phone calls asking personal info data protection

astirman · 17 December 2004 at 1:49AM

I am getting very fed up with finance companies and so on who ring and the first thing they do is ask for your date of birth, post code and so on. I have read about cases of identy theft and would have thought these phone calls are an excellent way of gaining such personal info that could be used in such a way.

I have herefore started saying to these calls NO I am not going to give you that info, after all you have called me. Toninght I was called by a company with whom I have a credit card and this process started. I said no and I was told it was necessary to comply with the data protection act. I asked which part of the act required me to provide them with personal info before they would tell me why they had telephoned me ? You will not be surprised to learn the caller was unable to do this. He told me I was not cooperating and if they had to write to me I would be charged for the letter. I obviously told the caller I would refer such a charge to the ombudsman and any one else I could think of. My question is therefore, should we provide such info and what in general is the best way of dealing with such calls ? By the way on other occasions I have supplied my personal info only to discover the caller was trying to flog me card protection or some other irratating service. Sorry to go on but it really is becoming a pain.

gromituk · 22 December 2004 at 4:39PM

I never get calls like this - can't you opt out of such things?

You are right to be concerned - it is a very easy way of stealing identity and it is shameful that companies haven't found a way around this, given the amount of phishing spam email around, of which this could easily be the telephone variant. You should ask them to let you ring them back on a number you are familiar with, or can check up on before you dial.

Milarky · 24 December 2004 at 10:31PM

I never get calls like this - can't you opt out of such things?

If you register with the Telephone Prefernce Service this should stop all calls from companies you have not dealt with before [i.e. as a current customer]

For companies with which you already have dealings, they should have originally given you the option of whether you wish to be contacted for marketing purposes and if so by what method [eg phone letter email?] So you can amend your previous option from 'contact' to 'no contact'.

Alternatively you can create 'spam' email addresses just for this purpose - and so have these emails go there rather than to your main email address [eg 'credit.cards.myname@ISP.net']

Walletwatch · 25 December 2004 at 3:35PM

I am getting very fed up with finance companies and so on who ring and the first thing they do is ask for your date of birth, post code and so on. I have read about cases of identy theft and would have thought these phone calls are an excellent way of gaining such personal info that could be used in such a way.

I have herefore started saying to these calls NO I am not going to give you that info, after all you have called me. Toninght I was called by a company with whom I have a credit card and this process started. I said no and I was told it was necessary to comply with the data protection act. I asked which part of the act required me to provide them with personal info before they would tell me why they had telephoned me ? You will not be surprised to learn the caller was unable to do this. He told me I was not cooperating and if they had to write to me I would be charged for the letter. I obviously told the caller I would refer such a charge to the ombudsman and any one else I could think of. My question is therefore, should we provide such info and what in general is the best way of dealing with such calls ? By the way on other occasions I have supplied my personal info only to discover the caller was trying to flog me card protection or some other irratating service. Sorry to go on but it really is becoming a pain.

I think your caller was just trying to pull a fast one here, citing the Data Protection act and stuff - I personally do receive calls for Payment protection and stuff, but none of these guys actually ask me for personal details upfront. I think what you've been doing is the right thing to do.

deemy2004 · 25 December 2004 at 4:11PM

I am getting very fed up with finance companies and so on who ring and the first thing they do is ask for your date of birth, post code and so on. I have read about cases of identy theft and would have thought these phone calls are an excellent way of gaining such personal info that could be used in such a way.
.

As others have said register with TPS

Just hang up, say okay enough bye....

phone calls asking personal info data protection

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