Another Scam?

[Xangsamhua]

I received a call a week ago from a Khun C...... T. who said he was from AMEX and advised me that I had neglected to send them a certified copy of my passport when consenting to disclosure of information. I had a vague idea of receiving something, so faxed him the personal particulars page.

Yesterday I received another call from him advising me that the fax was not clear and asking if I could scan the page and send him by email. He also said that my signature on the faxed page was different from that on my consent to disclose information (???). At that point warning lights went up. My signature hasn't changed for many years though differs a bit if the hand shakes or something.

The email he sent me is from an address that I can't find anywhere on the web except in a Yahoo Groups page where a C....... T......... is a recipient of a bulk email from someone in AMEX's credit area, but the message is not business related as far as I can tell. (Some of it is in gobbledygook and the heading is about "results of toxic emotion" (ผลของพิษทางอารมณ์).

The email that C....... T. sent me includes a web address for AMEX that differs from the address on AMEX's website. It cites www.americanexpress.co.th whereas the AMEX website gives .com not .co.

The telephone and fax numbers C....... T. provides do not appear on the AMEX website.

I don't know what benefit scammers would get from a copy of my personal particulars page, but I am inconvenienced by the phone calls and am wary of business being done this way. I would rather have a letter from AMEX asking for this information, even though it's not particularly private.

I shall contact AMEX tomorrow morning to get some background, but in the meantime would like to know if anyone else has had this experience and knows anything more. I've had an AMEX Thailand card for 5 years and don't recollect this happening before.

Edited March 18, 2012 by Xangsamhua

[Soutpeel]

"I don't know what benefit scammers would get from a copy of my personal particulars page"

Applying for a credit card in your name and using it, is one benefit the scammers could have in mind

[wana]

of course its a scam, credit card companies dont ask for your signature by email so they can forge it properly later

[bendejo]

You are right to be suspicious.

There are ways of just looking at the address and seeing the possibility of it being off. Email services like gmail catch these right off and will put a banner on the page when you open it warning it may be fraudulent.

Eg, xxxx@facebook_fraudalerts.com will be bogus, whereas something that ends with facebook.com might be genuine.

This is just a rough example.

If you want to give this guy some trouble go to the real Amex website and look for something about reporting fraud/phishing. I've been getting bogus emails to contact paypal the past few weeks. PP has an address to forward the scam email to.

If you want to have a little fun make up a blurry, illegible pdf and email it to him, then when he complains he can't read it give him a hard time, maybe get him to reveal himself, like ask for his address and tell him you'll deliver it personally along with a pre-payment deposit. I hope you've been using a throw-away email address, too bad his has your phone number.

[Xangsamhua]

It seems that the request for a copy of the passport is coming out of AMEX itself. I rang the main number in the website and they were able to confirm this. I have asked them to send me a copy of the signed letter of consent to disclose information before I take any further action. Am very curious to see the apparent mismatch between my passport signature and the one on the letter.

I have also asked that any further communication be by email or mail. I don't like using the telephone, especially in Thailand, and especially when the call is out of the blue. Personal contact with AMEX Thailand seems to be exclusively by phone.

Edited March 19, 2012 by Xangsamhua

[bangkokburning]

Go to the AMEX office and clear it up. Simple.

[KKvampire]

amex may have scamming staff. I have a work colleague who used his Uk credit card on one occasion at a Thai Bank, (green colour) and a few weeks later he had items purchased on that card from other countries. So he could prove he was in Thailand and no elsewhere, turned out a member of the bank staff had a contact who would have the card numbers and all the card holders details so as to make illegal purchases

[scorecard]

You are right to be suspicious.

There are ways of just looking at the address and seeing the possibility of it being off. Email services like gmail catch these right off and will put a banner on the page when you open it warning it may be fraudulent.

Eg, xxxx@facebook_fraudalerts.com will be bogus, whereas something that ends with facebook.com might be genuine.

This is just a rough example.

If you want to give this guy some trouble go to the real Amex website and look for something about reporting fraud/phishing. I've been getting bogus emails to contact paypal the past few weeks. PP has an address to forward the scam email to.

If you want to have a little fun make up a blurry, illegible pdf and email it to him, then when he complains he can't read it give him a hard time, maybe get him to reveal himself, like ask for his address and tell him you'll deliver it personally along with a pre-payment deposit. I hope you've been using a throw-away email address, too bad his has your phone number.

Or better still, go personally to the AMEX office in Bangkok and seek some explanations.

[bangkokburning]

That is why I just use debit cards from home honestly. I have my local bank and my brokerage. What more do you really need?

I certainly would march over to Amex with email addresses and phone numbers and try to match it all up. Further, I would contact AMEX fraud unit in your country - Thailand will do nothing for you.

[Xangsamhua]

I don't think I'll hear any more from them. I have only the vaguest memory of this letter of consent, but a friend says that in agreeing to allow AMEX to disclose some information I would get 10,000 air mile points, so I guess that's what I did. Perhaps AMEX see themselves as doing me a favour by following it up and won't bother to send me the scanned original letter of consent. My friend, who is a Commissioner for Declarations and who certified my passport copy with his signature and stamp, says they're probably confusing his signature with mine; hence their claim that my signatures don't match. In Thailand, apparently, "certified true copy" means you sign the document yourself. I've lived in this country for 12 years and never knew that, though I've signed plenty of documents, not thinking that made them a "certified true copy".

It seems there's been no ill-intent in this case - just confusion on my part and, I think, sloppy practice on AMEX's. I don't think a telephone call out of the blue from an unknown person is the right way to elicit documents and signatures, regardless of who benefits.

[wana]

i must have over a dozen credit and debit cards and NEVER have i been asked to provide scans of my signature by email

even my banks say ,we will NEVER email you for sensitive information ,its a scam and not safe etc

i think its strange that they would suddenly back track and say ok,now its safe to send details by email

i would not trust it any calls or emails i get in thailand asking for this stuff

[Payboy]

Khun C...... T

A most appropriate moniker for a phone scammer.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Payboy