PSA
I did not get taken by the scammers I'm about to describe, but they were a step more sophisticated than the usual, so I thought I'd pass it on.
Got a call from the "fraud department on a recorded line" of a money center bank with which I have a relationship. "Mr. Mills" asked me if I had opened up a new account ending in 8136 about two weeks ago.
I said that I had not. He said they will shut it down immediately, and that I should check all my bank and credit card accounts for suspicious activity and/or identity theft. He said he was not going to ask me for any personal information, but wanted me to write down some information.
At this point, I said to him that I'd like to call him back to ensure I'm speaking with someone at my bank. He "totally understood," and gave me an 877 number and his full name. He even said I could call my branch manager to confirm his claim.
When I did a search for this 877 number, I found nothing scammy, but also nothing linking to my bank.
So I called my relationship manager at the bank, and gave him all the info. He did the legwork for me. Bottom line: There hasn't been anything opened in my name. He even called the number they gave me (see below for their setup on this). He asked the person he spoke with for his employee ID number. That's when they disconnected him.
FWIW, I did not call this number until my relationship manager confirmed the scam. I called it purely out of curiosity (using a blocked phone number), and I was greeted with a totally authentic sounding greeting from "[X Bank] fraud investigations" with a convincing menu of choices.
My guess is they were going to direct me to a realistic, but fake, bank website (with an access code number just for me) in order to steal personal info or passwords. Sadly, I think lots of people are gonna fall for this.
There are some bad people out there. ☠️
Be careful.
Check out my Raid Chronicle to see my journey through Teleria so far - including some of my greatest Raid achievements. https://t.co/yofjRXiSLc #Raid5thAnniversary