This time it wasn’t a scam, just a mistake
I received a call from a Coeur d’Alene reader who was worried that Verizon may have taken her to the cleaners. With the frequent occurrences of scams these days, our reader doesn’t pay bills online and went down to the Verizon store in person to pay her monthly invoice, which was for $82.69.
All seemed to go as expected. She checked her bank account and saw that the charge went through. But then she noticed another charge for $1,369.13 from Verizon that went through as well. She contacted Verizon and said she was given the runaround. Then she called me because she thought this was a scam that others should know about.
It took some doing but we unraveled the mystery.
Our reader was caught in a finger pointing loop between Verizon and Bank of America. B of A claimed that it received two electronic charges from Verizon so the charges would stand as valid; however, Verizon claimed it only initiated the one electronic payment for $82.69, so all seemed good on its end.
But here’s the weird thing: both bank charges from Verizon had the same electronic check number, reference number and payee. For all of the finger pointing, the only paper trail that was uncovered for this charge was in the bank document. So I suggested to the reader that she head back down to the bank and speak with the branch manager about the second charge to her account.
I pointed out that it seemed strange that the check number and reference number were exactly the same; only the payment amounts were different and could not be explained away as a transposition of numbers. I think she uncovered a flaw in the bank’s system and it was definitely the bank’s error.
The bank made the customer fill out a fraudulent charge report and said it could take up to 45 days to investigate the incident. In the meantime, I suggested that she get a provisional credit on her account so she wouldn’t be out the money while the bank took its time figuring out that it had a flawed system that would allow the same electronic check to clear twice and for completely different amounts.
In the end, the bank issued a provisional credit, did its investigation and then acknowledged that the money would be put back into the customer’s account. So without a clear explanation from the bank, it all seems to have been just a big mistake.
Moral to this story is always check your bank account since errors can occur. Had the reader not checked, she could have been out more money with bounced check fees had she not caught the error in time.
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FAKE FICO TEXTS: I received three text messages last week warning me that the sender had noticed important changes to my FICO score. One text appeared to come from TransUnion, one of the three major credit reporting agencies, and was listed as “alert 4” to get my attention (the other two agencies are Equifax and Experian).
There were a couple of tell-tale signs that these text messages were sent by a scammer:
1. There were “shorthand” words such as ur for your or abbreviations like crdt history instead of credit history;
2. The timing of the text message was off because I get legitimately notified by my bank to check my FICO score on the fifth of the month.
Professional companies rarely use shorthand words. These messages came in the middle of the month, which is well after the fifth of the month when my bank sends out an email notifying me to check my FICO score.
Each text message was designed to scare me and get me to act because each included a link to get me to check my account for the changes it had noticed. Instead of clicking on the links, I signed into my bank account directly to check my FICO score and of course there were no notable changes or difference as I suspected.
Also, I have signed up to freeze my credit so if TransUnion had really noticed something was wrong with my account, a more appropriate message would have been that someone was trying to open credit in my name.
Whatever you do, don’t click on these links. Check your credit score through Credit Karma, your bank or credit card company that you signed up through. If there’s something wrong, contact these companies directly and bypass the text message and links.
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MICROSOFT HACKERS: Microsoft hackers are still at it, only they’re getting even more clever in their messaging.
A Coeur d’Alene reader called to say that her husband had accessed his Amazon account and was placing an order when a popup showed up right in the middle of his computer screen, telling him to stop because a hacker was trying to access his computer right now. The message appeared to come from Microsoft and had a name and call-back number. It looked authentic and of course the message included a link for easy access and convenience.
Naturally, this message was concerning so our reader’s husband fell for the bait and clicked on the link. Once he realized the error, he contacted the “real” Microsoft to get his computer straightened out, as it appears malware was installed on his hard drive.
Please remember that Microsoft will not contact us regarding hackers or any other issues with our computers because it doesn’t know if something is wrong with our hard drive. Messages like this are from hackers attempting to scare us into clicking on the link they provide so they can install malware or get control of our computer to access our passwords and personal information.
As always, avoid clicking on any links. If you receive a message like this, close the window without clicking on the link, then restart your computer.
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Remember: I’m on your side.
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If you have encountered a consumer issue that you have questions about or think our readers should know about, please send me an email at terridickersonadvocate@gmail.com or call me at 208-274-4458. As The CDA Press Consumer Gal, I’m here to help. I’m a full-time copywriter working with businesses on marketing strategy, a columnist and a consumer advocate living in Coeur d’Alene.