A Coquitlam woman is hoping to warn fellow seniors about a phone scam after she caught on to a suspicious call on the weekend.
The caller, who said she was with MasterCard, used the woman’s name and notified her that because of her outstanding credit history, the company would lower her interest rate and remove her annual $110 fee.
“I told her, ‘Don’t worry, I pay it off every month,’ but the fee got my attention because I didn’t realize I had been paying this fee all this time,” the woman said. “But I’m 74 this month and I’ve had a couple of strokes, and I don’t think quite as clearly as I used to.”
The caller asked her to confirm her birthdate and, after providing the first four numbers of the woman’s Sears MasterCard — those numbers are the same on all MasterCards — asked her to verify the remaining numbers to get the yearly fee taken off.
The woman was retrieving her purse when she realized something wasn’t quite right.
She ended the call and contacted Sears, and was told nobody from the company had contacted her.
“I don’t fall for scams and I never have,” the woman said. “I’ve always prided myself that nobody can get anything over on me but I almost fell into it.
“It’s very frustrating to know there’s people out there who will take advantage of those who don’t have much of an income.”
Anyone who suspects they may have been the victim of a phone scam is encouraged to contact your local RCMP Detachment.