I called Santander who confirmed that the fraudulent purchase had been attempted but no others. Card cancelled and awaiting new one now.

Now I haven't lost my card. So he's obviously got the details from somewhere I've used it recently. I don't use it that regularly - I use Apple Pay mostly.

The odd thing though is he had my mobile number as well.

I'm having difficulty thinking of somewhere I used the card where I had also provided a phone number.

Anyone else had this and worked out how they got both card details and phone number.

[turbobloke]

It's possible this was somehow an inside job, somebody at the bank may have been compromised in some way or just dishonest..The link below is behind the usual Times paywall but the headline should be visible.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rise-in-inside-...

[Imasurv]

I had similar a couple of months ago, asking if I’d made a payment attempt at Argos. They knew my bank, my mobile number and my name AND the number they rang from identified as the bank fraud number on my phone. As soon as I said I would phone them back they hung up and when I phoned the bank they knew nothing about it. Pretty sophisticated and I’m sure some will fall for it….

[turbobloke]

They're getting more sophisticated and more subtle because they have to. After looking into investment options via searches, my Google ads including the feature stories began to involve investment co's. I got a call - once again, how do they get the numbers - from somebody claiming to represent Investecs Ltd. It was difficult to spot the added s when the person was speaking, but after hearing it a few times, and after not getting any mention of a regulation authority, the call was ended. Another online search revealed that they hadn't bothered to spoof any number I could associate with Investec. Investec have been the subject of a number of imitation scams, this appeared to be a new one.

https://www.investec.com/en_gb/focus/fraud/how-to-...
https://www.centralbank.ie/news-media/press-releas...