I've just fallen out with my wife. Not badly but over a point of principle. She's a fraud investigator for a major bank ( don't go there ! )
Anyway, like most people I have some credit cards. Tonight, my mobile phone rang, I answered it and some very pushy lady ( not a native English speaker ) asks for me by name. Ever suspicious, I ask who's calling. She then goes on to say she is calling from the credit card company backed quite coincidentally my my wife's employer.
OK say I, it's is me, how can I help ? Next thing she says is that before she can proceed she needs to security clear me and asks for my year of birth. Hold on a cotton pickin' say I, how do I know you are who you say you are ?
She says she can tell me anything I want to know once I'm security cleared. I say, I'll tell her anything she wants to know once I know she's not a criminal trying to steal my identity and how does she propose to convince me of that ?
Tell me your year of birth she says. No say I. Tell me something which persuades me that you are calling from my credit card company first.
I can't do that until you are security cleared she says. Then I can't help you say I. You are going to miss out on an important update to your account she says. Shame about that say I but I guess I'll have to live with that.
At this point she gets quite aggresive and starts talking over me. I hang up.
Wifey has overheard my side and is curious to know what was said. I tell her and she gives me earache saying it's standard procedure. Maybe so, say I, but they'll have to think of a cleverer procedure.....
Bit of a huff all round now......
So.....what's the vote......scam or sales pitch ?
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Don't know but I fully back you 100% on this.
By the way, which is comfier to sleep in, Mondeo Estate or Quashie??? :)
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join the TPS
and sleep in the mondy ;-)
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I wouldn't believe a company that rang out of the blue like that either. If anyone became aggressive then I'd give them what for as it is unacceptable to call someone and expect them to give you their personal details without proving who you are and what you want them for. Anyone could say they're from a bank. Have they not heard of phishing??
You could have asked for her name and the name of her section so you could call her back from the main switchboard of the bank. That's the only way I can see it would work.
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there ae only three reasons that a credit card company phone you up.
1/ YOU owe them money
2/ your card has been cloned
3/ sell you something.
"missing out on an important benefit" is no 3
tell them to sod orf
EDIT The mondy is easier to stretch out in but a bit colder at night
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 18 Mar 10 at 21:12
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I'd be doing same as you Hump and it would have been to sell you something, don't tell 'em Pike.
pushy BrGa bloke the other night tried it on with swmbo, kept pushing and got past the 0.2second fuse timer, i bet he doesn't forget that conversation in a hurry.
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Your Wife and mine are related!!! I haven't read the other posts after yours which MAY be a mistake, BUT you have to be seen as correct given all of the published advice.
MD
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I think your action was spot on...you've not lost anything by your action.
I rarely get out of hours calls since joining the TPS many years ago after a double glazing salesman told me he'd come round and ' do ' me for turning him down.
I told him he was welcome to try and put the phone down on him...twice ! Cheeky sod rang back !
I had an evening call from my bank credit card last week. I'm always cagey at first. He asked me to confirm my postcode, which I did. He was trying to get me to transfer the balance off other cards to his which happens to be the same bank as my current account.
I said it wasn't worth me transferring a balance of under £50 and it was scheduled for payment on-line in 3 days anyway. After a bit of a chat he went away happy.
I'll be pleasant if they are, if people get pushy then I wind them up or just put the phone down.
The optimistic double glazer still hasn't appeared !
Humpy....I think a small gift for Mrs D'Bout is in order....maybe a new ironing board cover or washing up bowl would bring tears of joy to her eyes !
On reflection, It's your house and bed isn't it ? Actl like a real man...tell her she's in the car, but give her the choice of which....no need to be cruel !
Let us know which ward at Leighton you'll be on for the grapes !
Ted
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>> Wifey has overheard my side and is curious to know what was said. I tell
>> her and she gives me earache saying it's standard procedure.
Er...yes, well it might be a standard procedure for banks to verify you over the phone, but it is also a standard procedure for people trying to steal your identity.
It is standard procedure for the meter reader to come to your front door and ask to read the meter, it is also standard procedure for a burglar who is trying to gain access to your property (I reckon they get a better success rate, than turning up in a stripey jumper with a swag bag).
I follow the advice mentioned elsewhere in this thread. If I feel that I need to speak with the person, I will get their details, independently verify them (Google the phone number etc) and then call them back. I have had to do this a couple of times with fraud on my cards and they have always been very understanding and helpful (as you would expect).
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I'm with you 100%, Humph.
I used to get a lot of calls asking for me by name then requiring me to confirm the first line of my address, my postcode and my date of birth. One of them even asked for my mother's maiden name as well.
I told them all to foxtrot oscar, politely at first but slightly more insistent if they carried on. Some of them may well have been genuine but I wasn't about to take the risk.
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...I'm with you 100%, Humph...
Me too.
It seemed so obviously dodgy to me, I was looking for the double bluff.
I can't see any reason why an incoming cold caller could genuinely need your date of birth.
Happily, I get very few such calls at home.
I do get a few at work, some pre-recorded, some not.
