way OT - automated security checks on phone from USA

[dave]

Minutes after having bought a National coach company ticket for my daughter I received a land line call from a robot recorded msg saying "This is a security check from " and proceeded to start asked questions.

The strange thing is, I had to call said coach company to make a change to the ticket and was told that the card details would be check

** By a security company in the USA **. I said I did *not* want any calls, advertising junk etc etc as a result of this - Celeste I'd buy a completely new ticket., They assured me it was security check only.

I just wondered if anyone here has had a similar experience or knows anything about this USA security checking business?

I'm going to ring my bank just now - which will probably tale all day of course. Maybe email is better :-)

Sorry for OT, but maybe of general interest too

[Usenet Nutter]

So it wasn't one of them security checks that some banks do if their system feels the transaction is "odd" to check if you confirm the payment was made by you ? ...was it from a bank different to the one associated with the card you used ? ...what sort of questions could they ask if it was a different bank that was calling ?

Who is Celeste ? :-)

[Andrew Gabriel]

I had an automated call, claiming to come from Barclaycard. I refused to answer any of the questions. Rung Barclycard, and it turned out to be genuine - they were trying to contact me after some fraud detection software was tripped by pattern of activity on my card.

If it happened again, I would still not answer any such questions on an incoming call, but call the bank back using a phone number on the statement or card itself.

[dom]

I did that the first time I had that sort of call from the card company - they were perfectly ok about my caution.

However when they phone, they call me by name, and don't ask any questions that would be useful for a phishing attack - IIRC they read out my recent transactions and ask me to verify them, yes or no - and last time there was indeed some fraudulent use. New card issued to me, and those transactions removed before my bill was sent.

[Bob Eager]

I dumped Barclaycard because of their hair-trigger 'fraud detection'. The final straw was a typical 45 quid order to CPC. Nothing I hadn't done before, numerous times, at the same time of day, etc...

On more than one occasion they just declined the transaction, leaving the vendor (in this case CPC) to contact me. On asking why they didn't call me, they said "Oh, we will...but it can take over six hours".

[Andrew Gabriel]

Well, in my case their trigger had fired on a fraud transaction, so I was quite pleased they picked it up instantly.

[dave]

Firstly thanks vm all for the helpful replies. Secondly apols for al the typos(celeste is a figment of my spell-un-checker!. Was in a spin due to this call - which has just this minute happened a second time.

It's a recorded voice and is expecting voice-responses.

I eventually found a number to call my barc-bank. Ended up talking to someone on another continent (noise tonality on line etc). Their English was poor but eventually they did something useful. They were able to see if anyone from Barc had called me in the past 1 hour. They had not.

So I tried to get through to them the amazing coincidence then. Namely that a reputable UK company had told me that to make this card payment *would* entail a security check with a US security firm. Then withing minutes, I get called by a robot. Finally was told they will report it to security.

I don't pretend to I'm a net-wizz but of course didn't answer any of robot's questions - however I think many people would. So I see this as a security breach by that US security co - that should be addressed by the UK coach co.

Thanks again chaps.

[pete]

I used to get this from Visa. Occasionally I'd get a cold call asking for "security" validation after some purchases. When challenged they were completely unable to prove to me that they were who they claimed to be. Soo I wouldn't answer any of their security questions and they wouldn't answer any of mine. Never seemed to cause any problems with using the card though.

[John Rumm]

I went through one of these sessions - paying attention to what information was being exchanged!

They seek to verify who you are, but do so by asking a questions such as "what is your date of birth" and then reading out five dates - so that you can indicate the real one. Once verified they then read some recent transactions out and ask you to flag any you don't recognise. So not much use for collecting phishing data.

[John Rumm]

To be honest, I get the impression you are putting two and two together and coming up with a fraction!

The robot security check is triggered by the card company in response to a recent transaction or pattern of them - it probably has nothing to do with any security checks that the merchant may also make on your card.

Your CC company will be wary of purchases of things that are not delivered to your home address. So travel, sending gifts to third parties etc tend to raise doubts - especially if done for the first time. They are common uses for stolen card details. The merchant will also be aware of this, and is going to use extra verification to ensure they are not being handed stolen card details.

[Harry]

If it was National Express and you had the Shopper Discounts & Rewards popup offering discount on your next ticket, just hope you didn't go for it - leads to a monthly draw from your credit card account of either £8 or 10. Took about four months before we spotted it and took them to task.

[Ian White]

Agreed. What they should do is send a completely automated message saying, "This is [name of card company]. We need to check some of your recent transactions, so please call us at the phone number printed on the back of your card" - but then they should make that an 0800 number, not 0870.

If I am not expecting one of these calls, I usually hang up and call the non-0870 number that they give for enquiries from abroad.

OTOH if I have just made an unusual transaction, I'll be expecting a call and will accept it.

[David Hansen]

On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:06:27 -0800 (PST) someone who may be Adam Aglionby wrote this:-

One of this sort of idiot phoned me recently. I asked her for the number so that I could authenticate it. I couldn't so said that they could communicate by letter. The letter has yet to arrive.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember David Hansen saying something like:

Of course, a phisher could just give out a genuine bank number and drop the call as a loss. Meantime a bit of confusion has been sown.