MEDIA RELEASE

Big Island police are warning the public about a credit card scam.

A caller claims to be from the credit card company’s Security and Fraud department inquiring about a questionable charge to the person’s credit card. The caller—who provides the correct credit card number, the name of the bank that issued the card, and the cardholder’s address—promises to credit the amount of a supposedly fraudulent purchase to the cardholder’s account. The caller says he will start a fraud investigation and gives the caller a “control number” for tracking the investigation.

At this point, the caller asks the cardholder to provide the three-digit security code on the back of the card to confirm that the card is in the cardholder’s possession. Later, the victim finds unauthorized charges to the account because the scammer was able to charge items using the cardholder’s security code.

Police advise the public to hang up if they get a call like this—even if it sounds legitimate—and to call the credit card company directly using the phone number on the credit card rather than any phone number the caller provides.