First Data

Victim Location 55008

Type of a scam Credit Cards

Person from SBGA called, stating they were from First Data, our Credit Card processor (that they were affiliated with our processor & bought them out). They used scare tactics that our rates were going up and they were the ones who police that and needed to review our credit card statement to ensure that North American Bancard were not charging us too much. They also talked about how we will be charged because we are not PCI compliant. When asked outright, if they were, as First Data, wanting to review our statement to try to get our credit card business, they replied NO. When in fact, they were trying to solicit our business. AND they were not from First Data but from SBGA. BEWARE!!

Victim Location 03234

Total money lost $5,000

Type of a scam Business Email Compromise

Thumb drive w leads, email w leads

Victim Location 43213

Type of a scam Credit Cards

I got a Phone call from a lady that said her name was Jennifer and that she works for First Data a credit card processing company. She told me that I was one of the few lucky people selected by their company off a list of other sent to them by credit card companies as their financially responsible customer. She said that she knew I indicated an interest to make residual income working from home. She went ahead to tell me that I could make up $3000 every month just by working for about an hour a week for them. She then proceeded to ask me questions that she said would qualify me for the money making program she is going to offer me. She asked me if I owned any of the 3 major credit cards ( I said yes, all 3 of them) She asked if I owed any money more than $2000 on my repayments for any of my cards ( Master card, Visa card or American Express) I told her I was up to date with all my repayments. She asked me what I do for Business ( I told her I own my own business of property management, car dealership, and an e-commerce store, I was just giving her BS because I already suspected that she was a fraud) She bought my story and she went ahead to congratulate me for qualifying for their program. Next, she told me that she will place me on a brief hold so that she can now transfer me to one of their account specialist who will assist me further. She hung but quickly rang me back apologizing for mistakenly hanging up while trying to transfer my call. She finally put me through to another person, a male African American sounding guy called John Wright (Right). I jokingly called him John Wrong but he quickly corrected me by saying "I am always Right". John did not waste any time to dive straight into telling how lucky I was and how he was going to help set me up for making a lot of money. I have a pen an paper ready to take note as I was advised by the first caller Jennifer. John told me that how the business works are that I just need to provide their company with the names, addresses and phone numbers of businesses in my area and I will be paid 1% of the total amount processed from the credit card of the businesses I provided and an additional $500 for every business that I provided that signs up for their services. He said that their company works by eliminating the middleman thereby cutting the cost of processing fees normally charged by banks to business who accept credit cards. John said that their company can cut down charges of up to 8% charged by banks to just mare 2%. They will split the 2% profit between me and them because they are very fair and looks after their agents well. However, John was not able to explain to me where the other $500 bonus that they will pay me for each business I introduce that signs up will come from. Obviously, if it comes from the same 2% then it is impossible for them to really split the profit 50/50 with me. (I was just making a fool out of John and deliberately wasting his time and saving others from them by so doing because, if they are busy with me, they will not have time to dupe others). Anyways, as we argued back and forth about they splitting of the 2%, I gave up and said am happy to proceed. Now, John said that he will need to verify me to ensure that I qualify to participate in their special offer of the program 60 days free trial. I told him I was pumped and go to go. He now asked me which credit card company I would love to use today for my verification. I told him to use any of the 3 as I don’t have a favorite. He said he would then use my Master card and I said go ahead. Meanwhile, they have only got my middle name of which they use to refer to me throughout my interaction with them. Now, John asked me to give him my last name that is on my credit card. I told him that my credit card only has only one name on it and that the name they have is my last name and it doubles as my business name. He now asked for my expiration date as on the card. I simply told him that am sorry, I cannot give that to him over the phone as I need to verify their company is legit before I could go ahead with that. Oh, I can tell you that he did not like that. He asked me why I would want to verify their company before I gave him the information he asked from me. I said to him, why did you want to verify me before you can sign me up for their you scam deal. ( Yes, I said scam to him and he did not like that one bit) He queried why I said their company was a scam. I told him if they were not scamming then, why is he worried that I want to verify them first before I gave out my credit card information to a total stranger over the phone. He became apprehensive and defensive, telling me that their company has an A+ rating in Better Business Bearue. I told him that I would love to verify that and it will only take a minute so, I asked for their company name as registered in BBB, their address and contact phone number. He gave me that information as provided here ( Company name: First Data, Address: Suite 1100, 500 Delaware Avenue, Delaware, 19801, Phone: 88887235883.) I checked and none of the information exists. I found another business called First Data Merchant Services in a different address in Delaware but both them and that business deny any association. John Wright continues to try to convince me that they are legit but I won’t budge. John got tired and he said it would be better if he referred me to his supervisor. I said Okay and he did. The next person that came on t** *** *** * *** *** *** *** *** ** *** * *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** * ***) He introduced himself as Sean Micheal ( I laughed and I made a joke of his name. I asked him if he was a former WWF pro wrestler and friends with John Senna. lol) He told me he gets that a lot but he is not a wrestler. Sean quickly deflected my query to his colleague about the authenticity of their company by telling me how wonderful is the opportunity that they are giving me. I stood my ground insisting that he verify their company before we can proceed. But instead of proving to me that they are a genuine business, he tried to dodge my questions and he took me to VISA card website instead. He took me here https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/tpa-registration-progra…⇄ He told me that is what they do and that it is totally a legitimate business. I asked him how they got my name and phone number that they used to contact me, he told me that it was given to them by my credit card company from a list of all their financially responsible customers. I then asked him why would any credit card company do that? and how come they don’t know my address or full names? He quickly deflected the questions and started telling me that I have a choice to choose to be successful and make a lot of money instead of arguing with him, I should let him proceed with signing me up. Then I asked him to verify the information that was given to me earlier by John Wright, I asked for their company address, CEO and customer phone number. Low and behold, the fool )Sean Micheal) didn’t know, he told me that they have many offices and that he does not know who their company CEO is, he said that their business is a shareholder business with no CEO and he could not provide their customer service number because he does not know it. At this point, he realized that I knew what he was up to. I told him that my phone has an app that shows scam calls and that their company phone number is highlighted as a scam, my internet search of their company also came up as a scam and that there is also a YouTube video about them that also say they are a scam organization. He got upset and hung on me and I went ahead to contact the company that they are claiming their website (www.firstdata.com) as their and the company denied knowing off them or having any association with them.