Another insidious phone scam averted.

FastEddieB

FastEddieB

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Fast Eddie B
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A few days ago Karen mentioned one of our credit cards expired on 1/31/26. It’s a “backup” card we haven’t had occasion to use for ages. I thought it best to call and find out what was up, just in case the replacement cards had been lost in the mail or accidentally discarded.

The safest way to contact them was via the toll free number on the back of the card. The lady answering was quick to offer a promotion that offered a $100 gift card with no obligation. I said I wasn’t interested, and she asked for my name and address. That was the first odd thing, since normally they’d be able to access the account from my phone number, perhaps asking for the last 4 digits of my SS# to verify identity. After giving that info, she put me on hold. When she came back the first thing she asked for was my bank info. That set off a gazillion red flags, and I asked why she needed that - I was only asking about not receiving new cards. At which point we were disconnected. Very strange.

I went to call back and discovered my mistake: I had reflexively typed in 1-800 before the phone number on the back of the card. Looking closely, the prefix was actually 1-877. I called the correct number and the automated system advised the account had been closed, which was no problem - I just don’t recall getting any notification that that was happening.

In any case, be careful out there! I asked Gemini about such a scam, and it’s apparently fairly common. I’ll post Gemini’s response as a reply.
 
Are there scams involving dialing 1-800 instead of 1-877 by mistake?


Yes, this is a real and common trap known as Toll-Free Hijacking or a Misdial Scam.

Scammers intentionally buy numbers that are nearly identical to those of major banks, airlines, or government agencies. They specifically target people who "fat-finger" a digit or, like in your case, use the wrong prefix (e.g., dialing 1-800 instead of 1-877 or 1-888).

How the Scam Works

When you dial the wrong prefix, the person or recording on the other end often sounds incredibly professional. They might use several tactics:

• The Identity Verification Trap: They’ll answer as a generic "Customer Service" or even name the company you intended to call. To "help" you, they’ll ask for your Social Security number, credit card info, or account password.

• The "Reward" Scam: You might hear a recording saying you’ve won a gift card or a cruise, but you just need to pay a small "shipping" or "activation" fee with a credit card.

• The Directory Assistance Scam: Some numbers are set up to automatically redirect you to a paid directory service, which then tacks on high "dial-around" fees to your phone bill.

Red Flags to Watch For

If you’ve accidentally dialed the wrong prefix, keep an eye out for these signs:

1. Generic Greetings: If they just say "Member Services" instead of the specific company name (like "Chase Bank" or "Delta Airlines").

2. Unexpected Fees: A legitimate company will never ask for a "processing fee" just to talk to a representative.

3. Pressure: They might say your account is "compromised" and you need to provide your full card number immediately to secure it.

What to Do Now

• If you shared info: If you gave out a credit card or bank number, contact your bank immediately to freeze the card. If you gave out a password, change it on all accounts that use it.

• If you just called and hung up: You are likely fine, but you might notice an increase in spam calls now that they know your number is "active."

• Double-check the prefix: Always verify the prefix from the back of your physical card or the company’s official website. Toll-free prefixes include 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, and 833. They are not interchangeable.
 
So here’s an interesting one…got a voicemail last week:

“Hi David, this is Susan from Kansas Department of Revenue. Um, can you please give me a call back at xxx-xxx-xxxx I wanted to see if you could change the effective date on that closure form to 12/31/25 and then I'm just going to archive the return that you sent in. Um give me a call when you get a chance. Thank you bye.”

I x’d out the phone number, but the rest of it is as stated.

When I called the number, it rang about 12 times, and then said, “the number you are calling is not taking calls right now. Please call again later.”

I’m pretty sure it’s real, and I’m pretty sure I know which form she’s talking about, but I have no idea why I’d need to change the date.

But I am going to find a Phone number online for the Dept of Revenue, and ask for “Susan.” I’m also pretty sure that’s going to be a “who’s on first” conversation.
 
Oh, that's good to know. Similarly, never click on the 'Sponsored' link when you Google your bank/business/escort service. Scammers will buy ads that look like they are from the legit company and gather your data that way.

Unfortunately Google makes the first ten thousand results sponsored now and makes them harder to distinguish from actual results, so it's becoming harder to avoid.
 
Management where I work likes to send out emails with links to what they want us to do, and apparently reading “the link is safe to click” in ann email from someone I don’t personally know ensures that it’s not a scam.
 
Weird. I virtually never get scam or robocalls on my cell phone... but as I was reading this thread I got one. 202 area code, which 100.00% means it was a scam call. There's nothing legitimate that uses that area code.
 
If you have a iPhone OS26, go to settings and phone, select reason for calling, that eliminates a good deal of it

For other calls, I always ask for their extension, tell them I’ll call them right back at the official number, I call a known good number for the bank or whatever. That all but eliminates phone scams even if they spoof a real number
 
I just don't ever answer my phone.

