The Girl Next Door
As a professional reporter, normally I don't post things in the first person, but in this case, I'm making an exception. I'm hoping it will help someone out there avoid what is almost certainly an attempt at fraud.
Yesterday, just before 6:30 p.m., I received a phone call from the number 646-658-3157*, one that is not familiar to me. No name or company name attached.
I get a reasonable number of legitimate calls from people I don't know, or don't know well, so if it's convenient, I usually answer the phone in these cases. Hey, you never know when that hot news tip is going to happen.
And, weirdly enough, though I'm more than a little certain this caller had more the intention of ripping me off rather than tipping me off, in a sense, this call and the one after it ended up being a news tip.
So, I answer the phone, and this guy with a thick (possibly Spanish) accent asks for me by first name, greets me with his first name too quickly to catch and a company name, also too garbled to make out, but possibly "GE Banking Company," and says something (I think) about owing money on a loan. (I have not taken out a loan on anything.)
I've been getting a lot of (illegal) telemarketing calls lately (
But,
Which is exactly what I immediately ask this guy last night, without confirming my identity. He hangs up.
While thinking the situation odd and pondering whether there is a problem or not, exactly three minutes later, the phone rings again, this time with the incoming number being listed as local and with the same last four digits as the last incoming call. (One in 9,999 odds of that happening.) Curiously, the prefix is the same as mine and is designated for Easton by my cell phone carrier.
I answer the phone. Same guy, same scenario. I can't catch his name or company, but I manage to keep him on the phone long enough to determine that this time, he's telling me I've been pre-qualified for a $10,000 loan from his company.
I ask his name and company name again. He ignores me, and tells me this is the loan I applied for.
I tell him I most certainly have NOT applied for any loan and demand to know his name, the company he's ostensibly calling from, and where he got my number from.
He hangs up.
I ponder the situation some more. I've given this guy no additional information, other than that I'm the sort of person who's going to ask a lot of very stern questions. That's definitely not a bad thing, but still, the calls have me a bit worried, especially since I've experienced at least three identity theft attempts, with the last one I know about less than three years ago.
So, I hit the web with the little info I've got, starting with the phone number.
Turns out, not only does it look like this is definitely a scam attempt, but the number appears to be associated with some very bad things, including extortion attempts.
Web user reports suggest that the same person that called me called others late last spring and summer, telling them that they'd defaulted on loans they say they never took out. In some cases, this person not only demanded payment, but impersonated police or other authorities.
Reportedly too, people received calls from this number and after hanging up, they'd receive others that appeared to originate from "911"--which means whoever this is is also capable of phone number spoofing.
A search of "GE Bank Company" turned up nothing that seemed related, though there are a huge number of complaints that sound legitimate regarding General Electric's banking and lending firm, as well as others that refer to the mortgage fraud scandal from a few years ago.
However, my searching also turned up a company called "GE Money Bank", not related to General Electric. While GE Money Bank does seem to be a licensed firm that handles credit and loan transactions for a number of large firms, including Walmart, their ethics sound dubious.
It's unclear whether they actually do payday loans, or if these apparent attempts at phone scamming are in any way related to the actual company, but what is clear is that the name is being used all over the place as part of the fraud attempts.
The phone number from which the call to me originated is only one of dozens being used this way, according to my searches.
Had I not bitten this guy's head off, the scenario probably would have gone something like this:
Guy says I'm preapproved for a loan of "x" amount (most of the reports I found were much lower than the $10,000 sum I was "offered"--from a few hundred to about $3,000 seems more common). But, there's an "application fee" and/or "processing fees" that need to be paid before the loan can go through. The "agent" of "GE Money BanK" then tells the victim to go buy some pre-paid card, like a Green Dot or pre-paid Visa check card for somewhere between $50 and a couple of hundred dollars, and to call back with the card number to transfer the cash.
After that happens to those unsavvy enough not to realize this is a complete scam, these scammers promise the money will be in the victim's account on "X" date, usually in about 48 hours. But the money doesn't arrive, and when the victim calls back to find out where their "loan" is, they're told that because of their credit rating, even more cash is needed to secure the loan.
