Big increase in scam calls following opening new bank savings accounts

JSmith321

Since we are obliged to move money on a regular basis to get the best interest - thereby increasing the changes of fraud and mistakes, has anyone noticed a marked increase in scam calls following the opening of new accounts. I recently opened several savings accounts to spread risk and savings and almost immediately noticed a marked increase in scam calls. The scammers seem to know what accounts I had unless they are simply guessing. My PC is up to date with virus and malware protection. I appreciate that many banks outsource their IT these days but is there any evidence that crooks plant their people to pass on customer details. It's making banking a very stressful experience. Maybe the only recourse is to return to branch banking if there are any left.

tacpot12

The Building Societies tend to have reasonable branch networks. My partner opened her latest Cash ISA at a Building Society branch because she distrusts online banking so much.

There have been instances where staff members have been passing data to criminals. However, you can't say this has happened in your case unless is is clear that they have access to very specific information. If you find out that they have got access to very specific information about your account that can only have come from the bank itself, you should make a complaint to the bank who may, by coordinating the names of the customers who have complained, be able to identify the staff members who have accessed the account data.

badmemory

I don't know if this will help.  I have had the same mobile number for the best part of 20 years.  Never had a single scam call until 8 years ago.  My insurance company demanded my mobile number.  Since then they keep flattening my battery.  They obviously sold the number on.  It should not be allowed, but unfortunately it is.

flaneurs_lobster

To answer your question, no.

You've been very unlucky, were these actual scam calls where the caller claims to be from your specific institution or were they more general/fishing?

I've got savings accounts at over 40 institutions, all of which will have my mobile number (and a lot of other personal data). All bar a couple of these have been opened in the last three years.

I've had no more than a dozen "scam" calls over that period and they were all of the general 'your recent accident/delayed parcel/Microsoft virus department' type and none referenced any of my accounts or institutions.

Ergates

badmemory said:

I don't know if this will help.  I have had the same mobile number for the best part of 20 years.  Never had a single scam call until 8 years ago.  My insurance company demanded my mobile number.  Since then they keep flattening my battery.  They obviously sold the number on.  It should not be allowed, but unfortunately it is.

How does the insurance company keep flattening your battery?

MeteredOut

If this is happening to you, it is either a false correlation fallacy (ie. purely coincidental) or other stuff you are doing online is somehow allowing details of your account openings to be known by bad actors.  

If banks had data breaches that released details of those opening accounts, we'd know about it.

(cf. Satander and Ticket Master)

badmemory

Ergates said:

badmemory said:

I don't know if this will help.  I have had the same mobile number for the best part of 20 years.  Never had a single scam call until 8 years ago.  My insurance company demanded my mobile number.  Since then the incessant calls I get keep flattening my battery.  They obviously sold the number on.  It should not be allowed, but unfortunately it is.

How does the insurance company keep flattening your battery?

My insurance company demanded my mobile number.  Since then the incessant calls I get keep flattening my battery

Is that better

Bigwheels1111

I did a bank switch last week, Starling to Nationwide.
Their online system would not accept debit card last 5 digits.
So had to call, was transferred to sales department to manually enter details.
All went smoothly.
Until 4 hours later, when a  fraudulent charge was made on my starling card.
The card has never left the house, never been used online or in person.
The only time the number had been used was to allow Nationwide switch.

ForumUser7

Bigwheels1111 said:

I did a bank switch last week, Starling to Nationwide.
Their online system would not accept debit card last 5 digits.
So had to call, was transferred to sales department to manually enter details.
All went smoothly.
Until 4 hours later, when a  fraudulent charge was made on my starling card.
The card has never left the house, never been used online or in person.
The only time the number had been used was to allow Nationwide switch.

I would report that to Nationwide. Seems to suspicious to be a coincidence!

AmityNeon

I haven't experienced it with bank accounts, but I did receive a call regarding life insurance (I had recently completed a couple of applications to several reputable providers). They had my first name. I made sure to clarify they were calling to talk about a current policy I held that was soon due for renewal.

Except I never took out any policy. As soon as I asked them how they obtained my details, they immediately hung up.

friolento

This is very likely just coincidence.

The way many of the scamsters work is that they call random numbers. As soon as they get a human answering, they mark your number as a “positive” and will incessantly call again, randomly changing their “ID” and their story. Blocking their number has little effect as it is most likely spoofed, anyway.

In your phone’s settings, you can block unknown callers (i.e. callers not on your contact list), so that they get transferred to your voicemail. Genuine callers will leave you a voicemail. Scamsters will rarely if ever leave a voicemail.