WICHITA, Kansas – For Freda Remy, it was Tuesday afternoon when her cell phone rang."It was automated," Freda Remy said. "It said this was the Mid American Credit Union. Your debit card has been deactivated temporarily."
The recorded message asked Remy to press one to reactivate the card.
"Man, I whipped out my debit card, and I was ready," Remy said. "All the time, I'm thinking about why didn't they give me the number?"
Remy would soon learn why.
"To reactivate your card, please punch in your sixteen digit card number," Remy said. "At that point, I knew it wasn't going to happen."
Remy hung up and called the number back. She got a company out of Virginia who told her its system had been hacked, and the scammers were using the company’s phone number to make the calls.
The scammers are targeting people in three states including Virginia, Delaware, and Kansas.
For Remy, the call originally seemed authentic, because it claimed to be from a Wichita-area credit union.
"I was familiar with the name of the credit union, and that added credibility to the call a little bit, because that was a local business," Remy said.
Mid-American Credit Union tells KSN News they have received a number of calls in response to the scam.
The credit union warns consumers, “We do not use automated calls to contact customers, and we never ask for debit card numbers over the phone.”
For Remy, she’s just glad she was not duped by the latest debit card scam.
"Even in this busy life we live in, we don't always pay attention to something like that," Remy said.
