Sleep is not one of the things I'm good at. When something bad happens just before I try to sleep it really puts me off. Last night was one of those times.
I'd just gone upstairs to the bedroom when the phone rang, about 10.30pm and Mike answered it. The man on the other end purported to be from Verified by Visa, and said some suspicious transactions had taken place regarding a debit card. I immediately came downstairs and took the call instead. Mike had put the phone down once, as we thought it was a scam. He immediately phoned back and said this was serious, somebody in Manchester was using our details to buy things on-line. A few hundred pounds were involved so far. I listened to him but felt sceptical about the authenticity.
In all the man phoned 5 times, and each time said there was another purchase and the money would come out of our account soon. He said he didn't want any details from us, but said we should phone our bank straight away. I said I would.
As I still felt that all was not as it seemed, I used my mobile to phone the bank, not the landline. While I was talking to the bank, the man phoned again. He would not give a phone number to us, said as it was to do with fraud, he couldn't divulge his number. Our bank was very helpful, the girl went away to talk to the fraud department there, and they said it was highly unlikely that Verified by Visa would phone us. They did of course check that we'd not given any details out. Absolutely not was my reply.
The advice then was not to use the internet banking for at least 24 hours, and they would check. No sign at that time that anything was amiss. No calls from the bank today, so fingers crossed that all will be well, and that tomorrow I can check on-line. It's very unnerving though; we don't have much money, and certainly can't afford to lose any of it. I've looked on Google to see if this is a well-known scam, but it doesn't seem so, although there have been several phishing scams involving Verified by Visa. Others out there should be aware though that things are not what they seem.
