How To Deal With Scam Phone Calls

Can You Trust Who Is Calling You?

When you have no reason to suspect anything, it’s so easy to take what people tell us at face value. This is exactly what fraudsters want.

While we’re used to answering a series of security questions to prove we are who we say we are when we telephone our bank or financial institution, have you ever thought of questioning someone who’s telephoned you to prove they are who they claim to be?

Fraudsters are increasingly hitting the phones and telephoning us, making out they’re calling from our banks, when in fact, all they’re after is our personal information, so they can help themselves to our bank balances. Being aware of the risks is the best way to protect yourself from being duped over the telephone by a financial fraudster.

In 2014, in Northern Ireland, people in Limavady, County Londonderry, were targeted by fraudsters telephoning them and claiming to be from their bank or other financial institution. By conning them into revealing PIN and other personal data, people have lost a lot of money, some as much as tens of thousands.

Calls often began with the fraudsters claiming there’d been a suspicious transaction on an account, which they need to investigate further. After collecting some personal data, they then suggested funds should be transferred from the customer’s account to another account, which the fraudster had control over. It might sound obvious to anyone reading this here, but fraudsters are highly-skilled at making this all sound plausible.

Of course, there are times when a genuine financial institution has a legitimate need to contact one of their customers by telephone.

However, when their call is answered they don’t know whether they are talking to their customer or somebody else at the same telephone number. So, to protect their customer’s confidentiality (which they have a legal duty to do), they need to ask some security questions to prove they’re talking to right person.

But what if you’re the person being telephoned? How do you know you’re giving your security answers to someone from the financial institution and not a fraudster? While the caller is busy identifying us, how can we identify them?

The best advice is to NEVER give out information to someone calling you. Instead, call them back using a number you have found from a reliable source.

Hang Up If You’re Unsure

If you can’t be certain of the identity of the person telephoning you then terminate the call. You can always call your bank back and have the call verified or visit your local branch.

Ignore The Information Trick

Sometimes a fraudster will try to gain your confidence by getting you to ask them for some information. They may suggest, for example, that you ask them to give you two specific characters from your mother’s maiden name. But this doesn’t prove the caller is genuine. It only proves they know your mother’s maiden name (data that can be established from genealogy websites)!

Call Back …

If you’re unsure who has called you, and they’re asking you for personal information, always remain calm and polite. Explain your concerns and say that you will call them back.

Genuine financial institutions will understand this. Take the caller’s name, job title and department, but don’t ask for their extension or phone number. Terminate the call and then call back the financial organisation, on a different line if you can, using a number you know to be genuine, such as from a statement, official brochure or headed notepaper.

When the switchboard answers, ask for the person by name, giving their job title and department. If the caller was genuine the switchboard will be able to connect you.

Don’t forget that once your call is answered by the financial institution’s employee, they will need to ask you some security questions to confirm you are who you claim to be. But because you’ve called a genuine telephone number, you know it’s now safe to give this information. The golden rule is:

It is the caller who needs to identify themselves to the receiver.

Different Line

Call back using a different line. Why? Because fraudsters are learning from this customer vigilance and now operate a new scam, called ‘vishing’, where they actively encourage you to call back. That’s how confident a fraudster will act!

However, when you terminate the call the fraudster does not hang up at their end. This leaves the telephone line open, which means that any subsequent number you dial at your end is not connected because the fraudster is still on the open line.

You may think you’re talking to your genuine bank, but is it the original fraudster who is still on the line and dupes you into divulging all the personal data the fraudster asks.

Phone A Friend Or Family Member

To be sure the line is clear, check you have a dialling tone before dialling the number.

If you can’t use another line (such as a mobile, if you were called on a landline, or vice versa), use your telephone to call a friend, or a family member first. If your call is answered by the recognisable voice of your friend or family member, then you know your line is clear. If a fraudster keeps your line open your call to your friend won’t get through. It’ll be the fraudster’s voice that greets you.

Takeaway:

• Don’t give out any information to anyone you cannot positively identify.
• Remember, it’s the caller who needs to identify themselves.
• If in doubt, hang up.
• Call back on a number you trust.
• Use a different phone line to do so, or phone a friend first.

Many assume that the biggest threat to our data comes from our ever-growing reliance upon the Internet for day-to-day transactions, but we should never forget that we’re still vulnerable through traditional methods of communication. So if you can’t identify the person who called you, just be careful what you tell them.