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Child Item

Personal Info Over The Phone to Compaines

Snotty

Interested to see how people deal with this, I regularly get calls from companies that i have accounts with like Eir, 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 phone me, so i normally say no and they can email or write to me if it is something important, id say its marketing BS most of the time.
But yesterday i was onto my banks 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 most people do, just give them the info?

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KaneToad

Snotty wrote: »

Interested to see how people deal with this, I regularly get calls from companies that i have accounts with like Eir, 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 phone me, so i normally say no and they can email or write to me if it is something important, id say its marketing BS most of the time.
But yesterday i was onto my banks 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 most people do, just give them the info?

If someone calls me I never hand over details.

Duke of Url

Snotty wrote: »

Interested to see how people deal with this, I regularly get calls from companies that i have accounts with like Eir, 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 phone me, so i normally say no and they can email or write to me if it is something important, id say its marketing BS most of the time.
But yesterday i was onto my banks 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 most people do, just give them the info?

Yes. If I call them,

They never seem to call me.

LessOutragePlz

Snotty wrote: »

Interested to see how people deal with this, I regularly get calls from companies that i have accounts with like Eir, 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 phone me, so i normally say no and they can email or write to me if it is something important, id say its marketing BS most of the time.
But yesterday i was onto my banks 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 most people do, just give them the info?

Yeah pretty much you have no other option really they need to verify that the person they are speaking with is the person that owns the account.

Damien360

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.

Strumms

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 kosher. 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 say 056-123 4567 shows that is not in fact Éir but a number that’s been cold calling people seeking personal details under the guise of being Eir technical services.

Smee_Again

I ask for a direct number to call them back on and if they don't have I usually just end the call.

If I'm expecting a call then I'd probably answer the questions especially if its a person I've dealt with before.

Trigger Happy

I would prefer that the company I am dealing with properly verify that it is me before discussing my account.. I would not be giving out info on a cold call tho.

beauf

Trigger Happy wrote: »

I would prefer that the company I am dealing with properly verify that it is me before discussing my account.. I would not be giving out info on a cold call tho.

But only if you ring them. Not if they ring you.

colm_mcm

Snotty wrote: »

Interested to see how people deal with this, I regularly get calls from companies that i have accounts with like Eir, 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 phone me, so i normally say no and they can email or write to me if it is something important, id say its marketing BS most of the time.
But yesterday i was onto my banks 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 most people do, just give them the info?

If you don’t want to verify details then don’t ask for a call back.

You were expecting a call after all.

Wanderer19

I think it's taken privacy to a whole new level.
If you ring me you should have the details, simple as that. Asking one question is enough, not 5.

If my husband rang to pay my ESB bill by card, having the account number, knowing all my details (even though they shouldn't be needed) and they still won't deal with him.

Absolute rubbish.

And the misuse of GDPR as a reason for obtaining information and refusing to deal with people is mind boggling

biko

If you have requested the call back, or rang them yourself there is no reason to suspect foul play.
If they ring you without prior request - don't give them anything.

You can also throw in a tiny bit of wrong info to see if they react when they should compare to the info they have on file - get your address slightly wrong etc.

[Deleted User]

Never forget my bank's fraud team ringing me and asking for my credit card number

I was like ehhhh no?? They said fine, call back on a number you trust... so I did. it really was them

vodafone recently were demanding my online login password "to verify how much of a discount i should get on my upgrade" after i rang them
what are they like

Errashareesh

Believe me they hate data protection tedium as much as you do - probably more.

They're not up to anything - they just have to comply with stupid red tape.

BrianD3

Ulster Bank are so stupid/arrogant that they rang me from a withheld number and then asked me to identify myself using my mother's maiden name etc. I hadn't even requested a call back.

Snotty

Errashareesh wrote: »

Believe me they hate data protection tedium as much as you do - probably more.

They're not up to anything - they just have to comply with stupid red tape.

"They" assuming are genuine but a scam call can also ask for personal details as verification.

Gregor Samsa

Had Vodafone call me a while back. Unknown caller number, 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% percent 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.

Strumms

I did call center work all be it 21 years ago for ICT eurotel and some ‘campaigns’ including one credit and collections one for Eircell didn’t have any ability for us to receive calls...

Potential-Monke

Here's the gas thing, but not sure if Irish based companies are doing the same. Last place I worked was for an American based company selling products in America, Canada, Australia, UK and Ireland (and some other European countries, but we only dealt with the english speaking ones). Anyway, the whole trans thing really took off while I was there (about 3 or 4 years ago) and all the madey up genders was increasing in numbers, so it was the talk of the company at the time (no, i'm not changing my lanyard to a rainbow one to 'show support').

Anyway, I asked a simple question, how can we verify that the customer on the other end of the phone is the gender we expect them to be. After a few back and forths, it was decided that no matter how male or female the voice sounded, if they verified the details on the account, we talk to them as if they're the account holder. So yes, that means if a Julie rang in and sounded like that drunken Kerry fella talking about skulling pints, as long as the information was verified correctly, we believe it's Julie.

There's one thing that avoids all this, and that's a pin/password on the account. Some companies already have this, you verify the pin or password and no personal details are held. Problem here is the rigmarole to get past it if you forget it, which the vast majority of people do.

bobbyy gee

Lots of scammers do that

Potential-Monke

bobbyy gee wrote: »

Lots of scammers do that

I agree, but in fairness to the company, they were right. What's worse, giving out account information to someone else who verified your account, or mis-labeling/mis-gendering someone over the phone? I know the former is worse, society seems to infer that the latter is more important.

GarIT

Wanderer19 wrote: »

I think it's taken privacy to a whole new level.
If you ring me you should have the details, simple as that. Asking one question is enough, not 5.

If my husband rang to pay my ESB bill by card, having the account number, knowing all my details (even though they shouldn't be needed) and they still won't deal with him.

Absolute rubbish.

And the misuse of GDPR as a reason for obtaining information and refusing to deal with people is mind boggling

You shouldn't give your card number to anyone over the phone ever no matter how much you trust them.

Kylta

I don't like being cold called at any time. But if you breath heavy into the phone constantly throw in a little moan. The caller has a tendency to hang up. But beware if your doing this on unknown mobile numbers, because I was, I didn't know my mother changed her number. I can still hear her scream my name

bb1234567

I couldn't believe a company I wanted to get work with rang me up the other day asking for my whole bank details to get a deposit. I honestly thought it was a scam so I rang back and it was really them and they really do ask people for their bank details over the phone to make a payment. I don't know, it seems unprofessional given the recent scams involving people posing as your phone company/bank and asking you to give your details over the phone as verification.

skinny90

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Had Vodafone call me a while back. Unknown caller number, 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% percent 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.

Id have given them fake details to see where it would go

riclad

Why would you give personal info like a dob etc to a random cold caller.
It's standard practice for banks to ask you for date of birth to verify its the customer who is the owner of the bank account.
This reminds me of the people who received texts from a scammer who pretended to be from an Irish bank.
They gave the info and money was stolen from their bank accounts.
If I received a txt from a bank I,d ignore it.

PARlance

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Had Vodafone call me a while back. Unknown caller number, 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% percent 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.

If they were chirpy, they almost certainly weren't a Vodafone employee.

Vodafone outsource telesales quite a bit afaik so while the call was probably a genuine call on behalf of Vodafone, it would explain the outbound call centre aspect.