Again, they're instructed to buy some pre-paid check card and fork over the cash, usually in an amount larger than the first.
Needless to say, the money never arrives.
And, worse, now the scammers have the poor person's bank account info, along with other bits of info like their address, phone number and likely even their social security number--which is often enough to steal their identity to open other accounts in their name.
This particular scam, using the name "GE Money Bank", is not an isolated thing--there are hundreds of reports of this on the web. Since it's reasonable to assume the majority of people don't take the time to write a report on scam awareness sites, and there are numerous such sites anyway, this means that a whole lot of people have been targeted by these parasites, and many more than are reporting it are ripped off this way.
The scam is particularly pernicious when you realize they are attempting to steal money from those that can afford it the least.
Not only that, the people this scam targets are the least likely to have the resources to fight back and hire a lawyer, if in fact they can actually be located to be sued.
I've already notified the police of the calls I received. They recommend filing a formal report at the station, and also notifying all three credit reporting agencies of the attempt, along with placing a "fraud alert" on my accounts.
Sadly, they say there is little they will be able to do, since many of these criminals operate internationally.
But making the formal report will get it on the record, in case my identity actually has been stolen, and perhaps it will mean the report gets passed along to the state authorities in New York, where the first call ostensibly originated, and to federal authorities, who I am sure have a very, very large stack of similar reports.
Will these people get caught? It seems unlikely that will happen any time soon. If they were easy to catch, they wouldn't have been getting away with it for what is now years.
But, there are still ways to help protect yourself.
First, NEVER give out any personal information about yourself over the phone! If an unknown caller from some company is actually legitimate, they should be willing to answer all of your questions before they ask any information from you. They won't hang up when you ask reasonable questions, such as their name, the company they represent, the exact reason they're calling, where they got your number what number they can be reached at, what their company website is, etc.
A call back number isn't always enough, but you should get one if possible. If you're suspicious of a call too, you can always get the company name, look up their customer service number on the web, and call that number to verify that whoever called you is legit. Be exceptionally wary of any financial services company that doesn't seem to have a website--they pretty much universally all do--after all, it's a great way to take payments and a legitimate company won't be worried about being tracked or contacted that way.
If you're taking out a loan, know that it's unheard of for a financial institution to demand application or processing fees up front. In fact, it may even be illegal.
As for the terms and interest rates of any loan, you should have them in writing. Still, since there are also reports of scammers using the "GE Money Bank" name and sending both solicited and unsolicited mail for the same type of fraud I've described, be leery of paperwork that comes in the mail promising a pre-approved or payday loan.
Payday loans, while never a good idea, are still legal in Pennsylvania, so if you decide you absolutely must take one out, do it with a company physically doing business here, not online or over the phone. That way, if something illegal occurs with the deal, you'll have a reasonable shot at recourse, like reporting them to the state attorney general's office. With those out of state or in some unknown location, or ones that operate from overseas, there really is just about nothing you can do if they illegally take your money or ruin your credit rating.
Besides that I've gotten an education into how this particular scam works, and that the call I thought might be a news tip actually was a news tip, even if the caller didn't intend it, it's also gotten my blood pressure up a bit.
Forget flight, I'm up for a fight.
There have been numerous reports locally, the last just a couple of days ago in Wilson Borough, of scammers knocking on doors pretending to be various utility company workers.
I also heard from a neighbor that scammers purporting from UGI passed through my block one Saturday a couple of weeks ago.
Now, I'm almost hoping they come back, and I dare them to knock on my door, 'cause I've got a camera waiting for them, and I'm chomping at the bit to get a picture of these creeps.
If there isn't a special place in hell for parasites like this, well, we can always try to make one here on Earth for them.
*Note: Normally The Easton Eccentric does not publish phone numbers, but due to the large number of fraud attempts associated with this number and the fact that no ones personal information is apparently attached to it, we are making an exception in this case.
If anything like this has happened to you, please report it to the authorities, even if it seems like they won't get caught (this time). Eventually, they will, and the more people that complain, the more likely it is something will eventually be done about it. And, tell everyone in the comments section below too...The more people that know about this scam and others, the less likely it is that scamming scum will get away with stealing people's hard-earned cash in the mean time!
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