I just had my credit information stolen and used to purchase tickets for Spirit Airlines (I know what you are thinking, those poor poor thieves). What was interesting is that I immediately got a notification via text message from a service purporting to be PNC Bank alerting me to the fraudulent transaction. They asked via the text that I contact their 800 number immediately to freeze the card and work on the situation. I logged in online, and sure enough there was a fraudulent charge on my card. I went back to the text, and was very close to clicking the number in the text, when I decided I would just double check online which number to call for PNC Fraud. Long story short, it was the first my bank had heard about the fraudulent transactions, and they informed me that the number I had been texted from was definitely from the fraudsters, as neither Visa nor PNC had made any effort to reach me just yet. They had me send in screenshots of the text conversation and reconfirmed that this person was not associated with PNC or Visa (It was a 5 or 6 digit service number).
TLDR: If you receive a "Fraud Alert" text, even if the fraudulent charges are genuine, DO NOT CALL THE NUMBER IN THE TEXT. There is the distinct possibility it is the scammer attempting to finish stealing the remainder of your information by putting you through 'caller authentication' whereby they can gain access to everything else necessary to steal money from all your accounts.
Submitted December 27, 2018 at 03:55PM by ThatKarmaWhore http://bit.ly/2RlSfXV
