Fell for phishing scam
April 16, 2017 10:08 PM Subscribe
Already cancelled my credit card. What else should I do?
Yesterday I wanted to go to Ripley's Aquarium here in Toronto. Found gogroupdeals.com that advertises discounted tickets. Thinking it was like a groupon-type thing, I googled the site. Nothing about scams came up. I put in the email address that I use for online ordering and FB notifications etc. (so not my main email), my first and last name, my credit card number, and my phone number. It also asked for date of birth, which I thought was weird (and should I have been my first major clue!), so I put in a fake birthdate. I submitted the order, and then a message came up that it didn't go through. I entered in my info again (with the same fake birthdate), thinking that typed in my cc number incorrectly. Same message came up and I looked at it more closely: "Opps! [sic] Your payment was not authorized" or something like that, with a grammatical error. Great. I googled the site again and that's when some info came up that this was a phishing scam. Then I called my bank and cancelled my credit card.
Questions:
1. How likely is it that ID theft can occur with the info provided? I didn't enter in the name that is on my credit card because they didn't ask for it. I entered an incorrect birthdate for me. They have my first and last name, address, cellphone number (my only number), and my non-main email address (where I get lots of phishing emails regularly).
2. Should I get my credit report and put a fraud alert on it? I've submitted a report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
3. Did you fall for a similar scam? Did anything happen to you after that in terms of ID theft or fraud, and what did you do? What should I watch for in terms of ID theft/fraud in the coming days/weeks?
4. Anything else I should do?
Thanks mefites!
Yesterday I wanted to go to Ripley's Aquarium here in Toronto. Found gogroupdeals.com that advertises discounted tickets. Thinking it was like a groupon-type thing, I googled the site. Nothing about scams came up. I put in the email address that I use for online ordering and FB notifications etc. (so not my main email), my first and last name, my credit card number, and my phone number. It also asked for date of birth, which I thought was weird (and should I have been my first major clue!), so I put in a fake birthdate. I submitted the order, and then a message came up that it didn't go through. I entered in my info again (with the same fake birthdate), thinking that typed in my cc number incorrectly. Same message came up and I looked at it more closely: "Opps! [sic] Your payment was not authorized" or something like that, with a grammatical error. Great. I googled the site again and that's when some info came up that this was a phishing scam. Then I called my bank and cancelled my credit card.
Questions:
1. How likely is it that ID theft can occur with the info provided? I didn't enter in the name that is on my credit card because they didn't ask for it. I entered an incorrect birthdate for me. They have my first and last name, address, cellphone number (my only number), and my non-main email address (where I get lots of phishing emails regularly).
2. Should I get my credit report and put a fraud alert on it? I've submitted a report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
3. Did you fall for a similar scam? Did anything happen to you after that in terms of ID theft or fraud, and what did you do? What should I watch for in terms of ID theft/fraud in the coming days/weeks?
4. Anything else I should do?
Thanks mefites!
Just so you feel better, I fell for a scam that was through wagjag. Yup, totally legit wagjag had a scam coupon company for that deal where you drive a race car on a professional track. Many people got taken in by that one (it was right before Xmas). I provided evidence of the scam and goods not received and visa reversed the charge. No ID theft that I can tell has happened.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:24 AM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:24 AM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh this was in Toronto too. Moral of the wagjag story: don't buy anything that has a click through link, only stuff from wagjag directly.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:26 AM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:26 AM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Domain Name: gogroupdeals.com
Creation Date: 2017-04-04T05:21:50Z
Not a lot of time for scam complaints to come in yet.
posted by hanov3r at 10:29 AM on April 17, 2017
Creation Date: 2017-04-04T05:21:50Z
Not a lot of time for scam complaints to come in yet.
posted by hanov3r at 10:29 AM on April 17, 2017
In isolation, that shouldn't be enough info to do fraud requiring identity theft, but if you can google search your first & last name plus phone number and come up with more information like real birthdates or street address (or possibly even just city), then a fraud alert wouldn't be an overreaction in my opinion. I don't know what public records access is like in Canada, but it might be possible for a determined actor can get enough real info through alternate routes to make it a worry.
posted by Aleyn at 3:21 PM on April 17, 2017
posted by Aleyn at 3:21 PM on April 17, 2017
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posted by taz (staff) at 11:35 PM on April 16, 2017