PEM is the number that came up on the called ID.  They had my full name and they had the last four digits of a credit card that I canceled after some unexplained activity on my account.  This was an attempt to get my new card info. Needless to say I cut them off and I will be notifying my card carrier of this phone call as well.

Like many of the comments above, I also received a phone call at my office.  The only difference was she said she was calling about my DISCOVER card.  The caller was a female with hard to understand accent.  She said that I was a long time customer with a Discover card (which I don't even have anymore!!!).  She wanted to offer me a $50 gas card and a discount card for $2.49 at which point I hung up on her.  Then I noticed the same number on my caller ID when I came in this morning.  These people don't give up.  Sounds like a scam to me!

I just got a call from them and can attribute it to Snuggies.  They wouldn't talk, but I didnt' realize it was from Snuggies.   I ordered a Snuggie in January through the phone order system.  Two weeks ago I got a call from Avalon Marketing about my Visa ending in "xxxx" thanking me for my business, etc....  I told them my Visa was issued from my bank and then I got worried.  He insisted on sending me gift cards, etc.... I got upset and he told me he didn't have my full number, but stupidly I had give Snuggies my private office line at home.  I told him I didn't want anything and to never call again.  I called the number back and got a recording.  Then tonight this company, I didn't hang on the phone long, just hung up.  Previously I called Snuggies and they insisted I must have agreed to receiving extra solicitations during my lengthy phone order process, when they tried to sell me a dozen things.

I wish I could do something about this type of business practice.  Maybe we should all turn them into the FTC.  I am game to do it.  We probably can't turn Snuggies in, because they are not calling, but they obviously sold our info to other companies.  This is disgusting.

I received a few calls from them. Funny thing is, I gave snuggies my grand central number, which forwards to my cell phone number, just because I didn't really trust the snuggies company's business practices.  This is a number  that I rarely give out, so I have no doubt that this is due to my snuggies purchase.

The following is a transcription of a telephone call that took place on 03/08/08 at 10:36AM CDT.  The calling party’s phone number is (616) 980-2590.  The personal information has been replaced (first name, last name, last four of credit card number)

Google Grand Central Annoucement (played to both callers): Call Recording On

Me: Hello.  Hello?

Caller: Hello Mr. FIRST LAST

Me: Yes this is, yes.

Caller: Good Evening Sir, My name is Christine Miller and I’m calling with regard to your mastercard , okay?

Me: Oh, you’re from mastercard?

Caller: I’m sorry, I believe --- I’m calling with regards to your mastercard and the reason we’re calling you now is just to inform you that the record shows here that you’ve been using and keeping your mastercard for quite some time

Me: Mmm hmm.

Caller:  And as a simple way of thanking you for being a valued customer you will be receiving a free $50 worth of gas voucher and a discount card, okay?

Me: Okay.

Caller: Sir, your free $50 worth of gas voucher , you can use it in any major gasoline station of your choice, there is no expiration date and it is fully transferrable.  This is not a sales call, we are not selling this one to you, you are not going to buy this, that is only our humble way of saying thank you for using and keeping the card and for being a valued customer. Okay?

Me: I’m sorry you’re from mastercard though?

Caller: I’m sorry

Me: Hello?

Caller:  I’m sorry. (pause)  Yes.

Me: Oh okay.

Caller: Are you listening?

Me: Yes.

Caller: Like I told you sir, I’m calling from key benefits with regards to your mastercard.  I do believe that would be your debit card, bank card, or checking card, your existing card with the mastercard logo on the end with the last four digits ####.  Okay?

Me: Okay

Caller: So sir, your discount card will entitle you and your family up to 50% discount whenever you go shopping, dine outside, even your groceries.  You can use your discount card to your car, movie, hotel , airfare, appliances, and a lot more.  That is [indiscernible] for 30 days to maximize the use of it.  Okay?

Me: Okay

Caller: All the information that you’ve been read,  [indiscernible] number, and the complete listing of the retail stores where you are going to be able to get up to a 50% discount will be included inside the package for your own convenience.  

Me: You know I’m not—I’m not really interested in this actually, I don’t think.

Caller: I’m sorry?

Me: Do you need anything for me to do this?

Caller: I’m sorry, we’re not allowed to get any banking or credit card information from you because that is for the protection [indiscernible] of your card.  We only have the mastercard ends in ####, that is for the verification purposes.  And for the protection [indiscernible] on your card we are not allowed to get any type of any banking information from you, okay?

Me: Do you need anything from me to do this though?

Caller: What do you mean, need anything—

Me: Well, I mean, so, you guys are just going to send this to me then?

