Community Chat

[151949]

I received an e mail from the YMCA saying I needed to confirm my payment method & to send the info to ... So when we went to the gym this morning I took my medical insurance card - and my silver sneakers card. I went to the desk and the girl was looking at me like I had 2 heads. She said my acct was paid up in full and there was no problem. She could not understand why I was asking - I brought the e mail up on my phone and she was quite surprised by it - showed it to her boss who printed it. The boss called their business office to ask what it was about and they said it is a scam that is going around. I guess the scammers hope people will just send in their credit card info to the address they provided.

[hoosieroriginal]

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@151949 wrote:

I received an e mail from the YMCA saying I needed to confirm my payment method & to send the info to ... So when we went to the gym this morning I took my medical insurance card - and my silver sneakers card. I went to the desk and the girl was looking at me like I had 2 heads. She said my acct was paid up in full and there was no problem. She could not understand why I was asking - I brought the e mail up on my phone and she was quite surprised by it - showed it to her boss who printed it. The boss called their business office to ask what it was about and they said it is a scam that is going around. I guess the scammers hope people will just send in their credit card info to the address they provided.

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@151949- you did the right thing - I swear people were not like this in my day - no one stole from their neighbor back then. 

[Suziepeach]

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@151949 wrote:

I received an e mail from the YMCA saying I needed to confirm my payment method & to send the info to ... So when we went to the gym this morning I took my medical insurance card - and my silver sneakers card. I went to the desk and the girl was looking at me like I had 2 heads. She said my acct was paid up in full and there was no problem. She could not understand why I was asking - I brought the e mail up on my phone and she was quite surprised by it - showed it to her boss who printed it. The boss called their business office to ask what it was about and they said it is a scam that is going around. I guess the scammers hope people will just send in their credit card info to the address they provided.

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@151949, I agree, you did the right thing.  I swear these scams are just getting worse and more often.  

[Puzzle Piece]

There isn't any leve the crooks won't stoop to doing their crimes.  Any place, anywhere they can get your info - no matter where, they will attempt to do so. 

[CelticCrafter]

Even if it says it's from someplace that I do do business with, I don't click on the link and will ignore it.

If it's the real deal, when I do sign into an account it will either let me in or tell me I need to update my information.

[millieshops]

I love the scammers who send me emails asking me to verify info for banks and credit cards from companies I've never used.  Nice try!

One tip I got from Paypal years ago which I use only when I know I do have a relationship with the company and want to read more:  scammers don't use your name and your account number because that's what they're trying to get, so anything that says DEAR MEMBER (or anything not personal) and asks for info they should already have is a scam.

[noodleann]

What would concern me is how did the scammer know that I was a member of the Y, and how they connected that to my email address. Has the Y's security been breached? 

[Lipstickdiva]

I never click a link to get to a website from my e-mail.  I go to the company site directly.  I get all of our bills e-mailed to me like cell phone, cable, electric, etc.  Even though I requested this, I still won't click the link through the e-bill.  I access the site directly. 

One definite way you can tell that the e-mail is a scam is if they don't address you by name.  If it just says Dear Member, Dear Shopper, etc.  That's a sure sign of a scam.  

[Mominohio]

I've noticed I'm getting a lot of emails that 'appear' to be from a well know retailer (several of them in fact), but in reality, they are from a secondary company wanting to do a survey etc. 

I'm getting so I don't open most emails I get, but simply delete them. If I see a retailer announcing something of interest to me in the header of the email, I just go directly to the site itself, and skip opening the email or the link.

[Havarti]

We have our prescription plan through Humana and we prepay the entire year’s premium at the beginning of the year because is it just $17 per month – so it is easier to just be done with it. Well, we were both out (thank goodness) on Tuesday but there was a message left by Humana (caller ID listed the call being from Humana). The message was automated on their end and started out stating it was Humana calling and wanting to verify that it was me on the other end…saying “are we speaking with Havarti? Respond with YES or NO”. (I had an instant flash back to those calls they are warning about where they try to get you to say “YES” and record you – then use that as your approval to buy things). They repeated the question a couple of times and then their automated machine must have determined there was no one on the line so they left a phone number to call them back 24/7 (that seemed odd) at the 800 number their provided. The number on the caller ID that indicated it was Humana was from area code 215. We block all 800 numbers from inbound calls, so often companies need to use another line to reach us. There was something about this that just did not feel right so I went online and searched both numbers. It came up under 800Notes. Others stated that it appeared to be a legitimate call from Humana wanting to set up an automated payment plan for monthly premiums. Red flags went up for me! We already prepaid for the entire year and their records would show that – so why would they want to set up a payment plan? I figured it was just an excuse to get that recorded “YES” as well as our credit card or bank info for a scam. Rather than calling the numbers they provided I called the customer service number on the back of the Human card and asked if either of the phone numbers where linked to Humana…they were NOT. Beware of any calls like this that come through. I would have fallen for it because we do use Humana and the caller ID said Humana – so if we have been home I likely would have answered and said YES confirming it was me…I would have innocently walked right into their trap because so much was a legit match.

So many legit places use automated calls (like reminder call/verifying doctor’s appointments) that it will be hard to sort out the real from the scam.