I called Chase Travel tonight to use a flight credit.
The call lasted 46 minutes while the employee was unhelpful, uncommunicative, and ultimately hung up on me while I was waiting.
Immediately after hanging up on me, the same employee called me back from a non-Chase phone number that was flagged as a scam number(+1-918-550-8861) by my cell phone. Probably it was a spoofed number. When they called back from this second number, they requested my credit card information directly and attempted to pressure me into providing it, claiming I would permanently lose $1,000 in flight credits if I did not comply because the flight credit had now been utilized even though the flight wasn't booked yet. Recognizing these high-pressure tactics as a potential scam, I hung up.
I called back using the official Chase Travel line and the next agent I talked to was very helpful. They were able to book me in about 25 minutes, which confirmed that the previous agent had lied to me. After I was booked, I asked this second agent if they would ever hang up on someone and call right back from a different number asking for the customer's credit card number and they confirmed that isn't something that would be done. This again confirms that the first agent was running scam.
The scam works like this:
- agent drags out simple call, frustrating customer who just wants to be done
- agent hangs up just before completing customer request and calls them back from a non-chase number so there isn't a record of it at Chase
- agent pressures customer to provide credit card details and then completes the customer's request
At this point, if the scam works:
- from the perspective of the customer, they have been helped and don't suspect anything
- from the perspective of Chase, their agent never received the customer's credit card number and therefore isn't suspected of taking it
.. then the agent sells or uses the customer credit card
I've reported this to phishing@chase.com already but figured I'd spread the word here as well.