[Gllug] [OT] data protection 'phone calls

[Philip Hands]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:28:54 +0000, Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 01:05:32PM +0000, Tethys . wrote:
> 
> > I have exactly the same issue with my bank. They don't seem to
> > understand the problem and get very confused when I refuse to speak to
> > them.
> 
> My bank (Nat West) have been good as far as this is concerned and told me
> something like the value of a recent bank transaction. The individual always
> seemed surprised at my request that they prove their identity - which suggests
> to me that few people challenge people who call them - which is why social
> engineering/phishing is so successful.

LloydsTSB phoned me up a bit over a year ago, and insisted that I should
provide my phone banking password (or perhaps some other sensitive
information) before they'd even tell me what the call was about.  I told
them that there was no way I would do that, so I'd have to call them
back -- they still refused to say anything about what the call related
to, despite me explaining that this was a really inconvenient time, and
that just knowing the degree of urgency of the call would be really
helpful.

On phoning them back, it turned out the the call was from my newly
appointed account manager enquiring whether I'd like to upgrade my
account a Premium Unobtainium Extra account or whatever, so I
congratulated then on finally managing to piss me off enough to make me
leave (after having the account for 30+ years), and explained in detail
what I was upset about -- I got an incredibly helpful customer services
chap phone me up soon after that, who I told the story to again, and
confirmed that my decision was made.

I now bank with the Co-Op.

Amusingly, the manager at my Co-Op branch is ex-Lloyds -- he left
because they'd dumbed down the manager role to be that of a glorified
salesman.

Cheers, Phil.
-- 
|)|  Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560]    http://www.hands.com/
|-|  HANDS.COM Ltd.                    http://www.uk.debian.org/
|(|  10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London  E18 1NE  ENGLAND
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