Scam Alert: There Is No Such Things As Department of Visa & Mastercard

Scammers gonna scam! Scams are on the rise lately, and they are getting more and more creative every day. Yesterday I received a phone call from a 612 area code number, which is Minneapolis. I recently have been doing some business with some 612 numbers so I thought I should probably answer. It was a robo call with artificial intelligence saying they were calling from the Department of Visa and Master Card about issues with my credit.

Visa and Mastercard are two separate companies, so I just hung up. There's no way that could be real. Unfortunately, people are getting duped by it. This is a global scam, because after doing some research I found a finance article from Express in the UK that has investigated this scam.

How it works is they claim there has been a significant charge on your account and that you need to take action to fix it. During the process they try to get you to give them sensitive personal information like card numbers, social security numbers, and other things they can use to steal your identity.

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So what should you do? Hang up and call your bank directly and speak to someone there. If there truly is a problem, your bank would know about it.

Secondly, never give sensitive information over the phone or e-mail unless you are 100% sure it is a trusted and verified source.

Also, if you ever are asked to pay something by using a gift card, it is 100% certainly a scam. The IRS, your bank, creditors, etc will never want a gift card. This tactic is used by scammers so the money can't be linked to them.