Cold call from call centre then asks me security questions

[sm40]

So I have a fridge freezer that is about to be a year old. D and G phone me, obviously to sign up to the extended warranty thing. I generally wait for it to go wrong before I sign up for anything.
Anyway he then says before he proceeds he needs to check my details with me and starts to ask for name and address. I refused as this seemed wrong as he had called me.
He phoned me, he could have been anyone. Why do they ask me for security details when they must have them on their system.
What is the deal here and why???

It's a data protection thing. They are legally required to confirm your identity. Anyone could have answered the phone, they don't know who you are without taking security

I wouldn't have answered them either if they called you. Tell them you'll ring them back if you want to take out the warranty

It’s for data protection. Imagine you’d moved and not told them your number changed and started sharing your details with the person living in your old house?

That said, any outbound caller should offer you a number to call into them if you’d rather not talk to them once they call you.

Your choice whether to talk to them or not but it’s legitimate.

You also don't know that they are legitimately calling from where they say they are so it's safest to not talk to them and call them back on a number you have for them

Ok! So we both effectively have to do a data protection check on each other!!!

Companies do do this and have done for years. I always refuse to give my details as it's always a company trying to get you to sign up to something that does this. My catalogue did it once and I refused. She got very huffy and said she wouldn't be able to tell me about their offers, oh well, don't tell me then!

It could be a scam. I was with my elderly mother and answered a call from these people. The washing machine is ancient but they wanted all sorts of info and ideally for her to pay over the phone. She didn't know - but I did. There was no extended warranty that was about to expire.

As others say - ring back from a different phone on a different day if you want to renew a warranty

My bank's fraud dept rang me once, and asked for personal details to confirm who I was. I said no chance, I'll ring back - it was an overseas call centre and could have been anyone.

Turned out it was my bank, and a genuine call, but I was amazed that they thought I'd just hand over my details like that.

Virgin do this to us all the time, call on the landline and refuse to tell me why until I give them my full life story. I got ruder and ruder having repeatedly told them not to call (it all turns out to be about 'upgrading' etc) and now I tell them I'm not giving out personal info over the phone and hang up.

I had, of all people, the credit card fraud line of my bank ring up and do this to me. I pointed out that they were seeking to obtain exactly the information that would let someone defraud me. Took best part of an hour working my way through various departments of the bank, from numbers on the official website, to confirm it really was them. Really annoying part was that they were querying a payment to a company that I had made a number of previous payments without problem. So hardly suspect.

Oh I forgot. I even had the TPS cold calling me to sign up to their services. I laughed at him and told him about the irony of his call. And then hung up!!