The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

If anybody phones me I always take the details and then find the phone number myself and then use a different phone to call the bank about an hour later... thus distancing myself from that call entirely.

It doesn't help when the bank/caller won't tell you why they have called until you confirm your identity - and you're saying you won't answer the questions until they tell you why they are calling so you can judge if it's a "real call" - you get in an impasse.

"We are from your bank, can you confirm your birthdate?"
"No, you tell me my birthdate if you are my bank"
"We can't do that until you prove you are the right person by telling us your birthdate"
"But you called me - so you know who you are calling and it's up to you to prove to me that you are the bank".

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

If anybody phones me I always take the details and then find the phone number myself and then use a different phone to call the bank about an hour later... thus distancing myself from that call entirely.

It doesn't help when the bank/caller won't tell you why they have called until you confirm your identity - and you're saying you won't answer the questions until they tell you why they are calling so you can judge if it's a "real call" - you get in an impasse.

"We are from your bank, can you confirm your birthdate?"
"No, you tell me my birthdate if you are my bank"
"We can't do that until you prove you are the right person by telling us your birthdate"
"But you called me - so you know who you are calling and it's up to you to prove to me that you are the bank".

Do they say which bank they are?

If they are phishing, they have something like a one-in-eight chance of being correct at the most.
Unless you have accounts with multiple banks.


Perhaps we should start giving banks passwords which they have to quote to us so we know they're genuine! :rotfl:

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

What's extremely worrying is how the fraudsters can hi-jack a bona fide number in this way.

It's dead easy -just the same way that legit companies use what are called Presentation Numbers. If, say, one of your Banks or Utility companies calls you and doesn't withhold the number, they will invariably show the Customer Services number, even though the number of the person actually calling is not that.

All the scammers need is a dialler which gives a presentation number, and they can set that to whatever they like. It's often used by outfits in the Asian sub-continent (often claiming to be Microsoft) who use it to present a UK number to get around people who've blocked or ignore incoming international calls.

[You should ring the bank yourself, preferably from another phone, on the number given to you by the bank itself.

If you can't use another phone, presumably you could clear the incoming call numbers from your phone first, and/or make another call first, to anyone, so that you aren't still connected to the fraudsters' line.

Or wait a few minutes - the method of which the scammers have been taking advantage to "hold" the line is being stopped or, at least, the timeout is being reduced.
It was originally put in place to allow someone to physically transfer their phone to another socket without dropping an incoming call. Since scammers have started taking advantage of this, BT is cutting the time after which the call will be automatically dropped. I assume that other providers are or will be doing likewise.

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

It doesn't help when the bank/caller won't tell you why they have called until you confirm your identity - and you're saying you won't answer the questions until they tell you why they are calling so you can judge if it's a "real call" - you get in an impasse.

"We are from your bank, can you confirm your birthdate?"
"No, you tell me my birthdate if you are my bank"
"We can't do that until you prove you are the right person by telling us your birthdate"
"But you called me - so you know who you are calling and it's up to you to prove to me that you are the bank".

The problem is that all they know is that they called the number that they have on record for one of their customers - they don't know if the right person has answered the call.

I had a worrying weekend many years ago -got a letter in the Saturday post asking me to call my credit card company's Fraud Department because they'd been trying to call me but never got an answer. So I did, immediately, to find that the Fraud Department wasn't open over the weekend.

So I was left over the weekend trying to think what the hell I'd done wrong. When I called on Monday it was (after the security checks);
"Are you aware of a recent transaction on your card to a company in the United States?"
"Do you mean one for $32.45?"
"Yes, that's the one. Good, you are aware of it."
"Oh yes, no problem about that one. Er, I have an answering machine, surely instead of writing you could have left a message on that instead of me sweating all weekend over what I might have done wrong."
"Sorry about that sir, but we can't leave messages on answering machines because for all we know the premises could have been compromised as well as the credit card."

It's a fair point, I guess.

Pyxis

So, they have security questions to ask us, which is quite right, so they could ask us those, and then we could ask them a security question (which we would have to have set up with them previously) like a sort of password, which only the bank would know.

Then they'd be protected, but we'd be protected as well!


Or we could ask them "What's the 3rd number of my bank's sort code and what are the 2nd and 5th numbers of my current account?"

SingleSue

And we are off! Dropping Joe off at uni weekend......

ivyleaf

Thinking of you both Sue, I hope all goes well

Pyxis

SingleSue wrote: »

And we are off! Dropping Joe off at uni weekend......

Good luck Sue!

Hope you have plenty of hankies!

Pyxis

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

Why have you posted an animated GIF of Donald Trump's hair?
:rotfl: