Taking no risks, I kindly let her know that I would just call Bank of America myself, to see what this was all about. I said, honestly, I was not really sure the text that I received was legitimate. Before she could go on, I told her I was confused.
This "rep" began by saying that since I verified that the transaction had not been authorized in that text with a "No," I needed to reset my password with her. To my surprise, this person was polite, friendly, calm and pronounced my name correctly (no easy feat). She called from 87, which I quickly looked up and found no evidence of being associated with the bank either. I received a phone call from a supposed Bank of America representative, who was following up on the text exchange. No search result linked that number to the bank.
Was it an effort to try to legitimize a text that might not otherwise be truthful?įurther, when I googled the 866 number in the text, it was not clear whether it belonged to Bank of America. I also found the Bank of America logo following the text to be a bit wonky.
A junior hacker might think to use my first initial followed by last name to log in, but they will not be successful! While the Waltham reference was interesting, I spotted some red flags that suggested the text was likely bogus. After a few rings, the "Bank of America Client Protection" switchboard came on the line. The detective in me decided to dial the number. Was it possible fraudsters had " shimmed" my card and stolen information on its chip? Had they attempted to then access my account? And Bank of America caught them in the act and sent me this alert?Īnother persuasive part was that after I replied "No" to the text, I received a reply that said to call 86 to change my username and password. I had, in fact, used my bank card in a few places while visiting. I had been in the vicinity of that town while on vacation a week prior. The part I was stuck on was the mention of Waltham, Massachusetts. Here's a snapshot of the text to which I replied, "No."
But upon further examination, I didn't know what to believe.
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