this scam is worth noting

[geoff]

Then you'd know it was a scam

You mean ... "due to exceptional call volumes, you are being held in a queue and will be answered ... shortly"

[Andy Burns]

Eeek! I was expecting more of a "piss off" than you sending me actual(?) details. As it happens I do have an IVR application that was knocked up as a demo using Asterisk and Java that could be adapted, but I think I'll resist ... I've deleted your email!

[Mike Barnes]

Is that what happens when you ring the number on the back of your MasterCard? You must have the unobtanium one.

[Mike Barnes]

Graham. :

OK, yes, in theory it could be done. Spoof the phone network and spoof the credit card company's call centre. But that's a lot of effort, and why are they going to do that in order to scam someone showing signs of intelligence, when there are so many easier targets around?

Does anyone know of it actually having happened?

[Andy Champ]

Last time this happened to me we managed to come to an arrangement where they fed me some insignificant detail and I fed them one back, which managed to convince ourselves that (a) we were who we said we were and (b) the answer to the query without actually saying anything that would mean anything to anyone who wasn't who they said they were. IYSWIM.

Asking them to pass the information to bank branch "X" works too. Except this was for a card with very few branches.

One of my wife's colleagues was recently called by her bank and asked for her PIN. It wasn't really the bank of course, and the card had just been stolen... and no, she wasn't that stupid!

Andy

[Mathew Newton]

Unlike my bank's anti-fraud department who, during the investigation into an unauthorised transaction on my account, went on to send me a

10-page printout from the retailer's checkout audit showing the transaction with the credit card number and various other bits of information including the cardholder's name.... That transaction took one paragraph of one page - the other nine showed similar details for around 50 other customer transactions...

I'd always wondered exactly where/how my card details had been picked up, but I never imagined the credit card company anti-fraud department could've been a potential source!

Mathew

[Mark]

It's a common problem when someone phones you up claiming to be from your bank/credit card/phone company etc and then asks /you/ to prove who you are. It's the wrong way around. They need to prove who they are first. Despite this they still do it.

Normally I call them back on their official number but once I was told that the person who called me cannot receive incoming calls. And it was genuine!

[Dave Liquorice]

You don't buy anything from Quidco, you go via Quidco and get a kick back from them. Your transaction is directly with the site you go to via Quidco.

Yep, the "cold" caller knowing where, when and how much recent (ie not yet printed on a statement) should be a pretty good indication that the call is from your CC company and that you are the card holder for them.

[dennis]

HSBC will issue you with an incident number and ask you to call the number on the card. You call tell them the number and they put you through to the appropriate person.

[Man at B&Q]

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Oh, FFS.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes - had one call from my bank where they wanted all the usual check details before even giving me a clue what it was about. I refused and told them to write to me. Never did get anything specific - so I'd guess they were trying to sell me something.