Caller: But sir I am explaining everything to you so you won’t get confused

Me: Okay, you know, I’m not interested, and you make it sound like

Caller: Okay not a problem if you don’t like—

Me: No no no, you call me up and you say you call me regarding my mastercard, thank you for being a great customer for such a long time, you’re not mastercard.  I called mastercard the other day after you guys called me, and they said, no, nobody called you. So who are you calling from, what company, you have to tell me what company you’re from.

Caller: Like I told you I’m calling from key benefits with regards to your mastercard.  The company name is key benefits. You made a purchase before through our marketing partners through infomercial or catalog.

Me: Right right.

Caller:  [indiscernible] with your credit card ending in ####.  Okay?

Me: Okay, yeah I’m not interested and please put me on your do not call list

Caller: Not a problem, bye.

Me: Thanks, Bye

I also received a phone call at my office.  The caller was a female who spoke English but she had an accent.  She was not only difficult to understand but the call sounded like it was coming in on a cell phone with a poor connection.  She said that I was a long time customer with a Visa card.  She knew the last four numbers and wanted to offer me a $50 gas card and a discount card for $2.49.  I ended the call and called my local bank to report the matter.  They instantly took the information and said they would report it to their fraud department.  I called the number and got a voice recording saying it was the Marketing Department.  Beware of this fraud!

I also ordered a snuggie an am now receiving these phone calls up to 4 a day. I just haven't answered any of them but would like them to stop. Hopefully with the info from this site, if I continue not to answer them they will stop.

I also just ordered a Snuggie a couple of weeks ago and, since then, this number keeps calling me from "Key Benefits"-that's how it shows up on my phone.  They had my address and the last 4 numbers of the credit card I used to purchase the Snuggie online.

I've gotten a call from this number a few times, even today, which is saturday. Every time they call, I missed it. I call back to find out more information and the voicemail says its full or that it's the "marketing department and all representatives are busy." I noticed deepblackhole mentioned something about a Snuggie. I just ordered one of those recently...could that be one of the common denominators? Should I be cautious about activity on my card?

Same thing happened to me, although after she mentioned a gift, I asked what company she was calling from and was hung up on immediately.  Very frustrating and shady.  Shame on these people.

I got a call 2 days in a row from this number. They had my name and the last 4 digits of my cc. When I started to ask questions, the guy kept going back to the same script. They had a great package for me with a $50 gas card, again for only $2.00. I kept insisting that they tell me how they got this information and eventually he hung up on me!!!!

UPDATE FROM EARLIER POST:  I contacted my bank (credit card issuer).  The initial human “customer service rep” was, of course, utterly clueless and contributed nothing to the advancement of this issue.  I was trying to explain to her that my intent in calling was to explain what had occurred and to GIVE THEM THE DECISION as to whether or not to cancel my account and issue me a different number.  The only thing this initial CSR could do was launch into a long, high-pressure spiel about selling me a dubious credit monitoring service for $9.99/month, the benefits of which weren’t apparent, since she and I both acknowledged up front that I’m not liable for fraudulent charges against my account.  Finally I had to just cut her off and insist on speaking to someone in the fraud department.  I got transferred and of course, had to re-explain the whole thing from scratch.  The fraud person basically said that they were (generically?) aware of the Snuggie problem, but that since their computers continuously analyze all transactions throughout their system for suspicious activity and that my account showed no signs of suspicious/fraudulent activity, that it probably wasn’t worth the hassle of cancelling my card and getting a new one.  Moral of the story: if the credit card company is the party that gets stuck with 100% of the damages for fraudulent charges and they don’t care about taking steps to minimize their losses, then I don’t either.

They have been calling here 4 times a day for 3 weeks. i picked up by accident, she asked for husband ( he isn't the primary card holder) I asked who she was and she asaid she had a great offer for my hubbie (this in itself made me laugh- phone hookers!) ANyway, she would love to talk to me if I gave her the full account # to verify MY identitty.
I told her that I didn't know anything about our credit cards and wasn't giving her any inf. She was persistant til I hung up on her.
Total phishing expedition

