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Oh, the irony

RogerS

RogerS

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The missus came running up the stairs this morning in a bit of a panic clutching both the landline phone and her mobile saying that Lloyds Bank wanted to talk to me urgently. She worries all the time about her cars being compromised.

True..the caller sounded like the lady from Lloyds Bank. Automatic asking me for my card number. Didn't recognise it and so asked for my DoB. OK...time to put the phone down and call Lloyds directly.

The muppet in the call centre hadn't a clue. Told me the number was a scam. That Lloyds numbers are 'protected' and can't be faked. That no-one in fraud were trying to call me. Mmmm...right. He's due for some retraining, I hope.

And here's the irony. Checked my own phone and there was a number but didn't ring as it was flagged up as Potential Fraud and blocked. Checking my blocked number list - not there. Lot of digging around, talking to poorly trained support staff here and there who all insisted that my phone wouldn't auto-block. It does if you have Block Scam Calls enabled. Powered by Hiya.

Hiya who list the telephone number from the Lloyds Bank fraud team as a scam call and will block them from ever contacting you ! Surely Lloyds are aware of the possibility of this and would take steps to monitor sites like Hiya ? Or is it another case of Roger's First Law ?

Meanwhile I have a gripe to make with Lloyds Bank. They have just one number to contact me on. My mobile. So by whose authority do they go rummaging through other account holders who might share the same address and surname as me and use their registered telephone numbers to try and contact me? Doesn't client confidentiality exist anymore ?
 
When asked for your card number is a sure sign of fraud. Had many such calls in the past ,decided to call my bank and they said they will never ask for a card number.
 
duke said:
When asked for your card number is a sure sign of fraud. Had many such calls in the past ,decided to call my bank and they said they will never ask for a card number.
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Lloyds do. And do most other UK banks that I've used. It matters not one jot by itself from a potential fraud aspect.

I'm not sure what North America does these days as part of verification process. Here if it is an online purchase then after entering your card details online (card number, expiry date, 3 digit security number (or 4 if Amex), the transaction goes to the next step which is verification by the card issuer. What happens then will depend on many factors but most often you will get a 6 digit OTP (one time passcode) sent to your mobile. Tough luck doing e-commerce if you have no mobile signal.
 
RogerS said:
What happens then will depend on many factors but most often you will get a 6 digit OTP (one time passcode) sent to your mobile. Tough luck doing e-commerce if you have no mobile signal.
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That's one thing I quite like about American Express: they let you set it up so the codes go to an email address instead of a mobile number. Generally if you're doing e-commerce you also have access to email. Of course it doesn't help when the seller doesn't take Amex.

Sainsbury's have an app for scanning your own shopping which, unsurprisingly, requires network access. They also offer free wifi, but I'd never bothered as I had good reception in the store. Then the local base station went down for a while so I figured I'd use the wifi. First step to log-in to the wifi: "we'll send a code to your mobile which you need to enter to connect". If I could receive said text message I'd have reception & wouldn't need to connect!
 
On the calls from bank thing, I work on a simple principle. If I get a call from any financial institution I tell them I'll call them back (using the phone number printed on the back of the card). I ask them which department to ask for.

If they don't like that, it's fraud & I hang up. If they tell me which department to ask for, I ring the number and ask for that department. Simple & reasonably fraud-proof I think.
 
RogerS said:
What happens then will depend on many factors but most often you will get a 6 digit OTP (one time passcode) sent to your mobile. Tough luck doing e-commerce if you have no mobile signal.
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When I had this problem with Nationwide a few years back they sent the OTP via email, fine so long as you are at home. Or have secure fixed internet connection.
 
Dr.Al said:
.... First step to log-in to the wifi: "we'll send a code to your mobile which you need to enter to connect". If I could receive said text message I'd have reception & wouldn't need to connect!
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Roger's First Law at work again (y)
 
So as well as checking annual rainfall 4g/5g availability will be high on your check list for any future property?
 
On my side of the Atlantic the bank or credit card issuer will always ask for your address , what was the amount of your last purchase and other related questions. Then they will proceed to deal with the account. Never do they ask for a card number.
 
I get lots of calls and my first response is "who are you and what do you want?". Except for rare exceptions my second statement is usually "bu**er off" or words to that effect and so far I haven't had too many problems. :)
 
I enjoy taking a more convivial approach to the myriad of scam calls, the last one I had I spent 15 minutes just shouting "No Engwish" to the Indian lady called Barbara that wanted to give me a better Vodaphone deal than the one I was on (I'm not with Vodaphone). Prior to that I spent neary half an hour trying to book a young Indian gentleman (called Brian) to sample the delights of 'one of the girls' with the dire warning not to mess me around or Serge would come visit. Brian never missed a beat on his script about upgrading my banking with HSBC (I'm not with HSBC but Brian didn't need to know that).

One of the boys at work asked how I could be bothered keeping them on the phone so long and its simple if they are dealing with my nonsense they cant be bothering someone who does fall for their lies and greed.
 
I chortled when I heard about the AI that VirginMedia (IIRC) had set up to answer telephone calls. The AI's telephone number was posted on sites known to have scammers. Tied them up for ages !
 
Dr.Al said:
On the calls from bank thing, I work on a simple principle. If I get a call from any financial institution I tell them I'll call them back (using the phone number printed on the back of the card). I ask them which department to ask for.

If they don't like that, it's fraud & I hang up. If they tell me which department to ask for, I ring the number and ask for that department. Simple & reasonably fraud-proof I think.
Click to expand...
Make sure you use a different phone. There are ways the scammers can keep the line connected even though you've hung up.
Duncan
 
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