[net.consumers] Credit card numbers

molter@eosp1.UUCP (Larry Molter) (03/23/84)

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This is in response to the netter who received a phone call
from a company that was distributing prizes "for tax reasons"
(HA!) and they needed that person's credit card number for
verification.

With the increase of credit card fraud in the US, one should
*NEVER, NEVER* give any credit card numbers to phone (or any
type of) solicitors. You'll be the loser in the end (prize
or no prize).

And...
While we're on the subject of credit card fraud, a woman in
New England recently got a phone bill for $109,000 (they
had to deliver it via UPS - it was 2500 pages long!). The phone
company suspects that someone got a hold of her phone card number.

What irks me about the phone credit card is that if you have
to make a credit call from a phone that doesn't have a procedure
for entering the card number via the pushbuttons, you have to
dictate the number to the operator (usually in a load voice).
What's to prevent someone from "overhearing" the number and
writing it down? The phone company only verifies that the
number is valid. So... beware.