Press 1 so that we can rip you off
We just received a robotic phone call from the "Wells Fargo debit card" fraud artists. To our cell phone, no less. The caller ID said "261." They told us our Wells Fargo debit card had been stolen. Which is a neat trick, because we don't have one.
To paraphrase Ogden Nash: If called by a scammer, don't yammer.
| Posted at 6:43 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (17)
Yeah those scammers hit me on the hip this afternoon too.... what do****bags
Posted by LucsAdvo | August 28, 2011 6:48 PM
I got the call at 12:14am. The good news was it wasn't a family member out of gas.
Posted by Betsy Brumm | August 28, 2011 7:49 PM
Funny--I got the same call on my cell phone last night at 9:50, while my wife got the call on her cell phone this afternoon. And since we don't have Wells Fargo accounts either, we also weren't scammed. My call showed a caller ID of 214-232-0615 (the wife's showed a 4-digit number), which is somewhere in Texas, and a quick Google search showed that many others are getting the same phishing call from this number. I wonder if there's any way the calls can actually be tracked down so that someone can shut them off. And I also wander why they're clustering the calls in Portland this weekend....
Posted by Andy | August 28, 2011 7:58 PM
Long-time reader, first time poster:
Got a call from 261 at 8:21am this morning. Didn't answer and no voicemail.
(my phone has a 541 area code.)
Found amusement when you posted this. Keep up the good work exposing p-town shennanigans.
Posted by Pdx2sf | August 28, 2011 8:16 PM
I got the same phone call this morning, marked "Unknown Caller"...Didn't answer it, but thought their voicemail sounded rather genuine. I don't have a Wells Fargo Visa either, so I knew it was bs.
Posted by Mister Tee | August 28, 2011 8:35 PM
Yeah they tried to get me. Called WF just to check that my account was okay and notify them and they proceeded to try and sell me monthly credit reports and dis-enroll me from some solicitation list ... ... good to know they're on my side. Been with them for over 10 years and it's looking about time to switch to another bank. Not the first time they've wasted a considerable amount of my time.
Posted by Ryan | August 28, 2011 8:36 PM
The scammers probably saw "Portlandia" for the first time and said: "What a city of suckers" and got busy!
Posted by dman | August 28, 2011 9:00 PM
Yeah, I got one from "restricted" on my cell this morning. Wanted me to punch in my 16-digit number. Right, I'm all over that.
Posted by Max | August 28, 2011 9:01 PM
Can I assume that none of you folks will help with getting the King's gold out of Africa?
Posted by Abe | August 28, 2011 9:20 PM
Ever heard of Welches?
Posted by Jack Bog | August 28, 2011 9:20 PM
I got that call too, and I don't have a WF account either.
Posted by boycat | August 28, 2011 10:06 PM
With that many calls going out, you would think that Big Brother would be able to put a stop to these guys much more quickly than he is.
Posted by Jack Bog | August 28, 2011 10:54 PM
Yeah, I got that call too. On Friday afternoon. Mine said it was for a Wells Fargo credit card, which I don't have.
Posted by Jon | August 28, 2011 11:20 PM
Jack, do you think Big Brother cares about this? I used to report scam calls but no follow-up ever. So why bother?
Posted by LucsAdvo | August 29, 2011 5:49 AM
Got the "unknown" call night before last on the cell. Since we do not have WF cards I knew it was bs.
Posted by portland native | August 29, 2011 7:21 AM
I got a call on my cell from some 4-digit number, saying my debit card was locked and I needed to press 1. I just hung up, and then was gratified to hear about this scam on the news that night. The call didn't specify Wells Fargo, just said "debit card".
Posted by Michelle | August 29, 2011 7:23 AM
I wonder if it might be useful (or just fun) to actually enter a random Visa number when one receives this call, provide a fake SSN or whatever else is requested. Then when they go to milk the non-existent account...BOOM goes the dynamite.
Posted by John Fairplay | August 29, 2011 7:50 AM