"You have not paid your credit card bills"

I have lots of bills and debts. We are working to fix this. We are on the way to recovery (for the umpteenth time.)

I was busy as usual this morning and once I finished a conference call with people from US (NJ and CA) and Penang, I received a call which almost made my day.

A lady with accurate Chinese pronunciation called me and told me I am overdue in my AmBank credit card. I was wondering, what AmBank credit card? I never had any AmBank Credit Card. She then gave me a credit card number that didn't register in my mind. She told me the card was applied on 16/08/2008 with an address in Damansara. A transaction was made for the purchase of a notebook in IOI Mall on 25/09/2008. The amount was RM4,864.

I wasn't upset. I was calm and was sure it was a mistake. I was a bit annoyed though. My mind went the speed of thought (that's faster than the speed of light) to trace who could have done that. Nope. I have not given my information to anyone I could not trust. I asked her why she spoke in Chinese. She said it's near Chinese New Year and so the bank wanted to talk to Chinese in Chinese. Hmm ... alarm #1 sounded.

Next, she tried to repeat what she had already told me (perhaps hoping for the desired panic effect in me.) I stopped her. I told her to just go to make a police report. She suggested I do the same and promptly gave me a number to call. 03-7966-1004. I asked for HER contact number. She said her number is 03-7952-0903. Her name is Ah May and her extension is #218.

I dialed the "lost card report centre" and a female Chinese voice greeted me. Chinese again? (Alarm sounded louder.) I asked her where that is. It sounded like a busy office. I told her I received a call about a credit card I didn't have. She said she wanted my full name. (Hey, she wanted my details.) I told her I'd call back and hung up.

The Bible said counsel of good friends are helpful. So, I immediately look for one of my closest friends - Google. (Do No Evil is their motto, now can you dig that?) I did a search on the phone number of the "lost card centre" (notice I put them inside quotes.)

I was not surprised to see news linked to the phone number amidst some product with that SKU. Apparently, this is a scheme. The credit card was the bait. When you call up wanting to clear your name, you give all the informtion to those helpful people in the "lost card centre." Then, they will tell you there was an information leak and hence the fraud. They will advise the victims to transfer their money to the account of a police inspector for safekeeping. I cannot imagine why anyone would do that but apparently some did and they never got the money back.

Police reports were made but these people are still active. Too bad they chose to mess with a friend of Google.

When you are called and told about a credit card you don't have, the best thing to do is to check with the bank itself. They will tell you if there indeed such a card. Not the "lost card centre." Next, consider lodging a police report.

The road ends here for the schemers as far as this friend of Google is concerned.

A news article can be seen here. It's a China news website. It's was taken from Sin Chew Daily dated 12/12/2008. I just wonder how they got my contact number.