Giving Out Personal Info General Chat

[Mouth]

Interested to see how people deal with this, I regularly get calls from companies that I have accounts with like Sky, Vodafone or even my bank, and they always want some personal info before discussing any details on the account usually DOB, address, mothers maiden name etc, they want to verify that it is me, even though it is them that phoned me, so I normally say no and they can email or write to me if it is something important, I'd say its marketing BS most of the time.

But yesterday I was onto my bank's customer support, I was on hold for almost an hour and then just selected the option for them to phone me back, but when I get the call back they want my DOB and address before they will discuss details. What do/would most people do, just give them the info?

 

[Donna]

If someone calls me I never hand over details.

 

[Snoops]

For cold calls I tend to laugh when they ask for personal information and say I'll call you back. If I am concerned about phishing, I ring the company's main line number that I find myself on the company's main web page and go to the process to finally ask if it was them that called in the end. I then request no future cold calls.

The only time I give personal information for security purposes is if I initiated the call. Your bank calling you back was expected as you initiated the call so I would probably accept that as real and give information as required.

 

[Welshy]

If I'm calling a company re: an account I have with them, I have no issues giving personal information to enable verification. I can verify "them" as I know.......1800-456-981 is legit. I'm calling myself.

Somebody calling me, purporting to be from ABC company, saying they'd like to speak to me but need my date of birth, public services number I'm just saying, "ok, give me a number to call you back, your name too"

A quick Google search of the number, say 056-123 4567, shows that is not, in fact, my bank but a number that's been cold calling people seeking personal details under the guise of being my bank customer service department.

 

[Lawrence]

I never give out personal information, by phone or email. The only calls I get (from non relatives) are people with accents so heavy that I can not understand them, well I can understand their first name though as they are always something like Mark, or Alice, and that ends up as a 'click' from my end.

 

[Deleted member 63]

The only time I give personal information for security purposes is if I initiated the call. Your bank calling you back was expected as you initiated the call so I would probably accept that as real and give information as required.

Agreed. Though my bank doesn't offer the callback thing as of yet. Have to stay in the queue. Also, there is the proviso that the callback has to be obviously the bank, either the number I originally called or a call display name that fits. For instance, my ISP uses the callback option and when the callback comes, it displays their name and number so I am sure it is them calling back. (Not that I call my ISP very often. We have problems maybe once a year, if that.)

 

[Gemma]

Had Vodafone call me a while back. Unknown caller number, the chirpy girl introduces herself as a Vodafone agent, says she has some things she'd like to talk to me about and asks me my name, DOB, address. I said that I wasn't giving that information to anyone that I couldn't verify, and could she prove that she was from Vodafone. She couldn't and insisted I was missing out on vital information that I would want to hear. I asked was there something wrong with my account, but she said she couldn't say why she was calling until she verified who I was. I said as she had called me, from a masked number, I couldn't verify who I was until she verified who she was - it was a simple matter of security.

I even asked was there a number I could call to contact her, but she said it was an "outbound only contact centre" that could not receive calls. I expressed my surprise at Vodafone - one of the world's biggest telephony companies - not having the ability to receive a phone call. We both got bored with the conversation at this stage, so agreed to leave it that neither of us could verify who we were, and we went our separate ways.

I'm 99.99% sure she was from Vodafone, and 100% sure she was just flogging something I didn't want, but there's no way they should be let away with that kind of carry on. Using a withheld number for calls like that should be outlawed.