Visa customers report phishing attempt

Raleigh, N.C. — The North Carolina Attorney General's office was getting calls Friday from worried Visa customers who received a text message asking for their credit card number, spokeswoman Jennifer Canada said.

The victims reported getting a text messages about a restriction on their Visa account with a phone number to call. Those who called the number got a recording instructing them to enter a credit card number.

Canada said the solicitation is similar to one that members of the North Carolina State Employees Credit Union reported in late February.

Canada repeated the attorney general's warning about phishing attempts – the use of calls, e-mails and Web sites that appear to be from a user's bank to try to get customers' personal account information.

“The IRS isn’t going to e-mail you for your personal information. Your bank and your credit card company already have your information and won’t call or e-mail you to ask for it,” Attorney General Roy Cooper warned after the February incident. “No matter how real these messages sound or look, don’t take the bait.”

Canada shared a list of tips to avoid falling for a phishing scam.

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Latest Comments

I got the same VISA scam this morning (650am). I initially fell for it; but aft wards realized I had been had after remembering VISA, nor my credit union, will not communicate via SMS. I called my credit union immediately and had my card canceled; they issued me a new card; and had a fraud alert placed on me at the bank.

LibertarianTechie
March 20, 2009 8:19 p.m.

Do your research. Many if not most scammers that use electronic means aren't even IN the USA. They are in places like Nigeria. Kind of hard to send an NC Trooper or even a US Marshal somewhere like that for an investigation.

Rolling Along
March 20, 2009 4:58 p.m.

My wife got this exact text message yesterday.

ncmickey
March 20, 2009 4:56 p.m.

Why doesn't LEO take some of that bait, follow it back to where the money goes, and BUST the scammers?

Seems like more than enough evidence and means to catch them, afterall, they are phishing and have bait connected to a line...that someone pays for, has set up, or is receiving the data from. I'm sure visa can figure out WHO/WHERE a card number is being used from. I know AG handles it, but really, what will it take for LEO to stop them?

(I know you report them to the AG office, and in 6+ months, the same scammer continues to call, even after the scammer has pretended to be a police officer!)

kilquian
March 20, 2009 4:33 p.m.

I really want to know why we aren't locking up these con artists, identity thieves, phishers, spammers, and other vermin and making them serve HARD TIME! A day doesn't go by that I don't encounter multiple attempts by criminals to steal my money. Just where are the police and the legal system??????

We're filling the prisons for nonsensical crimes that hurt nobody, and letting the people who cause actual harm, to go scot free. It's open season on We the People.

htomc42
March 20, 2009 3:59 p.m.