Is This a Scam???

My 83 y/o dad and I co-own a boat that was damaged in the recent rain storms.

He filed a claim and the adjuster just asked him for his debt card number....good on my dad for making up an excuse (don't have my reading glasses) to buy some think time.

My wife called customer service at the company the policy is with and was told that they would never ask for that information.

100% probability of scam...50% probability of scam...what say the hive?

I'm wondering how this got started...did my dad inadvertently click on some nefarious site "Allstatie" by mistake?

Thoughts???

100% scam

Any time that they ask for a debit card number and not a credit card number, it is almost certainly a scam. It is much more difficult to claw anything back with a debit card than a credit card. 

Thank you mtn,

I just got off the phone with my dad and he is on-board with insisting that a physical check be mailed to his house.

BTW, the adjustor claims his last name is McLaren...hello Mr. McLaren, this is Detective Martin, Austin Martin. 

In reply to RX Reven' :

If they were offering to pay him via his debit card for the insurnace payout that is indeed a legit thing they've started doing now.  However usually they send you a secure link and you can enter your data.  Legit or not I'd be hesitant to read out my card number over the phone.  He was right to question it.

If the company straight says they would never do that,  well the there's  your answer.

JThw8 said:

In reply to RX Reven' :

If they were offering to pay him via his debit card for the insurnace payout that is indeed a legit thing they've started doing now.  However usually they send you a secure link and you can enter your data.  Legit or not I'd be hesitant to read out my card number over the phone.  He was right to question it.

That sounds unusual that it would be done via debit card and not via a wire or ach (either of which would require routing number and account number). 

mtn said:

JThw8 said:

In reply to RX Reven' :

If they were offering to pay him via his debit card for the insurnace payout that is indeed a legit thing they've started doing now.  However usually they send you a secure link and you can enter your data.  Legit or not I'd be hesitant to read out my card number over the phone.  He was right to question it.

That sounds unusual that it would be done via debit card and not via a wire or ach (either of which would require routing number and account number). 

With a debt card the funds can be deposited in hours, a regular transfer can take 1-3 days.  So if you need the cash quickly it is an option they offer (below a certain threshold)  It was initially offered on the payout on my car that was totalled last month but the payout exceeded the threshold so it had to revert to a regular transfer.  

JThw8 said:

In reply to RX Reven' :

If they were offering to pay him via his debit card for the insurnace payout that is indeed a legit thing they've started doing now.  However usually they send you a secure link and you can enter your data.  Legit or not I'd be hesitant to read out my card number over the phone.  He was right to question it.

I recently received an invoice for the co-pay on a surgery one of my daughters had.

They wanted me to identify the type of card, credit card number, name as listed on the card, expiration date, security code, and the amount I'm authorizing them to charge my card on a payment slip and drop it in the mail.

The invoice was written in such a way as to imply that this was the only and customary method of payment.

I called the billing department and said "I understand that this is an efficient way for you to get paid but some of these payment slips will fall into the hands of criminals and when that happens it will, on average, cost your customers $1,000's of dollars, days of work to resolve, and could cause them problems for years".

All I got was some cookie-cutter "Sir, you can pay over the phone now if you'd prefer" lame a$$ reply.

My wife and I got hit with credit card fraud at the exact same time about seven years ago...the only transaction we shared was some work done at a local Ford dealership so it's a near certainty that it was the source.

The credit card companies were awesome...they immediately removed the charges, walked us though exactly what we needed to do...provided a year of credit card surveillance / protection, etc; couldn't say enough about how competent they were.

But, the companies that screw their customers by making it easy for criminals to cause massive problems just so they can save a few bucks disgust me.

Recently had a teledoc give me a requested call back. Even then I was leery when they asked me for my (deceased for 26 years) father's middle name.

It wound up being legit. Still felt wrong.

Hive,

I thought I'd let everyone know that this tuned out to be liget.

Several things felt sketchy...

- Customer service said they would never ask for a debit card number.

- No direct e-mail address for the adjuster...just put the claim number in the subject line and it gets routed to him.

- No problem agreeing to send the money to me even though I'm not on the policy.  

I had to do a good amount of cross checking to be sufficiently confident and I moved all but $100 out of the account so there wasn't much to steal.

Anyway, it was legit...I was on the phone with the adjuster as I e-mailed a pdf of the estimate to him...in real time he reviewed / approved it....three minutes after ending the call I checked my bank account and the money was there.

Really weird and I don't know how someone could reliably differentiate between legitimate business and scammers without spending significant time.

I'll check my bank account daily for a few weeks to make sure nothing happens but I've already moved the money out and the amount is more than what I typically have in the account so if this is seed money, the joke's on them.

Apexcarver said:

Recently had a teledoc give me a requested call back. Even then I was leery when they asked me for my (deceased for 26 years) father's middle name.

 

It wound up being legit. Still felt wrong.

Lexis Nexis. It's legit stuff but it can be a little weird getting asked to verify the color of your 1993 Mazda Miata or your street you lived on in 1988. It's wild the things that are available to businesses for verification but its got to be done with so much out n the public workd for scammers to find out just through Facebook etc. 

Bizarre.  Businesses facilitate the scammers, and customers suffer the pain. 

I was in the 100% scam camp.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

If this becomes the norm, I guess we'll all need to have a gateway bank account to stage money in...similar to setting up a junk G-Mail account that can easily be abandoned if necessary.

I'm disappointed that corporations don't consider the consequence of this payment method.  As I mentioned, my dad is 83, he can't setup a good defense...at least he sensed danger, stalled the adjuster, and called me - well played pop!   

The part that pisses me off is you know this was explicitly targeted at your father due to his age.  You also know they succeed at bilking honest folks out of their money more often than not.  Great catch from your dad.  Scammers suck.

In reply to 84FSP :

This time, to everyone's surprise, it wasn't a scam.

To all, I'll have the boat in great shape by spring.  I know aircooled and mr2s2000elise are local...if you're around Westlake Village, CA and would like to do a GRM get together on my boat, please let me know.

Just one rule, you must have a beer in your hands at all times as Lake Patrol will cite you if you don't 

I would want to say.......#?  1234 5678......