FISHER CAPITAL MANAGEMENT NEWS DIRECTORY:Latest scam involves cell phones, credit cards

April 12th, 2011 @ 10:24pm

By Alex Cabrero

SYRACUSE — You have to hand it to scammers. They’re always trying something new.
“Scam artists are very wise,” said Debbie Dujanovic, the spokesperson for the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office, “which is why we always have to stay a step ahead of them.”

The phishing text message says: “Your card starting with 5537 (for example) has been deactivated. Please contact us at…” then gives a phone number.

The latest scam involves cell phones and credit cards. Here’s how it works.
You get a text message saying “your card starting with 5537 has been deactivated. Please contact us at…” then gives a phone number. However, in most cases, the 5537 numbers (or whatever number the scammers may write) don’t actually match any credit cards you have.
Still, it can create a panic.
“I came home and went through every account we ever had looking for those numbers,” said Syracuse resident Shaunee McFadden, who received the text message Monday afternoon, “and I couldn’t find them.”
McFadden’s husband, Joseph, received the same text message just a few minutes later on his cell phone.
“Fraud was always in the back of my mind,” said Joseph McFadden, “but I thought maybe it’s legit, and if I miss a payment on a bill, then it’s me on the hook.”
So, Joseph called the number on the text message.
“There’s an automated message that asks for your credit card number, and I’m like, I’m not prepared to do that,” said Joseph, “so I hit #0 to talk to a person, and it hung up on me, and we couldn’t get through to anybody.”

If you received the phishing text and already gave out your information, you can fill out a complaint form with the Utah Department of Commerce by CLICKING HERE.

In the text message the McFadden’s received, the bank claiming to send it was called TAB Bank. Joseph McFadden looked up TAB Bank on the Internet and found Transportation Alliance Bank out of Ogden. He called them directly.
“They said they had three or four calls this morning about it, and they said it was a total fraud. They have nothing to do with it,” said Joseph McFadden.
Transportation Alliance Bank put a pop-up on its website reminding customers it would never ask for personal information in an email or anything like it.
As of Tuesday evening, the FBI says 40 Utahns from all across the state have reported receiving this message.
“It seems to have been picking up steam over the last 24 hours or so,” said Dujanovic.
The McFaddens are happy they didn’t fall for it but admit it would have been easy to do so.
“I can see someone doing that,” said Shaunee McFadden, “because if you don’t pay attention and just type in your credit card number, then they’ve got it.”