Caller with unfamiliar voice from unfamiliar area code had my name correct, asked for me by name.  Called my at work, where my IDSN caller-ID shows only the number but no name for all calls.  Multiple voices in the background made it obvious this was coming from a call center (boiler room?).  Female voice in decent English but probably not her first language said she “was calling in reference to my Visa card”.  I am an identity theft ultra-paranoid, very well-read on the topic and was immediately suspicious.  She said it was in reference to my Visa card that had the last four digits of (example) <1234>, which were correct.  She went on and on to say that "her records showed that I had been a valued Visa customer for a long time" and that as a show of appreciation for my years of continued business she wanted to "send me a package of information" that would "be of benefit" to me.  I broke in at one point and explicitly told her that I had no idea who she actually is and had no way to identify her authenticity with any confidence, and that I would give her no indication as to whether or not the four digits she recited to me were correct.  I think she was a little taken aback by this and probably realized she was not talking to a victim who would be easy to fleece.  I later asked her if she could tell me the name of my Visa card's issuing bank, and she sidestepped the question.  She droned on a bit more about my long-term customer status and eventually got to the hook: she wanted to "send" me (presumably by US Mail, never explicitly said) a package of information that I could examine that would be to my benefit, or some such tripe (connection wasn't that great - I was using a landline, suspect she was on a cell).  She was casually trying to explain that to receive this package of info, I would need to pay a small, one-time handling fee of (I think it was) $2.49.  I presume her next sentence would have been to ask my permission to bill my Visa for this fee.  I cut her off and said, forcefully, "I absolutely do not authorize this charge against my credit card, and make no indication of whether or not you have the correct Visa account number".  She said, "oh, okay, thank you” and hung up.  No doubt I would have gotten an envelope full of paper-based fraud attempts, if I had gotten anything at all from them.  I wonder if the ultimate goal was simply to see how many people they could fleece for the $2.50 fee, relying on the belief that few, if any, would trouble themselves to contest or dispute the charge.  Far more likely was that she was fishing for the full Visa account number.  While she was giving me her speech, I was typing the number she called from into various websites dealing with phone scams that I have bookmarked but the call ended before I could find any useful data.  Area code 616 is upper Michigan (not overseas, which I expected).  I assess the likelihood this was a scam at 95% or higher, likely fishing for the leading twelve acct number digits.  Wish I had demanded that she give me my entire account number to ascertain how much of my data she had (without confirming that the last four she had were correct).  She likely would have been unable to give me all sixteen digits, and I could have challenged her right there and confirmed her as a scam, for how was he going to be able to charge my card for shipping if she didn't have the full account number?

I get calls from these people at least four times per day. The ringing time is shorter each time.When we call back the recording says the mailbox is full.

I received a few calls from them. Funny thing is, I gave snuggies my grand central number, which forwards to my cell phone number, just because I didn't really trust the snuggies company's business practices.  This is a number  that I rarely give out, so I have no doubt that this is due to my snuggies purchase.

The following is a transcription of a telephone call that took place on 03/08/08 at 10:36AM CDT.  The calling party?s phone number is (616) 980-2590.  The personal information has been replaced (first name, last name, last four of credit card number)

Google Grand Central Annoucement (played to both callers): Call Recording On

Me: Hello.  Hello?

Caller: Hello Mr. FIRST LAST

Me: Yes this is, yes.

Caller: Good Evening Sir, My name is Christine Miller and I?m calling with regard to your mastercard , okay?

Me: Oh, you?re from mastercard?

Caller: I?m sorry, I believe --- I?m calling with regards to your mastercard and the reason we?re calling you now is just to inform you that the record shows here that you?ve been using and keeping your mastercard for quite some time

Me: Mmm hmm.

Caller:  And as a simple way of thanking you for being a valued customer you will be receiving a free $50 worth of gas voucher and a discount card, okay?

Me: Okay.

Caller: Sir, your free $50 worth of gas voucher , you can use it in any major gasoline station of your choice, there is no expiration date and it is fully transferrable.  This is not a sales call, we are not selling this one to you, you are not going to buy this, that is only our humble way of saying thank you for using and keeping the card and for being a valued customer. Okay?

Me: I?m sorry you?re from mastercard though?

Caller: I?m sorry

Me: Hello?

Caller:  I?m sorry. (pause)  Yes.

Me: Oh okay.

Caller: Are you listening?

Me: Yes.

Caller: Like I told you sir, I?m calling from key benefits with regards to your mastercard.  I do believe that would be your debit card, bank card, or checking card, your existing card with the mastercard logo on the end with the last four digits ####.  Okay?

Me: Okay

Caller: So sir, your discount card will entitle you and your family up to 50% discount whenever you go shopping, dine outside, even your groceries.  You can use your discount card to your car, movie, hotel , airfare, appliances, and a lot more.  That is [indiscernible] for 30 days to maximize the use of it.  Okay?

Me: Okay

Caller: All the information that you?ve been read,  [indiscernible] number, and the complete listing of the retail stores where you are going to be able to get up to a 50% discount will be included inside the package for your own convenience.  

Me: You know I?m not?I?m not really interested in this actually, I don?t think.

Caller: I?m sorry?

Me: Do you need anything for me to do this?

Caller: I?m sorry, we?re not allowed to get any banking or credit card information from you because that is for the protection [indiscernible] of your card.  We only have the mastercard ends in ####, that is for the verification purposes.  And for the protection [indiscernible] on your card we are not allowed to get any type of any banking information from you, okay?

