UtterlyBoring.com is produced by Jake Ortman (e-mail, resume), a 30-year-old dad, percussionist, freelance Web designer, consultant and jack-of-all-trades computer geek, living in Bend, Oregon. He created this so that his expensive journalism and technology degree isn't getting totally wasted. In addition to editing this site in his free time, he is the IT Director and Ad Designer at both Sunray and Discover Sunriver. He has LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook profiles if you're trying to stalk him.
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Did Anybody Else Get The Bank of the Cascades Phishing Phone Call?
Last night at about 9:30 my phone rang, and it was an automated message saying that my Bank of The Cascades account had been compromised and I needed to call some toll-free number I didn't recognize to re-activate it. Since I don't have a Bank of The Cascades account, I just assumed it was a scam and hung up. Apparently I wasn't the only one who got the phone call, as my in-laws called me and said they got it, along with a bunch of other folks, some who did and some who did not have BOTC accounts.
BOTC, like every bank, is now the victim of phishing scams, and even has a Web page for this type of thing, but I know the toll-free number I heard was an not the "877" that they advertise on that page (I can't remember the number, but I'm pretty sure it was an 866 number).
Did anybody else get that phone call? Anybody know what's going on?
No, but... said on 11/08/07 @ 11:43 AM: Just a bit earlier I got the "we've decided to accept your loan request, we just need to finish up with your account numbers" that sounded like a 'real, live person' rather than a telemarketer.
I'm always reminded to call my elderly parents after stuff like this and refresh my warnings.
Jen said on 11/08/07 @ 01:23 PM: Yeah, I get the phone calls AND the emails. I don't have a BOTC account either. It's a HUGE pain in the butt.
I met a BOTC person at the COISUG (coisug.info) meeting last month and told him I forward all phishy emails to their "INFO" address, because that is what their customer service dept told me to do. He said that's good because they can track down information about the sender and get the site shut down.
But I don't know what to do about the phone calls. The scary part is they use my name in the message, and the software is apparently smart enough to generate variants including first initials and nicknames. I knew it was a scam as soon as I heard there was a message for "Jenny" but it was still sooo creepy.
Anonymous said on 11/08/07 @ 02:24 PM: It's an 888 number, and watch KOHD tonight for more!
thomas said on 11/08/07 @ 04:11 PM: I didn't get a call, but I did get an email asking me to call the number. Forwarded it to the BOTC email address on the bank website security page, and got a reply saying both customers and noncustomers were receiving the phishy email.
Jake said on 11/08/07 @ 04:14 PM: Yeah, I've gotten a ton of e-mails claiming to be from the BOTC -- I've just been deleting them, but maybe I should set up a server-side filter to just forward them to that address.
Barney Lerten said on 11/08/07 @ 05:14 PM: Our Eric Rucker has been on the scam phone call story today, just talked live to co. president - who got one of the calls last night! We'll have it all on the Web and of course on-air tonight. (And it hit U.S. Bank too, we're told.)
keeneye said on 11/08/07 @ 11:30 PM: I've been getting about one BOTC phishing emails a day. Scary. How are the scammers finding out all of the local email addys?
yoleen said on 11/09/07 @ 07:42 AM: I got the phone call, and have been getting 1-2 emails per day for the past couple of weeks. This phone scam was a big one, judging by how many people got it, and how much media attention it's getting.
MKK said on 11/13/07 @ 10:21 AM: I got the call too, and was curious enough to call the number back. Of course, I didn't imput any numbers. Wonder if reporting the number to the DNC folks (donotcall, not democratic national committee) would help.