Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Public Safety Alert: Visa/MasterCard scam

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 Broadcast time: 08:13
Financial Crimes Unit: 416−808−7300

The Toronto Strategic Partnership* would like to make the public aware of a “phishing scam” targeting credit card holders.

“Phishing” is a technique used to trick people into providing personal, financial, or password data by leading consumers to believe that a request for information is coming from a legitimate source. In reality, it is a malicious attempt to collect consumer information for the purpose of committing fraud. These requests often ask for information that will be used to commit fraud.

People are being contacted through email, text messaging and phone calls from suspects attempting to get personal credit card details such as credit card numbers, PINs, and the three digit code (CVV2/CVC2) on the back of a credit card.

The Toronto Strategic Partnership recommends the following steps to protect your credit card data:
− do not provide any personal or credit card information
− ask the caller to provide his/her name, department, and extension
− tell the representative you want to verify their information and end the call
− never use verification provided by the person/entity that contacts you
− take steps to verify what is being told to you by calling the phone number on your credit card or billing statement
− contact your local police to report the incident or the Canadian Anti−fraud Centre for more information on this and other similar scams

Visa and MasterCard have supplied the following links on fraud prevention:
For further information on credit card fraud prevention tips, please click here, and here

*The Toronto Strategic Partnership is a multi−law enforcement agency, formed in response to ever−increasing cross−border fraudulent mass marketing schemes. The Partnership consists of the Competition Bureau of Canada, Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services, Ontario Ministry of Finance, Toronto Police Service Financial Crimes Unit, Ontario Provincial Police Anti Rackets Branch, The Canadian Anti−fraud Centre, RCMP GTA Commercial Crime Section, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Al Spratt at 416−808−7300 Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416−222−TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637), or Leave A Tip on Facebook.

Constable Wendy Drummond, Corporate Communications, for Detective Al Spratt, Financial Crimes Unit

ID: 2311  Source:  http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/pdfs/23116.pdf

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