Bank asking dodgy questions

baser999

Bee175 said:

AmityNeon said:

Bee175 said:

AmityNeon said:

"I don't know, and neither should I. These are personal details, my own of which I would not divulge to my payees either."

The banks should perform their checks in their official capacities for AML purposes without relying on you to confirm the personal details of a third party to which you are not privy.

That's exactly how I see it.

I think they have made a mistake by asking me for these details.

It almost feels as though my bank are asking me to "police" my friend.

Did your bank even consider it from the payer's perspective?

If I paid someone new and my payee then asked me for my middle name and date of birth claiming their bank requested those details, I would become highly suspicious thinking I was being phished and immediately cease all contact.

As the conversation was happening on secure bank chat on the app, I felt fairly sure I was actually talking to the bank.

I chatted with my friend who transferred the money, and he thought this was all wrong, as do I.

Did you ask him his birth date? Could send him a card 😏

AmityNeon

Bee175 said:

AmityNeon said:

Bee175 said:

AmityNeon said:

"I don't know, and neither should I. These are personal details, my own of which I would not divulge to my payees either."

The banks should perform their checks in their official capacities for AML purposes without relying on you to confirm the personal details of a third party to which you are not privy.

That's exactly how I see it.

I think they have made a mistake by asking me for these details.

It almost feels as though my bank are asking me to "police" my friend.

Did your bank even consider it from the payer's perspective?

If I paid someone new and my payee then asked me for my middle name and date of birth claiming their bank requested those details, I would become highly suspicious thinking I was being phished and immediately cease all contact.

As the conversation was happening on secure bank chat on the app, I felt fairly sure I was actually talking to the bank

It's about what the payer thinks of the situation because it's their personal details being requested by a third party. If you paid someone new (i.e. not a known friend), and this payee suddenly asked you for your middle name or date of birth (claiming their bank requested it), would that not arouse your own suspicions?

Your bank doesn't seem to care they're flagrantly disregarding all the common advice and warnings to prevent fraud, effectively asking you to behave like a scammer phishing for someone's personal details.

dealyboy

@Bee175 ... come on who was it? ... you are not divulging any personal details 

Band7

It is perfectly ok to be asked for the name (individual or company) of the payer. It's information you should know if you are expecting a payment.

It is not reasonable to ask for the DoB of the payer, and I would never give this to a bank even if I knew it. 

DullGreyGuy

Bee175 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Bee175 said:

The bank then proceeded to ask me for the senders full name and date of birth before completing the transaction. They already had his name, but I was pretty cautious about the idea of giving them my friends DOB.

Surely they are not allowed to ask me for someone else's personal details?

I refused to give them the details, and asked them to return the money to the sender, which they did right away.

I have since told them that I believe what they asked of me was borderline illegal, and they have now stopped talking to me 

What do others think about them asking me for someone else's personal details?

How would they have his name? They'd have the name on the account which may or may not be his name or could be an incomplete name.

They are perfectly entitled to ask you questions, banks are legally required to do sanctions and counter terrorism checks on transactions and the reality is there are a few thousand people on the UK Government published list (more if you also have to comply with US and EU sanctions) and there is going to be more than one person in the world with the same first and surname. The sanctions list inc middle names and DoB so having these to check makes it much easier to determine if your friend "Oleg" is one of the 70 or so that are subject to asset freeze or not. 

If they cannot trust the name given them by the sender's, they should question the sender's bank, not me. 

Same with DOB. They should check with the sender's bank.

They surely cannot expect me to know everyone's DOB and middle names? That would be totally unreasonable. How would they know I'm not lying? My bank would not have my friends DOB to compare too, unless the sender's bank are willing to share it with them. They're talking to the wrong guy by asking me.

"They're perfectly entitled to ask me questions".
I couldn't agree more, but no point asking me stuff I simply won't know. 

All they should be asking me about is whether I'm expecting the payment, or have requested the payment. Beyond that it's up to them to check out the sender and his bank, or at least that's how it has always worked in the past when other banks have put a payment on review.

They can ask you, and your legitimate answer can be "I dont know", its only when you get a bit silly and say "its against the law for you to ask me" or some such thing that you are then likely to have issues either because it raises red flags that you are trying to cover something up or you get flagged as an antagonistic customer. 

If you have asked for the payment or not is irrelevant to if the sender is a sanctioned person

Brie

Data protection act states:

Everyone responsible for using personal data has to follow strict rules called ‘data protection principles’. They must make sure the information is:

• used fairly, lawfully and transparently
• used for specified, explicit purposes
• used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary
• accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
• kept for no longer than is necessary
• handled in a way that ensures appropriate security, including protection against unlawful or unauthorised processing, access, loss, destruction or damage

Frankly I agree that a DoB isn't relevant unless as someone suggested it's to eliminate the payment coming from some illegal source.  But all they would know is that Dodgy Joe is known to use 1/1/90 as his DoB.  And as long as the OP didn't give that date they should be happy.  So presumably one could give any random date and the bank isn't going to know if it's right or wrong as they would have no way to find out.  Seems a pretty daft thing overall though & I would certainly be asking why it's relevant.

TheBanker

Out of interest what type of payment was this? It would be more usual for this type of query to be raised for payments coming from abroad, than from other UK banks. 

I wonder if the person you were speaking to has got the wrong end of the stick. Even if you gave a DoB I don't see how it would help since you could be making it up. I wonder if actually something else was needed (like an explanation of what the payment was for) and the person on chat got confused?

wiseonesomeofthetime

Vortigern said:

Which bank is this?

Simple answer to both questions is "I don't know" - because I don't know all  my friends middle names and dates of birth.

I have seen a similar post on another forum where the bank was purportedly Kroo.

I wonder if OP's is same bank 🤔

gsmh

@Bee175 I think you did exactly the right thing moving your money away from that bank. I would have done the same. These days banks are more interested in protecting themselves rather than their customers. They pretend it's for your protection, but it really isn't.

Bee175

AmityNeon said:

Bee175 said:

AmityNeon said:

Bee175 said:

AmityNeon said:

"I don't know, and neither should I. These are personal details, my own of which I would not divulge to my payees either."

The banks should perform their checks in their official capacities for AML purposes without relying on you to confirm the personal details of a third party to which you are not privy.

That's exactly how I see it.

I think they have made a mistake by asking me for these details.

It almost feels as though my bank are asking me to "police" my friend.

Did your bank even consider it from the payer's perspective?

If I paid someone new and my payee then asked me for my middle name and date of birth claiming their bank requested those details, I would become highly suspicious thinking I was being phished and immediately cease all contact.

As the conversation was happening on secure bank chat on the app, I felt fairly sure I was actually talking to the bank

It's about what the payer thinks of the situation because it's their personal details being requested by a third party. If you paid someone new (i.e. not a known friend), and this payee suddenly asked you for your middle name or date of birth (claiming their bank requested it), would that not arouse your own suspicions?

Your bank doesn't seem to care they're flagrantly disregarding all the common advice and warnings to prevent fraud, effectively asking you to behave like a scammer phishing for someone's personal details.

Yes, my suspicions and my friends suspicions were clearly aroused.

Phishing is on my list of suspicions. A rouge worker in their call centre perhaps?