Best Posts in Thread: BPI Scam? Caller shows as "MAMA" (027952500)

Hardly.

They could just be trying to verify that a list of phone numbers they have are working numbers.....they then sell them to spammers. So they could possibly stand to gain from the call.

Here is what a competent bank would suggest you do:

There is more relevant information in the article.

Then again, BPI may be actually calling people with this advertisement, which is exactly what it would be if they are contacting you about credit cards....nobody but the bank would stand to gain if it were legit. (In the Philippines; just because the bank isn't tracking a reference number doesn't mean they didn't attempt to call you. Record keeping in the Philippines is a freaking joke.)

My advice: NEVER hand over ANY personal information over the phone or through email unless you called the bank yourself and you are 100% certain you dialed the correct published number. Even then I would be skeptical of giving any Philippine bank my personal information over the phone (even if I knew 100% that it was the correct number). I would certainly never give any such information over email/internet (I closed one bank account because they demanded I do this to reset a password). Many bank websites in the Philippines don't have https on their website or even their online banking. That is just pure retardation and you should run very fast and very far away from any bank that doesn't know the very basics of online security. If you don't see the https in the browser before you enter in a username/password then someone on the same network CAN get that information as soon as you hit enter. (And if you use the same password for different websites you are completely screwed.)

Also, I wouldn't even snail-mail any credit card applications through the mail in the Philippines. The postal service is a complete joke (they might deliver it to the wrong person) and their employees should not be trusted with your personal/account information. The only time you should give personal information to a Philippine bank is in person at the counter. Remember that corruption and fraud in the Philippines does not just happen at the highest levels.....it is present at every political, economic and social level, from the President all the way down to the shanty towns. Also, if you need a credit card you should not be living in the Philippines. Don't live above your means, it will only come back to bite you in the @ss.

 

TL:DW
For VOIP/internet phones Caller ID is based off of what the person placing the call tells the phone company their number is. There are legitimate reasons for allowing this to happen (call center/business phone extensions).
i.e. it is very easy to spoof a phone number.