It's not clever to be rude, but it's very hard not to be a little bit short with the live callers.
And I swear loudly at the pre-recorded ones - releases the tension.
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I have, in the past, pretended to be almost deaf.
Shouting ' WHAT ' or ' HELLO ' at intervals puts them off their pitch. Also pretending to turn to an imaginary person with you and saying loudly ' Theres nobody there ' several times.
Ted
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I think you did the right thing Humph, stand your ground with Mrs Humph, she'll come round!
I keep having a prerecorded call that starts with a pause and then says in an american accent 'Congratulations, you have.........'
I've never found out what I have............does anyone know!
Pat
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>> I keep having a prerecorded call that starts with a pause and then says in
>> an american accent 'Congratulations you have.........'
Yep I know that one well, and I never get to find what i have... either. Fortunately it's now just about the only kind of unwanted call I get now. Used to be inundated but the TPS is a marvelous thing and took care of all of them. Couldn't recommmend it highly enough.
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All calm now. Resolved very quickly. The sight of me naked has never failed to weaken her.......
Off to Gotham City now. Virtual prize to anyone who works out where that is before I get back tonight.........
:-)
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...off to Gotham City now...
Run-down crime-ridden metropolis with a slightly nutty mayor.
Must be Middlesbrough.
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The only time card companies ring me it has been to sell me something, in which case they do not ask me for security details, or if they are worried about my account (dodgy transaction), they advise me to check the website and to ring the customer services number if I am concerned that they are not who they say they are.
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Had a phone call from a bank who wished to tell me about their new services but said that,first,they would need to check my security details.I said "you need to check my details before you try to sell me something?;put me thro' to your supervisor"The supervisor agreed with me and said "the telesales would have the facts of life explained to her".
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My mum who is in her 70s tells me she keeps getting calls from India telling her that there is a problem with her computer and that buying some software from them will fix it. Fortunately she's not daft, but unfortunately for the Indian caller she's been to India a few times and likes it there a lot, so she has a long chat with them about where they're from and what it's like over there at the moment.
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I tell them they probably want to speak to my dad (I'm retired) and to hold the line. When I press the 'secrecy' button, it gives them the worst ever plinkety-plonk music-on-hold I've ever heard. They're never there when I go back.
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Do tell Tom, where did you get that from, sounds great to give them some of their own back.
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It's a BT decor 310.
I see there's a few on ebay.
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Thanks Tom, the devil in me likes this idea.
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>> My mum who is in her 70s tells me she keeps getting calls from India
>> telling her that there is a problem with her computer and that buying some software
>> from them will fix it.
Yes i have started getting that. She claims to be from the PC doctor technical heldesk -She tells me my computer is running slow.
I ask her wich one she means. The lap top or the Desktop. That branch is not in her call script and it throws her completely, I tell her to phone back when she knows. I get the same lady every two weeks, and she hasnt twigged yet.
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>>The sight of me naked has never failed to weaken her.......
Helpless with laughter, was she? :-)
>> Off to Gotham City now. Virtual prize to anyone who works out where that is
>> before I get back tonight.........
Have you been here www.gothamvillage.org.uk/ ?
Or am I taking you far too literally?
Last edited by: Badwolf on Fri 19 Mar 10 at 15:02
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...Well it does make a boy wonder.
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OK - clue 2 re Gotham City
Frankly, in a stone. Stoked
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Is the the BR C4P version of Where's Wally?
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Lobby Lud actually.......
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Stoke-on-Trent, Burslem, or any of the other so-called Pottery Towns.
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well i thought gotham city moanchester next to luverpuddle
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Sorry Bellboy. Wrong coast.
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I am impressed Humph by your high level of paranoia. I'm not kidding.
One day last week I went to Bloomsbury in the middle of the day, and instead of doing the sensible thing and paying four or five quid an hour for parking I went meanly by tube.
My battered old geezer's pass thingy hasn't worked on the slap thingy for ages. It hadn't expired and usually - I don't often take the bus or tube normally - I showed the geezers the card and they let me through.
On the way back to West London though a sullen chap at Euston Square asked me to pass him the thing through the window. He took the chip card out, appeared to touch it to a machine and told me rudely that it had been withdrawn and he had to keep it. I had to pay four quid for what used to be a one-and-nine or two bob fare. The annoying thing is a new regime starts soon anyway and I am no longer a London resident but dependent on whatever deal the local authority has with TfL.
Of course I bawled the F word at the top of my voice but that didn't help. I phoned later though and asked TfL under what circumstances that could happen. They said if it had been declared lost or stolen, which mine hadn't. Were I a younger man I would go back there with a baseball bat and peer menacingly through the glass. Goddam carphound.
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Talking of the grape or grain, what do you have in your fist this evening? I am convinced you are fuelled by someting this wet and windy night.
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But fluent in his cups, nonetheless?
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...But fluent in his cups, nonetheless?...
Effluent, more like.
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>> Effluent, more like.
Steady on old girl. Something got the old bloomers in a twist?
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hes probably been in the sun all day ;-)
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Identity theft or sales pitch ? - BobbyG
