First Direct - Security Issue

dcweather

I am switching my current account to First Direct to take advantage of their £100 switch offer. You have to set up telephone banking before you can set up on line banking, even if you don't want it. First of all, I received a lot of mail from them after applying with details what to to do. So I phoned them using the number in the letter for queries.. To set it up I had to verbally give the agent a password my mother's maiden name, place of birth, and memorable answer as well as date of birth. I refused to do this as I pointed out if he was untrustworthy or left the company he has all the information required to enter my account. Also of course many other accounts require mother's maiden name etc. He accepted this was a flaw and said that they were working on a way of setting it up securely on line !!! I mean now, in this day and age of banking fraud !!! I refused and in the end gave fictional answers although these are still available to him for this account. Amazed nobody else has flagged this up?

Dellgrad12

Even if they did have a facility to enter these details online, the call centre staff would still have access to the data so they can verify you should you call up, so I am not sure it’s much of an issue really.

pbartlett

it is good practice to give fictional answers anyway - i mean, who would be silly enough to set up banking security giving their real mother's maiden name and their real.place of birth?

i would also recommend setting up voice id with fd as this is how they identify you going forward....

Ed-1

pbartlett said:

it is good practice to give fictional answers anyway - i mean, who would be silly enough to set up banking security giving their real mother's maiden name and their real.place of birth?

i would also recommend setting up voice id with fd as this is how they identify you going forward....

It was rather awkward having to give my fictional mother's maiden name to a branch employee of Barclays once though. It clearly wasn't a real surname.

pafpcg

dcweather said:

I am switching my current account to First Direct to take advantage of their £100 switch offer. You have to set up telephone banking before you can set up on line banking, even if you don't want it. First of all, I received a lot of mail from them after applying with details what to to do. So I phoned them using the number in the letter for queries.. To set it up I had to verbally give the agent a password my mother's maiden name, place of birth, and memorable answer as well as date of birth. I refused to do this as I pointed out if he was untrustworthy or left the company he has all the information required to enter my account. Also of course many other accounts require mother's maiden name etc. He accepted this was a flaw and said that they were working on a way of setting it up securely on line !!! I mean now, in this day and age of banking fraud !!! I refused and in the end gave fictional answers although these are still available to him for this account. Amazed nobody else has flagged this up?

Does he have all the information necessary to enter your account?  Only access which needs no more than just this data, such as via the phone.  He wouldn't be able to access your account online as that needs not only a password but also use of their code generating calculator. 

soulsaver

So, you can give your fictional answers, make a note of them and alter them all on line after anyway - even before you put a pound in.

lr1277

pbartlett said:

...
i would also recommend setting up voice id with fd as this is how they identify you going forward....

I have chosen to turn off voice ID recognition with FD because a few years ago, it was reported in the Economist, there is software now available that can mimic your whole voice after hearing only a few sample sounds.

Now I am not rich enough for fraudsters to go to the trouble, but you never know.

Why do you think voice ID recognition is a good idea?

pbartlett

i suppose because i didnt read the economist a few years ago.

born_again

lr1277 said:

I have chosen to turn off voice ID recognition with FD because a few years ago, it was reported in the Economist, there is software now available that can mimic your whole voice after hearing only a few sample sounds.

Now I am not rich enough for fraudsters to go to the trouble, but you never know.

Why do you think voice ID recognition is a good idea?

And in other news, it's possible for fraudsters to obtain your security details...

Voice ID is a lot safer than the rest of the security information you give out.

dcweather said:

I am switching my current account to First Direct to take advantage of their £100 switch offer. You have to set up telephone banking before you can set up on line banking, even if you don't want it. First of all, I received a lot of mail from them after applying with details what to to do. So I phoned them using the number in the letter for queries.. To set it up I had to verbally give the agent a password my mother's maiden name, place of birth, and memorable answer as well as date of birth. I refused to do this as I pointed out if he was untrustworthy or left the company he has all the information required to enter my account. Also of course many other accounts require mother's maiden name etc. He accepted this was a flaw and said that they were working on a way of setting it up securely on line !!! I mean now, in this day and age of banking fraud !!! I refused and in the end gave fictional answers although these are still available to him for this account. Amazed nobody else has flagged this up?

All staff member needs is you sort/acc or even is you have a less common surname & bang... They have all your account details. That will go for any bank.

Perhaps you need to rethink your banking needs if you are that worried about staff that have been fully vetted to ensure no financial problems or criminal records. But you fear may just be doing it to scam some people..
Heaven forbid they are writing the details down on their kitchen table, now they are working from home and no big brother is watching over their every move

Hope your user name is not related to your actual name....

MrFrugalFever

Everything we do and say is recorded and noted down somewhere in some fashion. Telling someone your details over the phone who is an official employee of a legitimate financial institute is no more risk than you popping your card details in to Amazon and ordering a birthday present.
if you had plenty of money, you may be a higher risk such as those who are categorised in banks as ‘high net worth’ customers, but as you’re not, i’d assume no employee is going to risk 14 years imprisonment for a couple of G, all of which would be reimbursed by the bank after investigation anyway.

dcweather

Thank you for your comments. I pretty much agree with all of them. It was just the first time with any of my other on line savings and current accounts over the years I have ever had to verbally give out a password over the phone. I have now gone through the process of setting up the online banking and what a paraphernalia that was although I suppose you could say it has put my mind at rest on a security front but it took forever. So after the phone banking numerous security questions and passwords you then have to go on line and set up another password, a whole new load of security questions and then download an app (alright for you kids but us pensioners prefer PC's which we've used for 40 years than smart phones!). While you're doing that you get timed out! So then in the app you have to set up another password to get to be able to generate a digital key. When you've done that you have to wait to get an email to get the second critical digital key that lets you log on line for the first time. Of course you get timed out again on the PC. Anyway once it has generated this key you can log in on line. Then each time you log in on line you have to use your phone to generate a new unique digital code each time you log in. I guess it is secure but all my other accounts I just log in with a user name and strong password !!