This morning a young man called me from +380 95 746-21-82. The young man introduced himself as an employee of the National Bank of Ukraine. He even gave me his first and last name, his position, and some reference number. Then he said:
— For your identification, we need to know your credit card number. Which bank do you associate your credit card with?
— Excuse me?
— Which bank do you associate your credit card with?
— Young man, is Russian definitely your native language? What does it mean to “associate a credit card”?
— Well, which bank associated your credit card: Oschadbank, FUIB, Prominvestbank?
— What the hell are you talking about? Prominvestbank closed ages ago.
After that the young man took offense and hung up. The cold call didn’t work.
Don’t tell anyone any details of your credit cards over the phone. In some cases, just the 16 digits and the card’s expiration date are enough to steal money. If some call like this worries you, that there might be some trouble with your card, then just call back using the phone number printed on the back of the card.
And yes, I know Prominvestbank hasn’t closed. You need to say any old nonsense to a fraudster to break the pattern of their script.