[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Crooks hijacking calls to banks?

[Steve Isenberg]

Gentlepeople,
I received an email today from a respected professional who said that there
is a new danger when you call the telephone number on the back of your
credit card.  There are apparently people who have found out how to hijack
these numbers, so that when you think you are calling your bank you are
instead calling a crook.

Question: are you aware of any technology, methodology, back-door, or fault
in some system(s) that allows this?

My source says that to protect yourself, when you call, ask them to tell
you something that they can only know about you if they have legitimate
access to your account information, like the amount of your last deposit.

Thanks for your insight,
-steve

PS: From my source's message:
Some people have figured out how to hijack the phone numbers on the back of
bank and credit cards, and probably phone numbers that you would find on a
legitimate bank or credit card or other company website.

[A woman] got a call from “Microsoft”, claiming that she had a charge of
$2000 that had been “pre-authorized” by her bank. The caller said, look,
you don’t have to trust me, call your bank to verify.



[She] called the number on the back of her bank card, and got a “bank
official” who tried to walk her through a familiar scam, asking her to
withdraw her money from her bank account so that the “pre-authorized”
charge would not be able to be withdrawn, and to bring the money to a
bitcoin machine. Fortunately, she realized that something was very wrong,
and stopped the process and asked for help.


My source cited
https://moneyful.com/blog/yikes-crooks-are-intercepting-calls-to-bank-phone-numbers-on-back-of-credit-cards

Snopes does not know about this, yet.
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