voice password with Santander

jenny45

Has anyone had any bother with voice id and Santander?  My sister and I both have Santander current accounts and a couple of weeks ago she called to the house in a panic to say there were direct debits taken from account and had put her into unauthorised overdraft.  

As her account had been hacked before I told her to ring their help line and report.  She used my phone as she had no credit in her own phone.  This has all now been sorted but just wanted to give a back ground info.

So whilst using my phone she was asked for her voice pass to get through to someone and it failed first time so she tried again and got through to an advisor.  She explained what had happened and about being overdrawn and the girl said no you have nothing showing  the amounts coming out and your account is in credit.  She then told her the last debit and I was sitting beside her and recognised it as mine.  I said straight away and spoke with her and it turns out she was in my account which she closed down.  

Now at that time I did not like her attitude as she was saying that it was me that had used voice password so after my sister was finished I asked to speak to her and told her I am not in habit of doing anything illegal and wanted it investigated as felt this should not have happened.  

She then transferred me to their fraud department who could not understand what had happened and said they needed to send it to a specialised department.

Santander has since got back to me with no answers and keep accusing me of using my voice for password but my query is how did this happen in first place as the voice id was pushed to be used as being secure.

They state using my registered phone was a problem but surely you can use any phone it is the password voice that counts.

I am still waiting for an outcome as not accepting what they are saying.  Needless to say my  voice password has been shut down 

sorry for long story but wanted to check if there is indeed anyone out there that has had problems.  Santander complaints say it never has happened but their fraud department said it happened a few years ago.  So if there is a possiblility I am just wondering if anyone else has had same problem.

thanks

flaneurs_lobster

Let me try and summarise.

Both you and your sister have Santander accounts and have both set up Voice ID.

Your sister called Santander on your phone and was asked to use Voice ID for identity check.

Presumably she used the "At Santander, my voice is my password" response.

This passed ID checks and the operator was looking at your account details?

This is the bit that might show a problem, the Voice ID is always associated with a registered phone number. Your sister using your phone should have been rejected as not a valid combination.

Can I assume that you are female and that both you and your sister have a similar voice?  Maybe close enough to have 'fooled' Santander's system?

Not good enough if this is what happened. To quote Santander's website:

Is it safe?

Yes, Voice ID is very secure. Voice ID will recognise if someone is trying to impersonate you or play a recording of you, as your voice is unique to you.

GeoffTF

jenny45 said:

They state using my registered phone was a problem but surely you can use any phone it is the password voice that counts.

Voice ID is not very reliable, but is a useful additional check. Phone numbers can be spoofed, but only criminals will do that. The phone number that you are calling from is likely to be a more reliable indicator of who you are than Voice ID. I would not expect Santander to rely on either Voice ID or the phone number alone.

jenny45

flaneurs_lobster said:

Let me try and summarise.

Both you and your sister have Santander accounts and have both set up Voice ID.

Your sister called Santander on your phone and was asked to use Voice ID for identity check.

Presumably she used the "At Santander, my voice is my password" response.

This passed ID checks and the operator was looking at your account details?

This is the bit that might show a problem, the Voice ID is always associated with a registered phone number. Your sister using your phone should have been rejected as not a valid combination.

Can I assume that you are female and that both you and your sister have a similar voice?  Maybe close enough to have 'fooled' Santander's system?

Not good enough if this is what happened. To quote Santander's website:

Is it safe?

Yes, Voice ID is very secure. Voice ID will recognise if someone is trying to impersonate you or play a recording of you, as your voice is unique to you.

hi there thanks for reply .  Yes we are both female and do not think we sound alike although the two ladies we both talked to on the first night thought we were alike  but Santander complaints said that their system would still be able to tell who was talking and that there was no way it was my sister but myself using voice id.  

on saying that when I returned a call to Santander complaints the first thing they said was thanks for using voice id today lol  even though I hadn't and mine is switched off 

Really for my point is I wanted to report it as there must be something wrong in system and as you said not so secure.  I would never use it again.  

That is why I came on to check if anyone ever had problems.  I have asked Santander for any reports or paper work they used to come up with their findings as they also state that the voice id was used three times on the night of first phone call but it was definately only used twice.

jenny45

GeoffTF said:

jenny45 said:

They state using my registered phone was a problem but surely you can use any phone it is the password voice that counts.

Voice ID is not very reliable, but is a useful additional check. Phone numbers can be spoofed, but only criminals will do that. The phone number that you are calling from is likely to be a more reliable indicator of who you are than Voice ID. I would not expect Santander to rely on either Voice ID or the phone number alone.

Say I went to a payphone (I know showing age lol)  and used my voice id would Santander allow me access or would the fact that I am not at registered phone make them block me and make further enquiries.  just trying to get this all straight in my head.

The main thing for me is the fact that Santander are implying I have done something wrong as it can not be their system which irks me as have banked with them for years and hate it being implied that I did something wrong

flaneurs_lobster

jenny45 said:

Say I went to a payphone (I know showing age lol)  and used my voice id would Santander allow me access or would the fact that I am not at registered phone make them block me and make further enquiries.  just trying to get this all straight in my head.

You would not be invited to use Voice ID because the phone number you were calling from was not registered. You could, of course, use telephone banking from the payphone (or any other phone), but you would have to provide other ID (card number, security number etc). 

This is why your sister was able to get past the first hurdle, your mobile number is (was) registered for Voice ID.

The main thing for me is the fact that Santander are implying I have done something wrong as it can not be their system which irks me as have banked with them for years and hate it being implied that I did something wrong

They are never going to admit that their system is anything other than safe and secure. Annoying but unless you have suffered a financial loss it's probably not worth pursuing. Think you've done the right thing - if you don't have confidence in the Voice ID system, don't use it and ask Santander to remove your access to it.

GeoffTF

flaneurs_lobster said:

You would not be invited to use Voice ID because the phone number you were calling from was not registered. You could, of course, use telephone banking from the payphone (or any other phone), but you would have to provide other ID (card number, security number etc).

Thanks for that. I had wondered how Santander uses Voice ID. I registered when I was asked, but have not had to phone them since,

The more secure you make things, the more inconvenient it becomes. Santander seems to emphasise making it easy for the customer more than some other banks. I can type a five digit number and transfer significant sums to my frequently used accounts with other banks, with no further checks (but I expect that Santander recognises my computer). Some other banks have fiendish card readers, or so I understand.

I also have an account with another bank from which I do lots of small debit card payments to various shops, and I am never asked to do chip and PIN.

From the bank's point of view it is balancing act. Make it too difficult and you lose customers. Make it too easy and you get lots of fraud.

Eyeful

jenny45
              Suggest you read this article:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1lg3ded6j9o 

jenny45

Eyeful said:

jenny45
              Suggest you read this article:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1lg3ded6j9o 

that was a very interesting read so even with Santander saying it could not happen this shows it is possible and at least I feel there is evidence that I am just simply not making this up