Everything happened in two minutes. Nancy was driving back home from work. It was a tiring and busy day, and she was listening to classical music to relieve the tiredness and stress when her phone rang. From the calling number, she thought it was either customer service, marketing of a bank, or a communications company. She murmured, "I don't have the power to listen to all your junk", and didn't answer the phone. However, her phone continued ringing as the caller insisted. She answered the phone with anger and dislike in her mind. A customer service representative (CSR) from a known bank started talking:

CSR: "Is it Nancy Smith?"

Nancy: "Yes"

CSR: "Mrs. Smith, I am calling from the Suspicious Transaction Section of bank XYZ. All our calls are being recorded for quality assurance. For ID verification purposes, I will ask you a few security questions you already provided to our bank when you opened your account." (CSR ask for the month of her date of birth and the last four digit of her citizenship number, and then continued.)

CSR: "We noticed that $3,000 was spent at the ABC shopping center. According to our security policy, credit card transactions over $2,000 are needed to be verified by our customers before the authorization. Did you make such a purchase at ABC shopping center?"

Nancy: "No"

CSR: "Mrs. Smith, as a last step, our security system will send you a verification code. I need to type that number to cancel your purchase. Could you please read it to me?"

Nancy: "OK" (a few seconds later, Nancy received a verification code and read it to the CSR).

CSR: "Thank you Mrs. Smith; I cancelled that purchase. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Nancy: "No, thank you. Is it really cancelled now?"

CSR: "It is cancelled Mrs. Smith. Have a nice day"

Nancy: "Thank you."

Nancy was feeling so relieved and happy because of the phone call. She could have lost $3,000 if she had been too lazy to answer. She told herself, How could anyone use my credit card without my consent or my knowledge? I should go to the bank and ask them what to do to protect my credit card.

She didn't notice anything until she received her credit card statement with an extra $500 spent. She immediately called the customer service, and then went to her bank, but it was too late. She understood that the verification code she told the CSR was actually the verification code of the purchase that the scammers made with her credit card while the so-called CSR was talking to her. A few weeks later things got cleared up when police caught those scammers. She was just one of the victims of those scammers. One of the members of that scammer team was the IT guy of a computer store where she had bought her notebook. He had stolen all the customer information from the store database, and had scammed their customers with his accomplices.