Apple Card/Goldman Sachs scam attempt

Today I got a call from a legit looking number: 877-255-5923 and since I was parked in my car, I had time to google it while on the call to see it was the Apple Card Goldman Sachs official phone number.

A guy on the line said he was in the fraud department at Goldman Sachs and wanted to run three charges past me they recently denied. They were absurd things in the UK and so I said I didn't make them. Then he said his manager would come online shortly to complete the fraud investigation.

The funny thing is, I've been called by the Apple Card department at Goldman Sachs before, but it was only after I tried to buy something online and got denied, or I saw a weird denied charge in my phone as a notification first. There was nothing today like that, and I received no emails from Apple Card services today.

The manager came on and since I've been phished and scammed before over a phone call from what appeared to be my own bank, I knew to give out zero sensitive information on the phone, instead insisting that I call back the real number back to make sure it was actually Goldman Sachs. The manager asked my name, which was a giant red flag that they didn't have my information handy already. After a bit of explanation, he eventually asked me to verify my card by saying the three character code on the back. I wasn't going to give him this information and said I was driving a car and would call back shortly, and asked if I should use the return number? He said yes and promptly hung up on me. Another red flag, they're usually pretty accommodating when it's a real call.

The funny thing is, half the google results for that Apple Card phone number are people on reddit talking about how it seems like a scam, like you're being tossed around a call center's boiler room somewhere. The call lacked all the normal trappings of a real bank call, like a statement that you're on a recorded line, and all the associated financial/legal disclaimers. There was also some background noise that made it sound unprofessional compared to the times I've actually heard from Goldman Sachs via phone.

As I've learned in the past, it's easy to fake what phone number a call appears to originate from, to make it look like they're calling from a legitimate company's official number. But as I've learned before, you never give out any information or do anything related to your finances from a phone call you didn't initiate yourself because their identity is impossible to verify.

Always ask for a call back number and always search google immediately after the call to make sure the number is real. Ask for any case numbers associated with the call, so you can reconnect to someone if it's a real call you just received. Any real bank or credit card company will oblige and let you call back to verify you're talking to your real financial institution.

Be safe out there, everyone.