I’m trying to figure out if I was scammed and if anyone else has experienced something similar with CenturyLink payments.
I received a text message claiming to be from CenturyLink with a phone number to call to make my payment. I called the number and stayed on the phone with the woman for about 43 minutes. During the call she made small talk with me, acted very casual, and even mentioned that she works from home, which made the interaction feel more believable and legitimate.
She asked me to verbally provide my routing and account number for payment. A real $54 CenturyLink payment was actually processed, so at first I thought everything was fine.
Shortly afterward, however, two additional ACH withdrawals totaling $732.05 were taken from my account without my authorization.
What makes this even stranger is that my bank told me the ACH withdrawals were made under MY name and appeared to be payments toward a loan or credit card debt. The problem is I do not have any loans or credit card debt at all.
This is also a fairly new bank account. The only entities that should have had my account and routing number were Social Security for SSI deposits and CenturyLink after I had just provided the information during that call.
When I later contacted CenturyLink directly, they told me:
- Their representatives are not supposed to verbally collect routing/account numbers over the phone.
- They normally use a system called BRIM to securely collect payment information instead.
- Legitimate payments are usually handled through secure links/processes, not by verbally reading bank info aloud.
My bank also told me the unauthorized withdrawals were coded as “WEB” ACH transactions and referenced “BRIM PAYMENT.”
At this point I’m trying to understand:
- Does this sound like a fake/imposter CenturyLink representative?
- Could someone have processed the legitimate $54 payment first to gain my trust before initiating the larger withdrawals?
- Has anyone else experienced ACH debits being made in their own name like this?
I’ve already filed a fraud dispute with my bank and contacted CenturyLink directly. Just looking for feedback or insight from anyone familiar with scams or ACH fraud.