Beware: 'Convert Credit Card Points into Cash’ Messages Are Spam and Can Dupe You

Yogesh Sapkale 07 August 2018

Consumer Interest

Many bank customers are getting messages offering to convert their credit card points into cash by asking them to visit a website that looks like their bank’s website. However, many of these websites are non-operational and the customer is re-directed to other portals. One of these portals, ProRedeem.com, where bank customers land up after clicking on the message, has a dubious reputation and is found to be only collecting data from customers.

According to ScamAdviser, ProRedeem is very new website so it does not have an online reputation as yet and a malware report has been detected for the portal. "It appears this website (ProRedeem.com) is not working. The data shown reflects the analysis done when the site was operational... As with all new businesses, we suggest that you take care and, if necessary, get in contact with (sic) the owners before placing an order of value. This website has been listed on a threat site at sometime in its life (sic). These can relate to virus/malware issues," ScamAdviser says in its report.

One Sachin Sanklecha posted a complaint on CyberComplaint.in stating that he received an SMS from HP-OFFERX, after he received his credit card. The SMS asked him to submit him card verification value (CVV) code and mobile personal identification number (MPIN) online. The SMS reads: "Dear customer your SBI CREDIT CARD point worth Rs6897 expired by 05/08/2018. Kindly convert your points into cash by click here.

Another SMS from the same gang doing rounds reads: "Dear customer your INDUSIND Credit Card point worth Rs8897 expired by 05/08/2018. Kindly convert your points into cash by click here".

There are three important points to consider here. One, none of the websites mentioned above is related or connected with any bank in India. Secondly (and luckily), both the portals mentioned above are non-functional. Even ProRedeem.com is non-operational. However, what you need to be careful about is not to share any of your information on any such portals. For example, ProRedeem, asks you to fill in personal details and card number with expiry details which can be easily misused to cheat the cardholder.

If you receive any such SMS, immediately file a complaint to Do Not Call Registry by sending an SMS to 1909. There is a typical format for filing such complaints. You need to share details of the message, followed by sender’s name or number and date in dd/mm/yy format and all this must be in 160 characters. Since the last parts, name or number of sender and date are important, you can delete some part of the message if it does not fit within 160 characters. Here is an example:

Dear customer your SBI CREDIT CARD point worth Rs6897 expired by 05/08/2018. Kindly convert your points into cash by click on

After sending this message to 1909, you will receive a confirmation message. In addition, your mobile service-provider will also send you a message giving the complaint number and time required to address the complaint. And, after a few days, you will not receive such messages.

Comments

User

Pradeep Kumar M Sreedharan

8 years ago

Today I was scammed off Rs 10,000/- intended for Moneylife, by Change.org, by deceptively placing the donate button in the webpage, while signing the petition against Banksters, to RBI

My request for refund is met with silence