My ICICI card just got hit with international fraud last night
I was in the middle of a late Teams meeting last night around 9:40 PM when my phone starts buzzing. Usually, I ignore any random number, but I noticed the caller ID started with 160. I paused my meeting and picked it up, best decision ever.
It was an automated ICICI fraud alert asking if I just spent $99.99 at Blizzard Entertainment. Obviously, I hadn't. It gave me the option to press a number on my keypad to block the card immediately, so I did.
Literally two minutes later, I got a notification that they tried to hit my card again for $149.99. Because I took that call and froze the card right then and there, the second charge blocked completely, and the bank is already refunding the first one.
If you see a 160 number calling you late at night, don't ignore it thinking it's spam. The fraud bots don't care what timezone you're in, and taking that call completely saved my account. Safe to say I'm keeping international transactions turned off in my iMobile app from now on.
