Personal data security and overseas callcentres

Asgard

I've recently been plagued by daily phone calls from India purporting to be from Alliance and Leicester. They ask for my "security details" before they will tell me what the call is about.Needless to say I refuse to give any details until they tell me what it's about. Getting sick of this and will be abusive very soon :-).

I've written to A&L telling them about this and informing them that I won't take phone calls from overseas call centres and they must contact me in writing about anything to do with my accounts.

If we all did this they'd soon stop using overseas CCs.

Regards,

Adrian

Fruitcake

It's not just overseas call centres either. I've had one of these calls from my UK based credit card company, as well as two from Sky. They seem suprised and get quite shirty when I refuse to answer their security questions even when I point out that I have no way of knowing who they really are. One of them even tried to give me a 'phone number to call them back, an 0870 number would you believe.

Fruitcake

You Only Listen To Me When I'm Wrong

aj3001

I had a call from HSBC from a UK call centre, after being asked for my security details I explained that the woman called me and therefore I would not disclose my security details, at which point she completly understood and asked me to call HSBC using the telephone number I would normally use

Astaroth

Asgard wrote:

I've written to A&L telling them about this and informing them that I won't take phone calls from overseas call centres and they must contact me in writing about anything to do with my accounts.

Ok... so A&L receive a credit card payment request for £5,000 you want them to write to you and ask if it is you that authorised the transaction or not?

Whilst they are waiting the few days for a response should they authorise it in case it is you needing to fly to another country on an emergency because your partner/ child/ parent has been involved in an accident or should they decline it because it may be a fraudster and they dont want to leave you with no money at all and once a payment is accepted it is slower to reverse than declining it in the first place?

Even if a company phones you they have no idea if the person who sounds male/ female/ other is actually the person named on the account... would you want your cleaner to be able to authorise transactions from your account because they sound the same gendre and happen to be in when they call?

It is however perfectly reasonable to ask for their department/ extension and then call the company back on your normal number and be asked to be put through to the department/ extension they gave you.

needaspirin

I would never call any of these people back. Instead I would call the number on my statement. This guarantees that you are dealing with the right people.

Astaroth

Thats what i said... call back on normal number and then be asked to be put through to their department/ extention