Feb 20 2008
Dealing with the Bank
Someone from my bank called me today about an issue with one of my accounts.
Ok, if you must know another institution didn’t action my change of account details and consequently took a payment out of the wrong account – incurring me a $50 fee for honouring the payment and leaving the said account in debit. But, as annoying as that is, that’s not the issue.
I’m sure you’re all familiar with fake emails from banks asking for you to confirm or update your details? I must get at least one a day.
So I get a call (a foreign call centre I’m guessing from the accent) saying “This is so and so from the such and such bank. Am I speaking to Megan?” (only my parents and people who don’t know me call me Megan 😉 ).
“Yes you are”
“Can I confirm your date of birth and address”
I pause at this point waiting for her to continue.
“Are you there?”
“Yes”
“Can you please tell me your date of birth and address”
“No”
“I’m sorry?” (she says incredulously)
“You say you’re from the bank, but I don’t really know who you are, and I’m certainly not going to give you my date of birth over the phone”
“Oh, but we have to get 50 points of identification….”
“Yes, I appreciate that but I really don’t know who you are, just like you don’t know that I am who I say I am”
“oh….ok – can you call me back?”
“Sure what’s your number, and can you please spell your name?”
Of course it sounds like a legitimate conversation, and it was, but I just wonder how many people would divulge that information without skipping a beat?
Think about it? How hard would it be for someone to fake that call? I’d rather play it on the safe side and pay for the return call back to them.
12 Responses to “Dealing with the Bank”
I’ve had that happen myself………. and had the most interesting arguement with centrelink about it! lmao Seriously though, they called me, on the phone number listed for me and then wanted me to prove I am who they rang? Didn’t make sense. I’ve had one or two of those since that first one and do exactly what you did, I call them back so that I can confirm that they are legitimate.
Also, there is someone doing this kind of thing with utilities. We received a flyer in our mailbox recently from Telstra saying that they do not ring people from overseas call centres and do not ask for this or that kind of information, so obviously there are some clever scammers out there running something dogdy at the moment.
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I hate when banks charge you fees (exorbitant at that) for their mistakes. Did you a refund ?
We have had the same type of calls here and I have given the same response … “didn’t you call me at my home phone number ” but they won’t budge.
People are so trusting and yet the banks make us jump through hoops to prove yourself legit … once we had our account phished of $1500 – (haha a donation). Top marks to the bank for discovering it – Though the bank rang us at same phone we had for years but wouldn’t tell us what is was about – because my husband ‘failed’ the identity test – the bank had two addresses listed (one we worked at and one we lived at) and he told them the right one but they had the wrong one listed for him only. They flatly refused to tell us anything. I had to go on internet to see .It was over Easter too and we had to block access to everything just in case they took another dip in the accounts. We got it all back though was very stressful they wouldn’t give us any information at the time.
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Interesting story, if you don’t mind, I’ll share one from the ‘other side of the fence’, as it were.
When I used to work for another company, one of the internal processes required that staff call customers regarding some information they had sent us. Because that information was potentially sensitive, staff were required to ask customers for their personal information to verify their identity.
The managers responsible didn’t understand my objections to this, and despite us calling thousands of customers per month, very very few people (Maybe 1 per month) refused to provide the information to a random caller.
Then again, internal calls were no less insecure either – many people would blindly accept that if you said you were so-and-so from such-and-such a department, that you were, and would give you whatever information you requested. You just had to know the terminology and sound right.
Scary, very very scary.
It’s truly sad how many people are naive when it comes to scams. They just blindly give out personal info without giving it another thought. I never give out personal info unless I initiated the phone call. I, like you, will take a phone number and call them back.
I guess we just don’t get enough media coverage on these types of things. That and the fact that people just can’t seem to get it through their heads that people aren’t always who they say they are.
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Perhaps this is just my paranoid mind speaking, but I see a lot of people saying they will take a number from the person who called them, and then call them back.
