Telephone Scams: A Personal Account

I got a phone call a few months ago from a woman who said she was with a company (whose name I forget). She was originally calling for a friend of mine (he had been using my phone as his own the summer before so had given out my number) but when I told her that he no longer used my phone, she said that I was also eligible for the special offer she was originally going to make to him. She then said that as a promotional event, the company could send me some information in the mail, such as catalogues and various other mail order sales stuff. She said that I was under no obligation to buy anything, and that by simply giving them my address and looking through the things that they were sending me, the company would give me $500 (or some such amount) worth of gas and an additional amount in airplane vouchers. 

Just in case it seemed too good to be true, she went on to explain it (before I even began to ask questions). She said that their hope was that I would buy items from this company's catalogues or recommend them to those around me, which was why they were willing to give me the "freebies." She then proceeded to ask me for my checking account information. She told me that this was simply to verify the fact that I had an active checking account because if I did not, I would not be able to purchase their products. 

I became a little nervous about that and began to ask her questions. At this point we had been on the phone for at least fifteen minutes and I could tell that she was starting to get impatient with me. Still, I was worried and asked her how she knew my friend (who she had asked for by name), and if the company had a website. She told me that my friend had done some work with them in the past (she was vague about what kind of work but she mentioned recommending products). She then gave me a website address, simply the company's name.net, and then continued asking for my name, address, account information, etc.