Nathan Chung brushed off the first two phone calls.
He was rushing out the door on both occasions and couldn’t listen to the credit card sales pitch. When he received the third phone call on Jan. 27, he had time to listen, but he didn’t like what he heard.
A woman with a strong Jamaican accent told him that http://www.clout.com was offering a special deal for University students, and she wanted to fill out an application for him over the phone so Chung could receive a packet of information.
Chung, an economics major, said the woman then prodded him into answering each of her questions. She asked the University sophomore for his address, his birthday, his main sources of income and other personal information. Chung reluctantly supplied the information, sensing that something was not quite right. Then she asked for his Social Security number, which raised an immediate red flag for Chung.
Chung was not the only student to receive a suspicious phone call asking for personal information in the last month. Department of Public Safety Interim Director Tom Hicks said University students have contacted his office about two possible cases of identity theft. DPS doesn’t usually receive any calls about identity theft.
Identity theft is a crime in which an impostor obtains personal information, such as a person’s Social Security number, and uses it to obtain credit, merchandise and services in the name of the victim. In a report released in September 2003, the Federal Trade Commission estimated that 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2002, costing consumers $53 billion.
Hicks said the first case of possible identity theft occurred on Jan. 16 in Carson Hall. A student reported receiving a phone call from someone claiming to be from the University doing a survey, but the student became suspicious when the person on the other line asked for a Social Security number.
Hicks said this was the first time in recent memory that someone tried to trick students out of their personal information using the guise of a University employee.
The second incident occurred on Jan. 21 at H.P. Barnhart Hall. A student reported receiving a suspicious phone call from someone trying to push a credit card, but the caller did not identify what company the caller was with. Hicks said DPS has still been unable to link this incident back to a perpetrator.
Hicks said students need to be especially cautious when it comes to filling out credit card applications over the phone because that is one of the most popular scams people use when trying to commit identity theft.
Chung said he became suspicious about the phone call he received as soon as the sales woman asked him for his Social Security number. After that, he told her he wasn’t interested in applying for the credit card, but the saleswoman had a hard time taking “no” for an answer.
Chung said he wanted to hang up, but she kept telling him they were on a secure line and always returned to the question: “What’s your Social Security number?” Chung said eventually the woman became angry at him and asked him why Chung went so far in filling out the application if he wasn’t interested in getting the credit card.
“The really alarming part was how obsessive she got about trying to get my Social Security number,” Chung said. “The pressure tactic really drives you crazy. At the time they were talking to me, I though I was being a hard-ass by not giving them my info.”
Chung eventually hung up the phone, but the experience had alarmed him. After talking with a few friends, he found out that a number of students in the residence halls had received similar phone calls, which he suspects were from the same company.
Chung said the most dangerous thing about listening to a sales pitch for a credit card over the phone is that callers never stop pushing at consumers to answer their questions.
“People try to make you feel guilty or stupid, but that doesn’t mean you are that way,” Chung said. “They’re just trying to get your money off you.”