When this happens to me, I won’t even take a phone number from them to call back. I’ll rather call the central number listed in the phone book, and then work my way to getting transferred to the right department.
Think about it. It’s not hard to register a bogus number, and then set it up to have an automated answering system saying “Hello, this is so and so bank, please hold while we transfer you to our next available operative. Alternatively, press x for dept A, z for dept B” and so on.
As I say, this is my blatant paranoia. But to those of you who take numbers from cold callers and then call them back, bear in mind that just because they give you a legitimate number, doesnt mean they are legitimate themselves.
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lol. Bankwest did the same thing to me when I signed up for an account with them a while ago
They called my mobile after I’d opened the account to ask if there had been any difficulties with the process – but first they wanted me to answer security questions like my date of birth etc
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I’ve never yet had a phone call like this so I hope that if I ever do to remember that it might be a scam.
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I am wary of everyone. Especially those that turn up at my door, reeking of aftershave and wanting to look at my bills!
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Here’s something people may not know. I and another person opened a business account, then when the business folded we forgot about it. The bank, in it’s wisdom, waited until we’d incurred $72 in fees then tried to squeeze me for the amount. I told them the account hadn’t been used for 12 months and that I’d forgotten about it. They still wanted their $72 + $3.50 more by this time. I rang the local branch where we’d opened it and the lady told me under the cuff, don’t worry, the amount is going to be wiped by such and such a date, but I could pay it if I liked to protect my credit rating. Fat chance me worrying about that, I’m 64. Anyway, head office kept sending bills right up until the date it was to be wiped. Good try!
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Bettina – I’ve had some of those call centre ones enquiring about who our carrier is. I haven’t seen a flyer about it not being Telstra though – that’s interesting. I’m getting very good at telling them I’m not interested.
Babyamore – actually looking at the account it was $38 (still a lot though), but it wasn’t my bank’s mistake it was the other institution so I’d have to follow it up with them. Of course they say they didn’t get my request…
I get that problem with some accounts because I’m not sure whether I’ve given them a PO box address or home, or my work number, home number or mobile number (which has now changed)!
Will – that is vary scary 😮
Diamond digger – so true there are a lot of trusting people. I saw an expose once – this person set up a booth at a local shopping centre. I can’t remember what the guise was, but the amount of people that disclosed their personal details INCLUDING credit card number (wrote them down on a form) under some flimsy excuse was just amazing.
Burgo – that’s a really pertinent point. As I called the number back, I was thinking it wouldn’t be hard to fake an answering service…
Neerav – just to ask if you were happy with the service? That’s crazy.
Jen – One day you will. I think if you just have a rule of thumb never to give out identifying information to someone calling you, you’ll be fine.
Kelley – yeah, that one was really suss.
John – that happened to me years ago too. An account with a tiny balance that I’d had as a teenager. I went in to close it and clear out the balance. I was told I owed THEM money. How does that happen? Without an overdraft, surely the account should be “dormant” or closed once it reaches $0. Not knowing better I coughed up the dough (not a lot from memory).
I’m actually very surprised that she just asked you for your info like that, and that she was surprised you didn’t just give it up. Normally banks (ones that I have come across anyway) are more security-conscious. I don’t give out my personal information over the phone – I’d rather go into the local branch and talk to someone face-to-face. I agree with Burgo – it’s too easy to set up a fake number and answering service. I’m sure they would appreciate your concern with privacy and wait until you can come in to see them.
Also, normally when they need identification, that has to be in person anyway, so if someone is calling me asking for identification, I always take it with a grain of salt – since it would be easy for even me to give out someone else’s information over the phone to them!
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Some really interesting comments here. And I am with those who ring back the central number and work my way through to who I need to talk to. It happened to me recently, with an email rather than a phone call. And although it was rather a painful process to get to talk to someone who could do anything about what I was talking about, I think it was worth it in the end . At least the bank was able to update their security notices to let other customers know what was going on!!
And I agree that there should be more media coverage about how these scams are presented to the gullible population!
Cheers!
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