talktalk call centre scriptreading droids

[cynic]

I have been getting a series of calls from Talktalk whereby I answer the phone and am asked if I am the (named) account holder. On answering yes the chat usually goes along the lines "How are you today" etc then the line "For data protection purposes can I ask you for your name?" This results in me telling them they know who I am and I have just confirmed this to them. What follows is utter confusion and always ends with me terminating the call. If I phoned them I can see the justification for being asked for details but if they phone me I refuse to play their silly game. The service has been fine and I have no outstanding problems. If I did I would soon be onto them so why don't they stop playing silly buggers?

[Bert Coules]

Not TalkTalk, but a similar case. I had this the other day:

May I speak to Mr... (mispronouncing) Cool-lez?

Coules. Speaking.

Ah, Mr Coules, don't worry, I'm not trying to sell you anything, this is a survey. The call won't take more than one minute, is that all right?

Is that one minute from the start of the call, or from when you commence the survey?

Er... sorry?

Has the minute already started, or not?

It will just take one minute, is that all right?

Please answer my question.

Just one minute, is that all right?

(And so on...)

Cruel of me, I suppose, but I'm supposed to be on a register which prevents this sort of thing.

[Mark]

I get this kind of thing from banks/credit card companies. The worst is an automated caller which claims to be from my credit card. It then asks *me* to confirm my identity by typing in my DoB. I refuse to cooperate but they are unable to understand why.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've just had a letter from them saying they can't reach my email address, which they quote correctly in this letter. Their email gets returned. Strange, considering I get many to the same one each and every day.

Seems they want to tell me my latest bill is ready. Ready for what I dunno as it's paid monthly by credit card (and is up to date), and I only have broadband with them.

It also suggests I log into my account - but when I do it asks for my email address and then says it isn't correct...

[charles]

You could be anyone answering the nominated phone line; by asking for you DoB they are verifying that the correct person is answering the phone. what is wrong with that?. I have always found such calls to be important in stopping someone else fraudulently using my credit card.

[Bob Eager]

You're not, though. Surveys are allowed.

[Tim]

You don't really believe that they're surveys do you?? In my experience, nearly always turn out to be selling under the guise of "doing a survey"

Tim

[Brian Gaff]

Who knows, it may well be some kind of training on the job so to speak. However I am not with them, but still occasionally get them ringing to see if I got their piece of glossy paper about how they can save me loads on my current supplier of broadband. I usually tell them I don't know if their glossy rubbish came as I'm blind and can they offer email bills and a way to talk to a human when i ring, preferably one in the uk. This tends to throw them as they seem to not have a blind person fallback in their script. Brian

[fred]

In article , Bert Coules writes

"Who are you?", should surely be next? [1]

Oooooh, on the back foot already, answering one of their questions ;-)

Downhill from there . . . .

[1] You ask the questions, they answer, they're on the back foot.

[S Viemeister]

My standard response is "who's calling, please?".

[fred]

Sounds a bit polite for my liking (I can usually tell if it's a legitimate call).

[Andy Champ]

I've had two calls like that recently.

One asked me if I had my debit card. I said as far as I know, I do, but I don't know who you are.

He asked me to check. I checked. It was in my wallet, which went back ...err.. this is public... into its usual place. I also told him I didn't know who he was.

He then asked me something else, which required that I have the card handy. So I got the card. He then guessed the wrong bank, and on me saying for the _third_ time "I don't know who you are" muttered something unintelligible and rang off.

The other one claimed to be my credit card company. This one turned up on the answering machine, and when I googled the number it did seem to be associated with them. But being professionally paranoid I called the number that I had anyway - and they confirmed that the number was the fraud prevention centre. A couple of questions on - and had I topped up my Orange mobile in Darlington? And my O2 mobile in Slough, within half an hour? And bought some tickets from Easyjet?

I have a new credit card number now.

The Easyjet one was annoying. Presumably someone turned up at the airport with photo ID to take the flights, but they couldn't arrange an interception :(

Andy

[John Rumm]

When they do this right, they read out 5 DOBs one is your real one, and

4 are random. That at least prevents you having to disclose anything other than a confirmation.

[S Viemeister]

I always start off with 'polite' - it can be more effective than starting off brusquely.

[Bob Eager]

Oh, of course. But they don't often get that far. Actually, I very rarely interact with them at all...the Asterisk box does all the work, silently.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

How can you be sure that you're not giving private info away to someone who doesn't hitherto know it?

What's more, suppose - say - that the phone call has come in to a student house. Lots of people who are not related to each other may still know each other's DOBs. Providing the info does not prove you're who the caller wants to talk to.

It'd be better if the incoming call told you that there's a possible problem, then asked you to ring the bank's normal phone banking service and pick option 23 (or whatever) in their menu, to speak to their fraud dept. You'd find the phone no yourself and authenticate yourself to the bank using a system you already trust, and not risk being socially engineered on the phone.

[PeterC]

Worth doing that. I had a call the other day that sounded just like disguised sales. I asked, politely, who was calling and it was an apologetic CS woman from a supplier to tell me when some missing items would be dispatched. Same at the front door: about 15 years ago there was a chap at the door who seemed to the archetypical DG salesman. He was from Vernons with a cheque for 30 grand - glad I didn't get rid of him!

[PeterC]

I rang DWP this week; I'd had the letter confirming my State pension and asking me to check all details, especially bank account. The a/c details weren't on the letter of course so I rang up. The lass asked enough to confirm my ID then asked for Sort Code and a/c number. It was very well done and at no time did I feel that I was under pressure or giving away too much. Of course, if she'd rung me and asked for those details...!

[Steve Walker]

Except the problem is that when they call you rather than the other waya round, *YOU* have no idea whether they are who they say they are or if they are trying to gather information for a scam.

SteveW

[polygonum]

My situation is quite good for sifting out the spam. Partner's name is different to mine. And most external things are in her name. So many ask "Is that Mr Wrongsurname?". With only a couple of exceptions over the years has that not been definitive for spammer. And they never find out what is wrong.