We have seen these scams online through our emails and apparently there is a new modus that is done through mobile phones. While we cannot help avoid people assuming certain identities, it is perhaps wise for everyone to take into account the latest tactics that these people use to steal money from you unnoticed.

You receive a call, purportedly from a bank, asking if you had just conducted a credit card transaction for goods or services.

When you answer in the negative, the caller then tells you in a concerned tone to call an agent of a commercial bank and you are given the number.

Upon calling, the agent gives you the telephone number of the “bank” and tells you to call the bank itself.

You call and someone picks up, identifying himself as an officer of the “bank”. You then tell him that you did not conduct the transaction and you do not have such card.

But he informs you that the records, however, show that the transaction had been carried out and that the card belongs to you!

He suggests you call Bank Negara’s “Unit Kad Kredit Palsu” (Credit Card Fraud Unit) and gives you the number. You then reach an automated voice message service which says you have contacted “Bank Negara”.

A Bank Negara “officer” then comes on and identifies himself. He asks for your banking and credit card information so that he can lodge a complaint on your behalf.

You then give your details over the phone and finally assured that “Bank Negara” will “look into your problem”, you heave a sigh of relief.

But what you don’t realise is that as soon as you have put down the phone, the fraudsters are already emptying your account, thanks to the information you had just furnished them.

This is the latest scam that Malaysians are falling prey to.

Though most of us will most likely not have means of figuring out real from fraudulent acts, this scenario should help guide us. Fraud is something common in these hard times and desperate people will resort to anything to steal from anyone. Be careful!

(Source) Asia One