UK gov national shielding service phonecall

comeandgo

It's your national insurance number they ask for not your national health number and I do know my NI number, doesn't everyone?

calcotti

comeandgo said:

It's your national insurance number they ask for not your national health number and I do know my NI number, doesn't everyone?

As the call is on behalf of the NHS I would be surprised if they ask for an NI number as medical records, to the best of my knowledge, do not include these.

p00hsticks

comeandgo said:

It's your national insurance number they ask for not your national health number and I do know my NI number, doesn't everyone?

No - they are quite specific that they WON'T ask for your NI number, only your NHS number.

Form my previous post quoting the NHS link I gave;

They will never ask you for information like your National Insurance number or bank details.

EmmaG04

p00hsticks said:

Yes, it's legit - see Q7 in the advice for people shielding here

Q7: I have had a telephone call from somebody claiming to be from the National Shielding Helpline. How do I know this is not a scam?

A7: While you are at home ‘shielding’ a government support service may contact you by letter, email or telephone. This team is contacting you to understand your food and wellbeing support needs and will always identify themselves with their name and as a representative of the National Shielding Helpline.To give you confidence, the phone number they’re calling from will register on your phone as 0333 3050466.It is not a live telephone line, but if you call it you will get the following recorded message: “You were called today by the Shielding Helpline, sorry that we missed you, there is no need to call us back as we will try again soon. Thank you goodbye”.Early on in the call agents from this service will ask you to confirm some details, for example your name and NHS number, to make sure they are speaking to the right person.They will never ask you for information like your National Insurance number or bank details.Your local council may also be in touch.

Thank you. My official letter had some pages missing, must have been a printing error. So I was wary when this number rang.

They didn't ask me for me for my NHS number, just wanted to me to confirm my Name, Date of Birth, Address and my illness.

peterhjohnson

Be aware that while the phone number the OP mentions is a real number for the Shielding Helpline, it is trivially easy for a scammer to call you apparently from that number. I've had a silent call from that number which is odd. If they call back, I will be checking them out most carefully. Can they tell me my middle name? The name of my GP? Some prescription detail? 

I'm sure someone will be along soon to say that they had a genuine call from this number. Even if that is true, the call you take might not be. It really is very easy to fake!

Callyb69

Received a call from this number today, was silent for a long time. Eventually after many "Hello's" the person on the other end mumbled something, when asked to repeat what they said, they put the phone down. No call since. A bit suspicious if you ask me and if genuine, then truly rude! 

Fallstar

peterhjohnson said:

Be aware that while the phone number the OP mentions is a real number for the Shielding Helpline, it is trivially easy for a scammer to call you apparently from that number. I've had a silent call from that number which is odd. If they call back, I will be checking them out most carefully. Can they tell me my middle name? The name of my GP? Some prescription detail? 

I'm sure someone will be along soon to say that they had a genuine call from this number. Even if that is true, the call you take might not be. It really is very easy to fake!

I work in a major UK call center and I am currently assigned to this service. The only information we have on those we call is first and surname, DOB, contact number, NHS number and Home address. This is because we do not need any further information in order to do our job and in compliance with GDPR we cannot access anything we do not need. I am aware that scammers can appear to call from legitimate numbers but calls from the actual shielding service will only ask for the info listed above and nothing further. We need to ensure every person identified as vulnerable by the NHS has all the support they need and details are sent to local authorities to put assistance in place if required so NO financial information is needed and we will only ask you for an email address IF you need priority home delivery from supermarkets, this is so we can make the supermarkets aware of who is allowed a priority delivery. If you are in ANY doubt that the person you are speaking to is not who they say they are all you need to do is ask to be put onto the do not call back list and register yourself on the website or by calling the number 0800 0288327 as advised on the gov.uk website. Please keep in mind that even if you personally don't need help or dont think you need to shield, we are just doing our jobs and trying to help those people that really do need it.