PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Police Department has been inundated with complaints about a credit/debit card scam that hit the city on Thursday.
“It’s like somebody picked us today and decided they’d see how many credit card numbers they could get,” said Port Angeles Police Officer Duane Benedict.
At the same time, officials at two financial institutions have issued a joint fraud alert, warning customers across the North Olympic Peninsula.
No complaints have been received by the Port Townsend Police Department, Sgt. Ed Green said.
But in Port Angeles, customers with “all of the banks” in town have received the scam phone calls, which apparently originated out-of-state, Benedict said Thursday.
He said he has no idea how many complaints had come in to the police department.
“I don’t have an actual number,” he said, “but if I were to guess, just the police department alone has had 15, maybe 20 calls.”
Some people didn’t complain to the police; they talked with officials at their banks or just figured it was a scam and let it go, he said.
The area codes of the numbers on caller IDs — none of which work when phoned — are for areas in California and perhaps Arizona, Benedict said.
Asks for number
The calls — some of which are recorded messages — say that the person’s credit/debit card issued by a bank has been suspended and asks for the number of the card.
“There’s not a bank that asks for that information over the phone” if the bank has called the customer, Benedict said.
“My advice is: Just hang up. Don’t even talk with them,” he added.
Sound Community Bank and Strait View Credit Union issued a joint fraud alert, saying that calls had been made Thursday to Peninsula residents asking them to provide personal and other banking information.
“Residents report they are being asked for debit card numbers, Social Security numbers, PIN numbers and other personal information,” said Scott Boyer, spokesperson for both institutions, in a prepared statement.
“Some individuals report they talked to a person, while others were prompted by an automated response system to enter information on their phone keypad,” he said.
Banks “will never seek personal information over the telephone or via e-mail,” Boyer said.
Laurie Stewart, CEO of Sound Community Bank, speaking from Seattle, said that clients reporting the fraudulent phone calls were in Port Angeles and Sequim.
Calls on cell phones
“Everybody’s that called us has reported to us that they got the call on their cell phones,” she said.
“My hunch is that somebody acquired a big, fat list of cell phone numbers, and it happens to be targeted in that [360 area code] area right now,” she added, explaining why the alert went out Peninsula-wide.
Said Boyer: “These cell phone numbers were likely obtained from public sources. No bank customer or financial records have been compromised.”
Stewart said that a few clients reported that they had given out their credit/debit card numbers.
In such cases, the financial institutions can move quickly to protect the money in the accounts, she said.
“The reason we got the press release is so that folks who might have fallen for this can contact their bank and take immediate action,” Stewart said.
Such requests for personal information should be reported to the financial institution right away, she said.
Suspicious or fraudulent activity can be reported to the local police department.
The Port Angeles police are at 360-452-4545.
If such calls are received in Port Townsend, phone police at 360-385-3831, Green said.
“If it does happen, don’t give out information on the phone, and call us immediately,” he said.
To contact Sound Community Bank in Sequim, phone 360-683-2818; in Port Angeles, phone 360-452-4624. Strait View Credit Union can be reached at 360-452-3883.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
