Nationwide telephone scam

darwin-rover

andyrules wrote: »

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!

I never said there was anything wrong with her account .
I once made 3 purchases in Tesco in a short space of time (about half an hour) and my bank , HSBC , phoned me up a few hours later asking me if my card was still in my possession as there had been 3 Switch transactions from the same place in a short space of time .
I cant imagine someone going to the hassle of spoofing an 0800 number , claiming to be from Nationwide and hoping the person they phone has a NW account , when internet fraud is so rife and apparently ridiculously easy for a criminal gang .

MarkyMarkD

It's pretty obvious to me, frankly, that this was NOT a fraudulent call but a genuine fraud call from Nationwide.

What's gone wrong here is that, rather than resolving the issue with the fraud department, the OP has tried asking the branch to resolve it. They won't necessarily have details of attempted fraud which are held centrally. They have just told her some tosh to get her out of their hair.

Bet you £1,000,000 that the fraud department call back AGAIN as the recorded message advised.

We seem to be 5 days beyond the original post - presumably that call back from Nationwide has already occurred. An update on the original rant might be appropriate!

Heinz

wadewade wrote: »

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

It seems so.

I hear they're trained by HMRC!

bloodnok

Unfortunately, my broadband died not long after I posted, so I have only just seen some of the replies.......So thanks for your input.
After reading Ffyms comment and link , saying that the number was a genuine Nationwide freephone number, I can only assume that it is !
If you ring it, the message is still there, but according to the local branch, they don't recognise the number.
I went in with my daughter and this time we were told that there was a problem.
Virgin media ( Whom my daughter and four others subscribe to for broadband, TV and phone at their Uni digs ) had taken out multiple direct debits ( Computer error on Virgins part ! ) instead of a single payment and taken her over her agreed overdraught limit........but at the same time, having paid two of them, refused to pay the next two (There were four from Virgin at the same time) and charged her something like £20 for going over her overdraught limit.......... and £30 twice, for unpaid items due to insufficient funds ..............Plus interest at 24.9%.
I'm afraid the attitude at Nationwide was very unhelpful. They just pay out what they're asked to do and if you don't like it lump it or words to that effect.
They virtually gave the impression that students will be students and have no real grasp of finances, and they hear this kind of thing every day.
Those students may have pretty good jobs in years to come and become excellent customers in the future...........I don't think my daughter will be a Nationwide customer for very much longer.
When the Virgin mistake is sorted, she will be closing her account.
Going back to the original call.........As important as it was, (8.12am according the the caller display ) The local branch were still saying that she wouldn't have had a call from them so early...............She hasn't received another call from them as promised either !
Going back to my original comment of "Scam", I probably shouldn't have called it "Scam" without further investigating........But at that point, that's what it appeared to be........Sorry about that.
This would appear to be an easy way to rip people though......... I don't know how easy it is to get an 0800 number, but I would think it would be reasonably easy.
Get an 0800 number that is only answered by a nice official sounding person saying " XYZ Bank called you today and will call you back again later "
Use that number to dial as many people as you can with "There has been some unusual account activity etc" and can we sort it out, just give us your details to verify who you are etc"
If they decline, tell them, "No problem, you can ring US if you wish, it's even a Freephone call. So the person rings back feeling confident now, as they're doing the ringing and they're worried that there is something with their account.
You've got your caller display showing the number you've just phoned, ringing you back.
Bank details Madam..........Thank you very much............Everything seems to be in order etc........Don't worry it's all sorted.............Clear out account !!!!
Am I paranoid or what ?..................I get e-mail scams all the time as I'm sure most of you do, and we've been told what to look for every day by people like the ones who use this forum. But my 86 year old Mum, who's never used a computer in her life could well be duped this way as she is very trusting. ( [EMAIL="I@ve"]I've[/EMAIL] told her all about not giving any details over the phone, so I don't think she would now ) but I'm sure a certain percentage would divulge their info with a scam like this.
Do it for a given amount of time and scarper !!
I've waffled on too long now, so I look forward to hearing from anyone who thinks I might have a point or not.
Thanks for all your comments

MarkyMarkD

The point in your chain of logic which is wrong is that, if you are worried about the genuine nature of a call from anyone claiming to be anyone, you should NEVER phone them back on a number they provide.

You should just contact your bank/whoever on the normal contact number you use.

And then, if necessary, ask to be put through to the fraud department or whatever.

Your problem arose through asking branch staff to explain things on a non-branch related issue and with many banks/building societies they won't have a clue.

missile

bloodnok wrote: »

My daughter had a phone call early yesterday morning( 8.15am) ............

You can change the options on your Nationwide account to no calls / e mails / letters from Nationwide and or their partners.

uktim29

codger wrote: »

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.

Codger he's right, your initial response is completely over the top. Your just trying to over dramatize the situation, your just assuming that it wouldn't be properly dealt with at branch level without actually knowing. Your also expressing the situation in a completely exaggerated way. Your response is like tabloid journalism.

KeithP

bloodnok wrote: »

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.

So the OP says that password info was requested.
Are you sure OP?
I too think that this was a genuine call from Nationwide and you latest post indicates that there really is/was a problem.

But to ask for a password

MarkyMarkD

When any bank contacts a customer to deal with a fraud issue, you would expect them to go through the usual phone banking security routine to ensure they have actually got hold of the customer, not their nosey teenage son or daughter, cleaning lady, or whatever.

That shouldn't involve asking for an entire password, unless the institution involved has particularly lax phone banking security across the board.

But it might easily involve asking for particular letters from a password.

I've posted before, and I'll post again. There is a security issue with this which affects all institutions (as far as I know). What the banks should ask you to set up, when you open your account, is a piece of information they MUST give you so that you know that THEY are genuinely from your bank, before they go on to demand security information from you.

But for some reason, none of the banks (as far as I know) offer this sort of security arrangement.

superscaper

KeithP wrote: »

So the OP says that password info was requested.
Are you sure OP?
I too think that this was a genuine call from Nationwide and you latest post indicates that there really is/was a problem.

But to ask for a password

I've got a verbal password (ie not the same thing as an online password) for both my bank and my credit card company. Doesn't sound unusual to me to ask for a password. Both my bank (RBS) and credit card company (MBNA) usually ask for my password when verifying who I am.