Watch your credit card

[filburt1]

My consumer tip of the moment: watch your credit card carefully. I got a call this morning on my cell phone from 727-541-0001. I didn't pick it up, merely because it was 11:30 AM, which of course means I still had half an hour until noon to sleep. Sometimes I get numbers I don't recognize calling me, mainly local ones that are wrong numbers, occasionally companies like Circuit City in regards to previous calls I've made and Microsoft for awesome but undisclosed reasons.

As I usually do, I Googled numbers I don't recognize, usually calling from my local area code. This one only turned up a few hits, but man: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/26/153054.php . When they called back a few hours later, I figured, what the hell, let's see, and answered. They said hello, I'm from Visa (an impossibility because my credit card issuer would call, not Visa itself, and only my landline is associated with the card, not my cell phone). He asked me to confirm my full name and the last four digits of my credit card number which were...correct. I refused to confirm nor deny, just saying the answer depends on what you're calling about. He refused to answer. I told him to shut up (well, "be quiet") and he became abusive (so was I, but he said "hey listen, don't tell me to be quiet"). I told him this is a personal line, a cell phone, and if he calls again, the FCC will hear about it. It was so satisfying to flip the phone closed on him.


No more calls yet, but I'm expecting them. Verizon says they can't block numbers (only text messages) and it depends on the phone if you can block a specific number (mine can't). But, after further research, people were reporting right after they received the calls unauthorized charges on their credit cards. Not wanting to take the chance, I immediately reported the card as stolen. I didn't see any unauthorized charges, but I had a brush with identity theft before which, ironically, would have happened if I wasn't so desperately poor.

They apparently call people only on cell phones, and the theory is that it's international because Florida (727 area code) cannot stop the calls. The other theory is that they're dumpster divers getting your name and last four digits of the credit card from receipts and other stuff you've thrown out?obviously practically every receipt has this.

So here's what I suggest doing if you get a call from this number:

• Don't answer at all, even out of curiousity, because you know these details.
• Report your card as stolen, regardless of whether the activity on it seems normal
• Call your cell phone provider and ask them to block the number or the whole area code; if they can't, see if your phone can do it.
• Shred your receipts, even if all it has is the last four digits.

Ironically, it might turn out for good. If I get more calls, Verizon can't block them, and my phone can't block them, then that means I can get a new phone. I've been wanting a camera phone for a while, not for sending pictures, but just to have a crappy digital camera with me at all times. Problem is my two-year contract ends in the summer so I might be stuck with the full or one-year-contract price, unless I can piss off enough employees of the Verizon Wireless store.

Damn scammers.