Fooled. Pantsed. Suckered.
I am used to flushing out the run of the mill Calcutta boiler room flunky. Guys who claim they're from my credit union but don't know which state it's in.
But like Bama playing a year of Chattanoogas, I got punched in the gut coming up against real competition. They had texted me a couple of days ago from my credit union's number, as my credit union does any time I do an unusual transaction. Something about somebody trying to log in fron a second phone #. Type "No" if it's not you. "No." Forget about it.
They'd laid the groundwork that they and I were working together, against crime. I shoulda called back to talk to a person, but I get this stuff a fair amount as I roam the land.
Tonight I get a call about the same "infiltration" attempt. Person on the phone, vague American accent, slightly huffy. No doubt AI looking back. When I ask them where my credit union is, they misdirect and answer something else. Happens twice. Third time they tell me the town, Obvious now that they stalled and googled it. This is where I fumbled the ball, shoulda just hung up. At the very least, say bye and then call my credit union's number on my own. But for some reason thinking I just had a snitty employee on the phone that I had offended, I kept talking.
After all, they were just trying to help me.
For the rest of it I was a sheep led to slaughter. They texted me a log in to my account, me, brain turned off, signed in. Then (to howling laughter now) they explained how they'd be contacting the Feds as well as state authorities, so maybe don't log in for a day or two as they'd be looking for pings to hunt down the suspect and they didn't want me to muddy the trail. Even in my brain-washed state my instincts said "Wut th'FUCK" at that, while my rational brain said "No, stop that, they're trying to HELP us..."
About 5 minutes later I get a call back from a very human, slightly frazzled person who says she's credit union security. She knows where my credit union is, she sounds like she lives there, and she knows how to pronounce the weird street name it's on, I'm still burnt but I wave her into the compound. Turns out the bastards were running transactions through my credit card into my checking, about 2,000 at a time, she put a hold on it before it got astronomical.
Now my bank account is locked up. In the morning I'll call the credit union and we'll do the good ol' police report/start a new account thing.
Got got gotdammit. I had a simple trick for sussing out scammers, they failed the test, and I let em in the door anyway.