I kept getting these calls on my cell from +331 which is fishy enough in itself right? I finally decided to answer it. This guy with a South African accent says "I am calling to let you know about a credit card with 0% interest with a beginning credit limit of $3500."
RED FLAG GOES UP!
For one, I have less than pristine credit and for two I am wondering where in the heck these people got my number from? So, I decide to play along for a bit. I ask, "What is the annual fee on this card?" To which he answers, "There is no recurring fee, there is just a one time activation fee of $97 and then you get a $100 gift voucher to make up for that." "Then you can purchase anything from our catalog for up to $3500."
MORE RED FLAGS!
I say (still playing along) "What is your website address so I can take a look and consider this?" He says "www.internationalplatinum.com." I have to have him repeat the part after "international" about 3 or 4 times because I can't understand him. Each time he says "ok, I will repeat it one more time." LOL Like he is doing me a big favor. I am still cracking up over that. Anyway, I get to the spammy looking site and I say, "OK, well I will take a look at it online and if I decide to do it, I see I can apply right here." He then says "Oh no! You can't do that, I will just wait on the phone while you look so you can apply now on the phone."
RED FLAG AGAIN!
High pressure turns me off immediately. (Not that I was ever turned on to begin with.)
I then tell him, I really have to have a lot of time to consider this offer and he proceeds to try to keep me on the phone so I hung up. The guy immediately calls back; needless to say I did not answer.
If you truly want to confirm a scam, do a google search as follows: International Platinum Credit Card Scam. Make sure you include the word "scam" in your search. Here are the Google search results for that phrase:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=active&rlz=1C1CHMA_enUS352US352&q=international+platinum+credit+card+scam&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
Check out
Rip Off Report and
Who Called Us as well as the
Better Business Bureau.It is a ploy, scam, spam and a bunch of hooey. It angers me that they prey on people with bad credit and especially during the holidays when people are most vulnerable.
I don't care if it is a shady used car salesman standing right in front of you or some foreign sounding voice over the phone. Never let someone pressure you into a scam of any kind! Don't fall for it!
Comments (10)
recommending this post to help spread the word
So upsetting!! Thank you for posting this.
@Kristenmomof3 - Thanks Kristen! I really don't want anyone to fall for this. If a person is low on money for Christmas, they really could be vulnerable to this!
Too bad you didn't get the card! Then you could have bought the Indiana oil wells I'm selling! Well technically I'm not selling them, they belong to an associate in Mombasa. Well, technically he's not selling them, he's giving them away, and requires only that you provide a $2000 one-time fee to help defray the costs of having them signed over to you (which we will arrange the transfer for once we receive your checking account number) as a sign of good faith and your earnest desire to develop them to their full potential.
@AOK4WAY - LOL
Thank you for posting this. Good thing to know.
I just want to add a few details here. IF you had been interested and tried to open an account you would have been asked to provide your name, social security number, id number, etc. as well as CURRENT bank or credit card information in order to pay the "one time fee of $97." You should NEVER give this type of information for ANY reason to ANYONE who calls you on the phone. IF it is a LEGITIMATE company which you intended to do business with, they will be happy to provide you with a call back number (which you can VERIFY is the number you already have for the company).
I appreciate you making people aware of scams like you describe. However, as a South African, I object to your assertion that the person has a South African accent. You can not make such an assumption without any clear proof. When you are accusing a South African in general you are dragging the whole of South Africa in. South Africa has diverse people and you can not imply that the person is South African.
i actually got a call myself from internationalplatinumcard.com.it also...was from India not Africa, and i also have bad credit, but after some research and talking to the agent i found out, they called me cuz they offering people with bad credit 2nd chance, 97 dollar is a fee which at first i was not comfortable with, and then he explained they give 100 dollar account voucher to use online at there store to shop when you get the card in mail...i didn't want to give me credit card, but they did not require me to use any form credit card, it was 1 time ACH transaction( virtual check), which is normal for me cuz i use bill pay service with BoA, and it basically like sending them virtual check, anyways i decided to try it out cuz BoA got my back when it comes to ACH.
Now it toke about 6 days for me to get the card, but when i finally did get the card i noticed it had also 100 dollar account voucher so i logged online to there store to shop and see what they had, i was semi surprised to say the least, many cool items, i have Honda civi racer, and they had some really bad ass car parts i could buy online....which was cool. es epically cuz i was looking at this steering wheel at auto zone last week that cost like $399-400... and online it cost at there store it was selling for 320, i totally couldn't beat that deal!
So i called in to the customer support to activate card make sure it was still available and they said yes it was, and i could order online, but wait shit got even better after that, when i was online checking out, they informed me that i would only need pay 200 dollars down first before i could get it, so it was like i had to pay little down now, then they would finance the rest on the 3500 line of credit the approved me for, which was even better!!!!!!!.. as i check out they also asked for voucher code, which enter and they gave me additional 100 off!!! so i walk away paying 100 dollar for TOP of the line racing steering wheel that you can only find in certain places, that was prob the best x mas gift i got 2009, later on about FEB i got bill for remaining 100 which was cool cuz they financed it at interest rate of 0%!, with the bill came they had a notice cuz i had made my first month and 2nd month payment on time, they were willing to move my credit line from 3500 to 7500!! that was totally cool, later i went to check my credit and for sure, i had 7500 line of credit reporting to TU and EQX credit bureaus, which totally helped my credit score, cuz it looked like i had 7500 dollar credit card from ipc, lol anyways after that i was able to get bestbuy card amex for 2k also.
Anyway i want to say that overall the company and idea of the online credit card worked great for me, i only shop online now cuz there no taxes online, and you can finance it 0%, but i will agree with the poster people above, it was little freaky getting calls from india telling me im approved for credit card, but in all reality, it just call center signing up new clients for online company, after i submitted call to customer support about the fact i still got calls they made sure they stopped ...but again i was very leery and worried in the start but after i got my email with login info and card in mail everything seemed normal....im still with them now, and i dont use it that much now only cuz the customer support agent said that i should get my debt to credit ratio under 20%-30% with there card so it would always reflect positive, they said anything above that can lower your score, that is why after i used it they increased it to 7500
so overall i would have to say give them try, it was perfect timing for xmas last year, and the fact it can help me credit is plus only cuz i know that project im working on right now also, cuz they also provide monthly credit monitoring and id theft protection if you are member so really im killing 2 birds with 1 stone. internationalplatinumcard.com is NOT SCAM im still with them....?
yea ive heard of those types of account...good to hear some actually went thru the sign up process at least 1 time, i cant find review for people using, just people who cant make up there mind and blog about it...