Fake company demands your credit card, then steals your information

A Consumer Alert tonight: If someone claiming to be from your utility or phone company gives you a call about an unpaid fee and threatens to cut off your service, hang up instead of paying up.

The best advice if you ever receive a call from someone asking you for your credit card number, hang up and call the company direct. A recent scam detected by U.S. Postal Inspectors uncovered more than 70 victims.

One person called the victims, posing as a utility, telephone or wireless company. The caller said that the victims owed a nominal fee, usually under five dollars and if it was not paid, the service would get shut off immediately. Once victims handed over their credit card information, the con artist went online to obtain all the information needed to do some real financial damage.

In one case, the thief then added herself to victims’ credit cards as an authorized user. According to the Postal Inspection Service, she then got another card mailed to her and went out to make fraudulent purchases.

Remember, a company will not just call you once to say you’re going to lose service immediately. Usually a termination of service stems from being late on a bill and you would receive at least a couple of notices.

Also, Postal Inspectors say you need to be vigilant in checking your monthly credit card statements, looking for charges you didn’t authorize.