Paranoia and the bank

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:35:00 GMT

So you know how in December someone stole my card details and got about £100 out of my account? I was a bit paranoid because even after it was sorted my sisters bank details were similarly nicked.

A bit past 1pm today I got a phonecall from someone saying they were the Santander fraud department and needed to double-check some things about the other fraudulent transactions made on the same day.

Santander NEVER call you directly. You get automated messages for you to call them. So I told the lady I’d call back. When I got through to Santander’s security department, they had no record of the call.

Plus it sounded like an Indian call-centre. A GOOD Indian call-centre, but an Indian call-centre nonetheless.

So the people who stole my card details also have my phone number, and my feeling that I or this household are being targeted in some way is growing.

The actual banks advice? Keep a close eye on things, let them know if anything odd happens. Helpful stuff.

Of course I’ve seen enough information about con-games I can’t help but wonder if I’m playing into their hands. What if they’re expecting you to call the bank back yourself and have tapped your phone, or re-routed the call to a fake centre, so you give the details as the security questions thinking you’ve outwitted them?

I don’t think that happened, but it’s a possibility. After-all we live in a city where fake BT vans van steal a few hundred miles of copper cable overnight and simply vanish.

Santander seem to be getting sloppy though. When asking to confirm the last digits of my card number the operator actually suggested them to me while I was rummaging in my wallet for it, which is probably the sole reason I haven’t quite calmed down again yet. That and that they asked for the confirmation number on the back, which I’m sure they’ve asked for before but still seemed out of the ordinary.

The internet banking was also suffering a glitch at the time too, where it wasn’t able to show current balance. That fixed within a minute or two, but still, the whole thing’s got me on-edge again.

Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.

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