banking stupidity

Occasionally, my debit card gets flagged by my bank's security/card loss department. They'll intentionally deny a transaction, and will call me to ask me to verify transactions. Usually, it's not a bad thing. In prior experiences, calling back simply transfers me into an automated system that, recognizing my phone number, asks me to confirm the phone number, then pulls up my account. It then asks me to verify several transactions, and after doing that, my card works again, without an issue.

Today, I attempted to make a purchase online, and the transaction was denied. A few minutes later, I receive a phone call. The voice mail message asks me to return the call. Figuring that it's the same old situation, I call. This time, a live person answers, and asks me to provide them with my card number. Um, no! Does that sound like a scam to anyone else? So, I call the main banking number, and they connect me to someone in their card loss department. They verify transactions, and tell me that they'll reset my card. A few minutes later, I try the same transaction again, and once again, it's declined.

I called the bank again, and finally talked to someone who "removed the block" on my card, so I'm now trying this transaction a third time. It did go through now, so apparently, they did handle it. I do think I'm sending a semi-nastygram to the bank, pointing out the stupidity of asking for card numbers on the phone.