CONSUMERS: BEWARE TELEPHONE SCAM TOUTING
PHONY CLASS ACTION AWARD
Con Artists Pretend to be Working for Attorney General’s Office

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. warned consumers today about a telephone scam that attempts to get consumers to reveal their checking account numbers.

A woman in Frederick County received a phone call from someone who said he worked for "Telguard," which he said was contracted by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office to contact citizens about credit card fraud. He told the woman that she was entitled to $476.21 as a result of a class action suit because her credit card company had overcharged her account from 1998 to the present. The caller recited the woman’s name, her husband’s name and their address. The woman was told to give the routing numbers and account number of her checking account so the money could be automatically deposited in her account. The consumer did not do so, and reported the call to the Attorney General’s Office.

In fact, there is no such class action suit, and the Attorney General’s Office has not contracted with any company to contact citizens about any class action suit.

"Consumers should never give any personal information, including checking account numbers, over the telephone to callers they do not know," said Attorney General Curran. "Con artists come up with very clever stories to trick consumers to reveal such information, which can be used to drain the consumer’s account or commit identity theft."

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