Me: Do you need anything from me to do this though?

Caller: What do you mean, need anything?

Me: Well, I mean, so, you guys are just going to send this to me then?

Caller: But sir I am explaining everything to you so you won?t get confused

Me: Okay, you know, I?m not interested, and you make it sound like

Caller: Okay not a problem if you don?t like?

Me: No no no, you call me up and you say you call me regarding my mastercard, thank you for being a great customer for such a long time, you?re not mastercard.  I called mastercard the other day after you guys called me, and they said, no, nobody called you. So who are you calling from, what company, you have to tell me what company you?re from.

Caller: Like I told you I?m calling from key benefits with regards to your mastercard.  The company name is key benefits. You made a purchase before through our marketing partners through infomercial or catalog.

Me: Right right.

Caller:  [indiscernible] with your credit card ending in ####.  Okay?

Me: Okay, yeah I?m not interested and please put me on your do not call list

Caller: Not a problem, bye.

Me: Thanks, Bye

UPDATE FROM EARLIER POST:  I contacted my bank (credit card issuer).  The initial human ?customer service rep? was, of course, utterly clueless and contributed nothing to the advancement of this issue.  I was trying to explain to her that my intent in calling was to explain what had occurred and to GIVE THEM THE DECISION as to whether or not to cancel my account and issue me a different number.  The only thing this initial CSR could do was launch into a long, high-pressure spiel about selling me a dubious credit monitoring service for $9.99/month, the benefits of which weren?t apparent, since she and I both acknowledged up front that I?m not liable for fraudulent charges against my account.  Finally I had to just cut her off and insist on speaking to someone in the fraud department.  I got transferred and of course, had to re-explain the whole thing from scratch.  The fraud person basically said that they were (generically?) aware of the Snuggie problem, but that since their computers continuously analyze all transactions throughout their system for suspicious activity and that my account showed no signs of suspicious/fraudulent activity, that it probably wasn?t worth the hassle of cancelling my card and getting a new one.  Moral of the story: if the credit card company is the party that gets stuck with 100% of the damages for fraudulent charges and they don?t care about taking steps to minimize their losses, then I don?t either.

Caller with unfamiliar voice from unfamiliar area code had my name correct, asked for me by name.  Called my at work, where my IDSN caller-ID shows only the number but no name for all calls.  Multiple voices in the background made it obvious this was coming from a call center (boiler room?).  Female voice in decent English but probably not her first language said she ?was calling in reference to my Visa card?.  I am an identity theft ultra-paranoid, very well-read on the topic and was immediately suspicious.  She said it was in reference to my Visa card that had the last four digits of (example) <1234>, which were correct.  She went on and on to say that "her records showed that I had been a valued Visa customer for a long time" and that as a show of appreciation for my years of continued business she wanted to "send me a package of information" that would "be of benefit" to me.  I broke in at one point and explicitly told her that I had no idea who she actually is and had no way to identify her authenticity with any confidence, and that I would give her no indication as to whether or not the four digits she recited to me were correct.  I think she was a little taken aback by this and probably realized she was not talking to a victim who would be easy to fleece.  I later asked her if she could tell me the name of my Visa card's issuing bank, and she sidestepped the question.  She droned on a bit more about my long-term customer status and eventually got to the hook: she wanted to "send" me (presumably by US Mail, never explicitly said) a package of information that I could examine that would be to my benefit, or some such tripe (connection wasn't that great - I was using a landline, suspect she was on a cell).  She was casually trying to explain that to receive this package of info, I would need to pay a small, one-time handling fee of (I think it was) $2.49.  I presume her next sentence would have been to ask my permission to bill my Visa for this fee.  I cut her off and said, forcefully, "I absolutely do not authorize this charge against my credit card, and make no indication of whether or not you have the correct Visa account number".  She said, "oh, okay, thank you? and hung up.  No doubt I would have gotten an envelope full of paper-based fraud attempts, if I had gotten anything at all from them.  I wonder if the ultimate goal was simply to see how many people they could fleece for the $2.50 fee, relying on the belief that few, if any, would trouble themselves to contest or dispute the charge.  Far more likely was that she was fishing for the full Visa account number.  While she was giving me her speech, I was typing the number she called from into various websites dealing with phone scams that I have bookmarked but the call ended before I could find any useful data.  Area code 616 is upper Michigan (not overseas, which I expected).  I assess the likelihood this was a scam at 95% or higher, likely fishing for the leading twelve acct number digits.  Wish I had demanded that she give me my entire account number to ascertain how much of my data she had (without confirming that the last four she had were correct).  She likely would have been unable to give me all sixteen digits, and I could have challenged her right there and confirmed her as a scam, for how was he going to be able to charge my card for shipping if she didn't have the full account number?