When someone calls you, never share your card number, its security code, or a code texted to your phone, however official the caller sounds or whatever your caller ID shows. Hang up and call the number on the back of your card. If something is wrong with your account, the bank can tell you on that call.
Scam calls work because they sound informed. Scammers buy and steal details like your ZIP code and exact card balance, and they can make your bank’s name appear on caller ID.
None of that proves who’s calling. Only a call you placed yourself does. Your bank already has your card number, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) advises sharing it by phone only on a call you placed yourself.
The FTC and federal courts have warned about these scripts:
- A fake fraud department reports suspicious charges, then asks you to confirm your card details or read back a code just texted to you.
- A fake U.S. Marshal says you’ll be arrested for skipping jury duty unless you pay a fine by card. Real court officials never ask for card numbers by phone.
- A company offers to lower your interest rate for an upfront fee. Charging that fee before helping you is illegal, and you can ask your bank for a lower rate yourself.
Hang up on all three. Reach your bank through the number on the back of your card or a recent statement, and a court through the number on its official website. Skip the top search results, where scammers buy ads to plant fake numbers.
If you already shared a number or a code, call your bank now and ask for a new card number. Then read every statement for charges you didn’t make, and ask the bank to reverse those and any fine or fee you paid. Under federal law, you aren’t responsible for credit card charges you didn’t authorize. On a debit card, that protection holds only if you report within 60 days of the statement that shows the charge.
If you help an older parent with money, tape the number from the back of their card next to the phone. Then agree that they’ll hang up on anyone who calls asking for card details and dial that number instead.
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