Nationwide telephone scam

bloodnok

My daughter had a phone call early yesterday morning( 8.15am) saying that there had been unusual activity in her account and would she give them her bank details, date of birth & password etc.
Luckily she had heeded our warnings never to divulge any of these over the phone and said she'd call into her branch and ask what the problem was.
She dialled 1471 and it was a Freephone number 0800 281801.
She dialled it and a womans recorded voice said something like "Nationwide called you earlier and will call you again later".
She told them what had happened at Nationwide and they said that there was no problem with her account and that nobody would have called her that early in the morning anyway.
She told them the Freephone number and they seemed totally disinterested and said she could report to their fraud department if she wanted to.
Surely the Freephone number has to be bought and paid for and having a recorded message pretending to be a genuine call from Nationwide would be reasonably easy to trace............Not like an internet scam !
If this is still going on it could easily catch some unsuspecting person.....Young new bank users like my daughter or the older ones who are not internet users and not used to the continual scams we computer users have to suffer.
Has anyone else heard of this one ?
PERHAPS SOMEONE FROM NATIONWIDE WOULD CARE TO COMMENT ON THEIR LACK OF INTEREST !!!



MSE Update 4 Oct 2011:

Nationwide has confirmed that 0800 281801 is a genuine number from it and the call was from Nationwide.

ManAtHome

Sounds well dodgy - yes, 0800 numbers should be easily traceable (by Nationwide, police etc). Unfortunately NW seem to be too busy pi$$ing off their customers than to break sweat "walking the walk" - as with many things these days, they seem more interested in spin than substance.

You could always try emailing the Met fraud peeps (links at th bottom of the page) http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/resources.htm

marleyboy

thats outrageous, especially considering Nationwide werent interested. It would be equivelant to somebody impersonating you to try and get credit in your name, only for a credit company checking up with you for clarification to be told by you that your too busy cooking tea at the moment.

Im glad your daughters, "inner sence" kicked in, good on her and good on you for warning others on this forum.

ffym

I'm assuming there must be a way to spoof telephone numbers as the one you quote seems to be a genuine Nationwide number, see: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=571449&highlight=0800+281801
This could account for Nationwide's indifference (but not excuse it) as they may know that their number is being hijacked.

codger

bloodnok wrote: »

She told them what had happened at Nationwide and they said that there was no problem with her account and that nobody would have called her that early in the morning anyway.
She told them the Freephone number and they seemed totally disinterested and said she could report to their fraud department if she wanted to.
Surely the Freephone number has to be bought and paid for and having a recorded message pretending to be a genuine call from Nationwide would be reasonably easy to trace............Not like an internet scam !

OP:

Nationwide merits a large, fast and very painful kick up its fat corporate posterior. You need to (if you so wish, that is):

1) Telephone your daughter's branch and ask for the name of the manager. If they ask why you want to know, say it's to do with Rotary International, some correspondence you need to forward on. Of course, given that branch's inertia / indifference, they probably wouldn't demur if you southt the manager's home address. . .

2) Your daughter is the account holder and you as a third party are only going to invite Nationwide to blather on about Data Protection if you now approach it yourself.

3) Instead, your daughter needs to write by Special Delivery (costs around £3.50p, I think) to the Branch Manager, saying she and her parents are appalled at the experience they have had of Nationwide's apparent lack of care / indifference to an obvious attempted fraud -- one which could very well be being directed at other Nationwide customers, too.

4) The letter should state that she requires the name of the Regional Manager as she has no confidence that something as serious as this can be resolved at branch level.

5) The letter should also say -- and this is very important -- that she is not prepared to accept any telephone calls from Nationwide about this matter for the obvious reason that she now has justifiable grounds for suspicion where Nationwide phone contact is concerned. Accordingly, she will expect the information she seeks to be furnished in writing within 10 working days of receipt of her letter.

It's likely that Nationwide has employed yet another moron in much the same way that so many financial institutions do nowadays. However, this particular moron can't be excused.

bloodnok

ffym wrote: »

I'm assuming there must be a way to spoof telephone numbers as the one you quote seems to be a genuine Nationwide number, see: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=571449&highlight=0800+281801
This could account for Nationwide's indifference (but not excuse it) as they may know that their number is being hijacked.

---

Thanks for this, if the number that rang is genuine as your quote says, I'm going in to the local branch with my daughter tomorrow to try to get to the bottom of this,
Cheers

darwin-rover

I would hazard a guess and says its a genuine call . Could be that there has been a big purchase or a few purchases from the same place recently and its been red flagged .

Butlers1982

Nationwide merits a large, fast and very painful kick up its fat corporate posterior. You need to (if you so wish, that is):

1) Telephone your daughter's branch and ask for the name of the manager. If they ask why you want to know, say it's to do with Rotary International, some correspondence you need to forward on. Of course, given that branch's inertia / indifference, they probably wouldn't demur if you southt the manager's home address. . .

2) Your daughter is the account holder and you as a third party are only going to invite Nationwide to blather on about Data Protection if you now approach it yourself.

3) Instead, your daughter needs to write by Special Delivery (costs around £3.50p, I think) to the Branch Manager, saying she and her parents are appalled at the experience they have had of Nationwide's apparent lack of care / indifference to an obvious attempted fraud -- one which could very well be being directed at other Nationwide customers, too.

4) The letter should state that she requires the name of the Regional Manager as she has no confidence that something as serious as this can be resolved at branch level.

5) The letter should also say -- and this is very important -- that she is not prepared to accept any telephone calls from Nationwide about this matter for the obvious reason that she now has justifiable grounds for suspicion where Nationwide phone contact is concerned. Accordingly, she will expect the information she seeks to be furnished in writing within 10 working days of receipt of her letter.

It's likely that Nationwide has employed yet another moron in much the same way that so many financial institutions do nowadays. However, this particular moron can't be excused.

Think youve gone a bit too far, what are you hoping to achieve by doing this?

Sounds to me like Nationwide have "hurt" you in the past with your comments on them being morons? or maybe your an ex-employee?

OP:

Just go in to your branch and ask for an explanation. Simple.

codger

Butlers1982 wrote: »

Think youve gone a bit too far, what are you hoping to achieve by doing this?

Sounds to me like Nationwide have "hurt" you in the past with your comments on them being morons? or maybe your an ex-employee?

OP:

Just go in to your branch and ask for an explanation. Simple.

Possibly you missed the twin points of concern raised by the OP: (1) the nature of the telephone call; (2) the seeming indifference to the customer's enquiry regarding that call.

I have no idea if a visit to the branch would elicit an explanation for (1).

But I can guess that (2) might well be, and thus the matter kept, and closed, at branch level.


If that's how you think a financial institution should run its business, where issues of confidence that might potentially affect customers of every branch are allowed to be swept up and dusted away by just one branch, then you can clearly afford an indulgent charitability that others cannot.

andyrules

darwin-rover wrote: »

I would hazard a guess and says its a genuine call . Could be that there has been a big purchase or a few purchases from the same place recently and its been red flagged .

The op said that NW confirmed there was nothing wrong with her account - further that they would not call that early.

I agree with the op - there could be the potential to crack down on more scamsters if only someone would show an interest!

wadewade

Please see my recent post on the Savings forum - different scenario but still claiming to be Nationwide. Are they just hopeless at security?