Or I let my wife answer the phone speaking in Tagalog. She did that once. The caller kept asking if anyone there speaks English, then another voice came on the line, ''I think she is speaking Russian.'' :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
asicer said:
That's how the OP got caught up in the scam.
Click to expand...

That’s a very very high end scam if he called a known good number in his phone, entered the extension and still got to the scammer, like state action level scam
 
To reiterate: I did call a verified number, read directly off the back of my credit card. My error was reflexively typing in 800 as the prefix, as opposed to the 877 prefix on the card. Apparently common enough there are scoundrels attempting to benefit from any misdialing of the company’s number.

As a reminder, I very nearly got phished back in 2024 by going to what I thought was a company website to get the number, but it wasn’t. https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/how-i-got-phished.147255/
 
FastEddieB said:
To reiterate: I did call a verified number, read directly off the back of my credit card. My error was reflexively typing in 800 as the prefix, as opposed to the 877 prefix on the card. Apparently common enough there are scoundrels attempting to benefit from any misdialing of the company’s number.

As a reminder, I very nearly got phished back in 2024 by going to what I thought was a company website to get the number, but it wasn’t. https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/how-i-got-phished.147255/
Click to expand...

Wait so you called back the correct number off your card, or dialed the incorrect fishing number?
 
decalogue said:
Wait so you called back the correct number off your card, or dialed the incorrect fishing number?
Click to expand...
Right number, wrong area code. Dialed 800 XXX-XXXX vs 877 XXX-XXXX which was on the back of his credit card. Scammers had the number with the wrong area code. Easy mistake to make from back in the day when 800 was the only toll free area code.
 
FastEddieB said:
To reiterate: I did call a verified number, read directly off the back of my credit card. My error was reflexively typing in 800 as the prefix, as opposed to the 877 prefix on the card. Apparently common enough there are scoundrels attempting to benefit from any misdialing of the company’s number.

As a reminder, I very nearly got phished back in 2024 by going to what I thought was a company website to get the number, but it wasn’t. https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/how-i-got-phished.147255/
Click to expand...
Transposing the wrong two digits for the Ebay number also gets you to a scam.
 
Hang 4 said:
Right number, wrong area code. Dialed 800 XXX-XXXX vs 877 XXX-XXXX which was on the back of his credit card. Scammers had the number with the wrong area code. Easy mistake to make from back in the day when 800 was the only toll free area code.
Click to expand...

Oh so you dialed them back on their fake number, that makes more sense

Common low effort scam, it’s like the scammer emails that want you to go to myebay.com or something vs eBay.com
 
Right after the Nashville flooding, my phone started ringing. We have a telephone number of 877 RON MARG. After about the third call, I think, there's got to be something going on. I flip through the channels and find CMT is holding a fundraising telethon. Yes, the number on the screen is 888 766 NASH. However, the announcer periodically gives out my number. I just changed my outgoing message to tell people to call the right number. But if I were more nefarious...

The other fun and games is there's a guy named Ron Nash (now passed I think) who was big in the RV business and had a toll free number that ended in RON NASH we got calls for from time to time.

Of course, for a period of time, I owned an ATM (got it for $10 at an RTC liquidation auction). There was a news story about this scam that happened up north. Everybody who knew I owned the ATM felt compelled to send me a copy of the news article on that scam.
 
Baked Potato said:
Oh, that's good to know. Similarly, never click on the 'Sponsored' link when you Google your bank/business/escort service. Scammers will buy ads that look like they are from the legit company and gather your data that way.

Unfortunately Google makes the first ten thousand results sponsored now and makes them harder to distinguish from actual results, so it's becoming harder to avoid.
Click to expand...

Similar things has happened to me when downloading an app from Google Store. I search for a keyword and hit download, but the top result is an advertisement - the real one I was looking for is further down. I didn't realize this until the app started asking me to subscribe for this and that. This was not a scam, so nothing was lost, but it does illustrate how effective their bait and switch works.
 
You need to not just worry about 800/877. People tend to make other mistakes, like confusing, for example, 377 with 337. Scammers have the most common mistake numbers registered. We just received a new card because of fraud. My wife misdialed when activating the replacement card. She stopped the call but only after revealing more info than she should have.
 
Often the scammers are working out of a country where there's not much deterrence to being a scammer. Sometimes the scammers get caught, though:

www.bbc.com

China executes 11 members of Myanmar scam mafia

China executes 11 members of the Ming family that ran scam centres in Myanmar, state media report.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

My take is 'causing an embarrassment to the country', may not be an exceptionally good business decision if you live in or within walking distance of China.
 
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