Just got a call saying this was my LAST chance to lower my APR. Wanted me to read off my credit card number to "verify" I was the card holder. Said that they already had the digits and just wanted to make sure that I was the "card holder". Yet had NO idea if it was a Mastercard, VISA, Discover, etc. Claimed to be working with Wells Fargo, Capital One, Chase, etc.
I balked - and stated that since they were cold calling ME and I did NOT initiate this action that I was extremely uncomfortable with reading off my full credit card number to someone that I had NO way of verifying was a legit company. Said, sorry but not going to do that. She then cranked up the hard sell ploy, and tried to say that she merely needed to confirm the card we were discussing and she was able to tell me my balance owed on the cards. I then said you say you have all the digits, so you tell ME what card you want to discuss. She asked me to tell her what card and I replied, the one with the larger balance. She was not able to figure out what card had that balance.
Then she accurately reads off the first 6 digits and starts to get a little hostile. I tell her I'm not interested, and I am NOT giving that information to her, sorry. She can give it to me and I can confirm or not and we'll be done. She tries a few more tactics like saying that she cant make a charge without the secondary security 3 digit code on the back (which is false, I've made purchases without that being used), and hello, 3 digits is WAYYY easier for a code generator to knock out than a 16 digit number AND the 3 digit number.
Totally set off alarm bells all over the place. Was a little disturbing to know that she had my balances and the first 6 digits though. But she was super stymied over the remaining ones and REALLY was trying to pressure and hard sell me to give her more info.
Please be smart out there and DON'T give out info to people that you cannot verify!!!
Caller ID With Name disclosed only "Survey". I suspect a scammer or below-board firm trying to hide behind an exception to the telemarketing rules. Some may disagree, but simply disconnecting calls like this one seems to stop them for at least a few months.
Called my private CELL PHONE which is on the do not call list. Seriously, what's the use of that list if people can suddenly just start calling cell phone numbers that are used mainly for family and doctor calls?