Bank cashiers snooping in accounts

marywooyeah

I'd definitely report it, the way this person is almost bragging about it is worthy of reporting them in itself.

tagq2

chambta wrote: »

Quite.

In the vast majority of cases it'd be quite plausible to explain it as being for a valid business reason.

So an extra keypress to give the reason for any lookup before the data is returned? With invalid options, e.g. "marketing" when someone's opted out, being rejected.

meer53

Where i work you can only view a customers account if you have a valid business reason to do so. I'd be in serious trouble if i looked at any accounts without a good reason. Gross misconduct. If you are happy for this person to possibly lose their job, then go ahead, report them. If not, i'd let them know what you discovered and that you will report them if they don't stop. Problem with that is, they'll still do it, just won't make any more comments about it.

JuicyJesus

tagq2 wrote: »

So an extra keypress to give the reason for any lookup before the data is returned? With invalid options, e.g. "marketing" when someone's opted out, being rejected.

Wouldn't stop anyone lying, and would most likely just complicate the jobs of those who have a valid reason to access the information.

Far simpler to just keep lots of audit trails, have someone keep a close eye on them and punish staff who break the DPA.

tagq2

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Wouldn't stop anyone lying, and would most likely just complicate the jobs of those who have a valid reason to access the information.

It isn't unreasonable for people accessing sensitive information to record the reason for doing so: it allows invalid reasons to be rejected immediately, and behaviour to be studied and easy correlation with other records (CCTV/phone/prior consent) if any allegation is made. There's also a psychological and legal gap between merely casually acccessing against procedure and having to make a false declaration to do so.

But I realise that a lot of bank customer service work involves a huge amount of trust and wouldn't want to push anything which makes staff feel thought of as untrustworthy or too closely watched. When I was writing accounting software it was absurd the amount of customer data I had access to for testing purposes without really having to document much. If any data had been mislaid/stolen, goodness knows what the investigation experience would have been like for the workers.

Far simpler to just keep lots of audit trails, have someone keep a close eye on them and punish staff who break the DPA.

This also.

chambta

tagq2 wrote: »

So an extra keypress to give the reason for any lookup before the data is returned? With invalid options, e.g. "marketing" when someone's opted out, being rejected.

The systems I use certainly have no such options.

pcyam

Normally not allowed to look unless there is a business need, but also regardless there is a business need or not, they should not be allowed to transaction (or view) friends and families accounts.

But generally if they know your account number or personal details (name,post code, dob, address) they can probably search for you like any company that holds your details, bank or no bank

brightonman123

where I once worked, it was almost a joke the number of people that were having a peek at certain celeb a/cs, to see what they were up to..

someone must have complained, or a level of viewings triggered, as ALL staff got a terse memo round warning against such action.. unless you were dealing directly with said celeb..


To the OP- I am not sure what would cover this, could do a FOI or a DPA request, for info on whoever has accessed your account-

- write to branch manager (or relevant dept), with your concerns that ID maybe compromised etc..

shackalak

You're not allowed to access or transact on your own accounts (basically do anything that a customer isn't able to do on their own account) or view/access/transact on any accounts belonging to friends and family members.

Staff are generally encouraged to look for genuine business opportunities from recent customer transactions and you can just search for a customer from names and dates of birth, but you can't just go snooping into someones account just for the sake of it. There will be a 'footprint' on file of who accessed your account and when.

I'm not sure about Barclays but i'm sure most banks will have similar guidelines.

I think staff have to sign a confidentiallity agreement as part of their contract so if someone is accessing your account without good reason and talking about it to others, this is wrong and it does need reporting. As others have said, I would have a word with this person to try and get some answers and then possibly show them this thread.

Brodiebobs

the bank will take it very seriously if you do report it.

My friends mum was going through a nasty divorce, the man she was divorcing happened to bank where my friend worked. He walked in asked to speak to manager about a staff member commiting fraud on his account, was ushered into a small room and an hour later my friend was suspended on suspicion of gross misconduct.

She had never looked into his account, she didnt even know he banked there, but it took 3 months of investigations to clear her name. She is still on medication for the stress it caused, and opted for a down grade in her role as she felt that her collegues would never trust her again. I understand every accusation has to be investgated but i'd be very sure before you go in all guns blazing.