Phone Fraud & Identity Theft
Phone Scams, Fraud and Identity Theft Through Social Engineering
What is Social Engineering?
Social engineering is when a person calls and talks you into giving them information or services you would normaly not give a person without first knowing them or checking thier identification. Hackers use this method to get passwords or other sensitive information. Here is an example of a "Social Engineer" trying to get a credit card number from a potential victim, and how the "Victim" was tough enough to shut him down.
Here is a conversation between Cheryl and a person "named" Bill Pierson. (Cheryl Won!)
"I came home to a phone number 1-800-504-8612 and a name Bill Pierson telling me it was urgent. He demanded over $600 on an unpaid cellphone bill. He had the last 4 digits of my social security number, my home phone number, my name and my spouses, a bad address, and almost a good address."
"At first he refused to tell me who he was collecting for. Then he named Sprint who has no record of me ever being a client of theirs. "
"I demanded a bill. He claimed he sent one."
"He yelled several times he was turning me over to the 3 credit bureaus for this little $600. I told him that I worked 6 years for a collection center, knew the credit bureaus, and he wasn't giving me the information he should be giving me. When I accused him of identity theft, he got louder."
"I finally just hung up on him, called Sprint, and called my local police department. "
Good Job Cheryl!
I don't know about you, but this warms my heart. Cheryl didn't get cowed by the guy on the other end of the line and give away personal information that she shouldn't have. It would have been very easy to give the guy her complete social security number so he could "check his records" to see if his information was correct. Or give him her real address, so he would have a better chance of faking her out of her social security number or credit card number next time, but she didn't.
Update - Was It Really Sprint?
I checked with the phone company, and they said that the above toll free number was shown as belonging to Sprint. BUT, Cheryl called Sprint and they had no record of her ever being a Sprint customer. So, Was it really Sprint that called? Was Bill a scam artist? Did Bill just sign up for a toll free number using the name Sprint to get people to call back when it showed up on their caller ID? Or, is Sprint so inept, that they don't know who their customers are so that on one hand they are telling you that you aren't a customer while at the same time they are trying to collect from you with the other hand? <=(I have a Sprint cell phone, so I vote for this one.)
Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmm. LOL
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