More Ally Bank scam calls, be cautious

by caretcaked

I saw the posts over the last 1-2 weeks from other Ally bank customers receiving sketchy phone calls and I think I would’ve caught on anyway, but as soon as I got a call from “Ally Bank” I was suspicious. Given that my suspicions were right, I thought I’d share since there were some contradictions in the recent posts about Ally scam callers.

Basically, early Tuesday morning (3:40 AM) a charge was made on my Ally debit card for around $15 for a Lyft ride. I was sleeping and have never even used Lyft, so it wasn’t me. I’m not sure how or where someone got my card information, but it happens and we’ve yet to transition to never using our debit cards. It is what it is. I used the app to turn off my card, but before I could call Ally I received a call from “Ally Bank.”

A man from “the fraud department” at Ally asked to confirm he was talking to [MY NAME], I said yes, he asked if I had time to go over fraudulent charges on my account, I told him no and hung up. I then later called Ally, had a new debit card sent out and then was told I’d have to wait to dispute due to it being a pending charge. An hour later it went through from being pending and two declined charges of around $17 from Lyft showed up. Yay card controls? So I called Ally, started the process to dispute the charge (which was credited to me today and I’m super impressed how quick they took care of that, just to praise Ally for a moment).

However, I’ve continued receiving calls from “Ally’s fraud department.” Most of which I’ve just ignored, or answered and said the same “no, I’ll call back.”

Now, I was pretty sure this Ally guy (same guy called every time) was a scam and was never going to give him information anyway, but some things had me wondering if maybe it was actually Ally trying to talk to me given how persistent it was. Most important thing to note though is that the number he called from was spoofed as the Ally bank customer service number.

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Each time I told him that I’d hang up and call back, I’d get a “oh, no ma’am no need to call back. We’re in the fraud department so you can’t just call in and talk to us.” Super suspicious. He asked for my bank user id, to which I said “why would I give you my login information over the phone” and his response was “No ma’am, not your login information just your user id to verify your identity.” Uh, sure, ok dude.

Wanting to verify my suspicions and also let Ally know about the situation, I called their line today to confirm it wasn’t them calling and… yep, it wasn’t them. The calls I’d been receiving were in fact someone impersonating Ally. Who apparently knew about the odd Lyft charge on my account and may have been connected to it (or it was a real crazy coincidence).

Just figured I’d share this so people are aware to be cautious – of course, you really shouldn’t ever give information to anyone on an incoming call. Live by that rule. Hang up and call your bank. Even if you know you have fraudulent or suspicious account activity, even if they keep calling over and over – don’t talk to them. Just call back. If it is legit, it won’t be an issue.


TL;DR Had a charge to my card that wasn’t mine, handled the dispute by calling Ally and they confirmed they never contacted me, got 6 calls over 3 days spoofed to be from “Ally Bank” saying it was their fraud department, confirmed with real Ally that they weren’t contacting me. Moral of Story: Don’t give information on incoming calls, even if you know you have fraudulent/suspicious account activity. Just call the known number for your bank/the number on the back of your card.

Edit to add: Figure I’ll take a moment to remind everyone reading this to talk to your family and friends (especially those that are elderly as they’re the most susceptible) about scam calls, emails, etc. and teach them to have a healthy suspicion. Taking some time with them can save a lot of suffering and it is the best way to combat this stuff.

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