Fraud Prevention Calls

WavertreeRed

Woken this morning by an automated call from Santander's Fraud Unit on my mobile. Expected to have to interact as has been the case with other banks. However they went straight to a call back number which I did not catch. On calling customer services I was given another number which it turned out was only open business hours (the call was 07:30 Saturday). After trawling BT phonebook and Santander Cards on-line finally got another customer services number where, despite the Fraud Department being closed, the agent took the trouble to dig down went through the list of transactions and cleared the Fraud query.

OK, I appreciate the need for this. But:

1. Why does the Fraud Department call on an anonymous line rather than one that can be called back immediately? There must be many cases where people travelling find a line drops in the middle of this kind of incoming, unexpected call.
2. Why can they not adopt good practice and REPEAT the call back number to allow people to get pen & paper (and wake up fully in this case!). I asked the agent to escalate this suggestion.
3. Why is a Fraud Department not providing 24/7 service?
4. Why can't they also text or e-mail if these methods are available from the account holder?
5. In this case the maximum transaction of 8 or so, spread over a 10 day period was under £70.00. The only unusual thing was the recipient's name (a Clearing House for National Rail). Hardly a pattern that suggests high risk! So why the urgency? Yes, I want my money protected but I do not want to be woken up at 7.30 on a Saturday because of an internet transaction 9 hours before through a nationally known site. Don't they use whitelists and floor limits?
6. This is the Bank that has so far taken 10 days to get to me the credentials for internet access to the account and I still have only 1 of the 3 items: could be waiting up to another 10 days according to a telephone agent yesterday. Customer service is atrocious: heads would have rolled if I'd been responsible for this Department (and I have run large call centres)

soul619

because they are trying to protect you

iereboy

Jeez- wavertreered- your post is laughable!

Be realistic!

Xbigman

As someone who works nights I sympathise totally. Muppets phone and wake me up regularly and expect me to have all sorts of information in bed with me so I can arrange delivery of sofa's, pick up parcels or note down dates / times / phone numbers. Automated calls that say ring this number but are anonymous are really annoying.

One thing. Good on Santander for bothering to call. Tesco just stop your card from working and tough on you.
Regards



X


PS If anyone can tell me how using my Tesco credit card to do my weekly shop in the same Tesco store I've shopped in for 16 years can be suspicious, I'd love to hear from you.

Nick_C

At least they had the sense to call you on your mobile. Halifax called me a few years ago to clear some transactions on my credit card that occurred in Istanbul - but they called me on my land line! In those days, I used to divert my landline to my mobile, so luckily I got the call and my account wasn't frozen.

Withheld numbers are annoying though - personally, I never answer them.

lytefantastic

I just got an early call from Santander fraud prevention at 8am and could not catch the number either. Here it is: 0845 401 9114. I had to get it off Santander customer services on the back of my bank card: 0845 607 0666.

They also gave me this number, 0845 356 0024 which I did not have to use.

The first number above took me straight into the automated system where questions were asked to establish my identity.

What was all the fuss about? I had written a cheque to my local garage for a repair bill. I had done the same in December - twice.

Whilst I am glad that they are minding my interests, they are also idiots.

Number gabbled at me before I can jot it down and about an entirely unsuspicious transaction.

Bah! :mad:

Bob_the_Saver

Don't forget if you'd been abroad and paying roaming charges on a mobile
to receive this call you might have had to fork out several pounds to take
it of face a blocked payment, would one be quite so glad then.

Wyndham

Surely call back is good? I'm rather fed up of banks phoning me and saying that the first thing they want to do is to run through some security details - hang on, you rang me and could be anyone! And if they gave me a number to ring back on, I still wouldn't trust it, I'd always use the one on the back of my card.

UnconsciouS

I have just received two calls; one on the land line and one on the mobile from the "Fraud Prevention Department" of my bank, after making a perfectly routine purchase - being an annual insurance charge from the same company as usual.

I have declined to have any contact with them, because at the moment I regard these calls as psychological attempts to make me feel that they are 'looking after me' and careful with my money - when in fact, the reverse it true.

The banks are without doubt, wholly dishonest organisations who have frequently obtained money from me and millions of other citizens through trickery and deception. In the case of my particular bank, it is nothing short of miraculous that their former boss has still not been arrested, had his assets seized and been placed in chains - to remain there until he passes away.

There is only one criminal outfit who have been regularly stealing from my account, and that is the bank itself!

They have lied and cheated over everything from charges, shares, bonds, and equities. They have tricked money out of me and most of my friends - yet here they are on the phone trying to demonstrate how good they are at policing matters - showing me they care!

In fact, if due to their useless systems somebody cheats THEM, by taking money out of MY account, then that is their problem - as I have been careful with MY security so they will owe me, not the other way round.

There are only two reasons for the bank pestering me now - a) it's a PR stunt; b) they are trying to protect THEIR money (which well may be mine anyways as we apparently own half these banks).

Either way - I don't care. I’d rather have peace in my home and my privacy respected, and if that means I have to take my money OUT of the bank to get rid of their irritating presence - then so be it! I simply loathe these spot check calls which seem reasonable in concept, yet feel invasive - particularly as those behind these calls are the most dreadful predators of the worst kind. No amount of small time bank fraud will ever equal the gigantic sums of money they have plundered from me over my entire working life.

chattychappy

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

Don't forget if you'd been abroad and paying roaming charges on a mobile
to receive this call you might have had to fork out several pounds to take
it of face a blocked payment, would one be quite so glad then.

Yep.. tell me about it. And woken up to boot cos you're in a different time zone. Well... anyway I changed the number Santander have to a London number I got from Skype. If I'm at my PC the call gets answered else ignored. I vaguely recall you can opt out of these automated calls in which case they just send a letter and block.

As far as I'm concerned, they can (and do) just block it if they are worried. That's fine by me. I have backups. As someone who spends months overseas, I've often dished out this advice. You can't just expect these cards to work flawlessly whilst overseas and so-called fraud prevention systems seem rather random and illogical to me. You never know when you will be caught out.

Eg: Cash on Santander from an HSBC ATM at Saigon's domestic terminal. Card blocked. Call them up - all verified. All OK. Use the same card in the same ATM, blocked again.

Ditto an electrical store in Taipei. Blocked. Unblocked. Return later. Blocked again. (Other local shops - even ones I've not been to before are OK.)

They seem to go through phases of being very sensitive (gets blocked multiple times in a week) to "anything goes" (roaming around Asia, no probs).

They always tell you it is an unusual spending pattern. But mine is very predictable - usually the same places. Same hotels, shops, airline offices, ATMs etc. Sounds like dodgy programming to me.

No point discussing it with the phone ops or making a ballyhoo about it. Looks like they are all adopting the same systems.

CASHCOWS

This number appears to be a genuine security call from Santander. I received a call on my mobile early this morning and chose to ignore it - but checked it out on this web page. After reading other people's comments, I worked out that it was probably because I had written a large amount cheque as part payment for a new kitchen. I haven't used cheques for years, preferring card payment, and my cheque book was from 2009! They called again half-an-hour later, and after following the recorded security directives, they were confirming that it WAS me who had written the cheque, they quoted the correct cheque number and the exact same amount. So Well Done Santander! You ARE keeping an eye on my account and any unusual activity!