How can you tell if it's genuine call from the bank?

[pestothepenguin]

How can you assure people contacting you aren't fraudsters?

A few years ago I had been to St Petersburg (pre conflict)

As I landed and was collecting luggage I had a call from my bank asking me if I'd been away and they were from the fraud team. I was really worried I was being scammed and really flustered. They asked where I'd been and what I spent and if I had been to Florida and spent in car park?

Anyway it seems it was genuine and perhaps my card had been cloned in Russia. They refunded me and cancelled the card

Another one was Amazon an email asking if I had attempted to log in ( it was my husband but didn't realise).

If someone rang me tomorrow there is no way I'd believe them. How can you verify this?

You say thank you very much for that information, end the phone call and try and use a different phone line and call the number on the back of your debit / credit card which is a genuine number and say you’ve been contacted by the bank however your concerned it’s bank impersonation fraud and can they help you to get the fraud department to discuss. If it’s genuine there will be notes / alerts on your account so the first person you talk to should confirm whether it’s been a genuine call or not.

i say to use another phone line as fraudsters can keep the line open so when you dial back then can intercept it.

have a google for fraud awareness and what to do, all the big banks provide the information / classes on this

As above call them back on the number at the back of your card. Try to use a different phone, but if you can’t at least make sure you can hear the dialling tone before ringing out.

I work in a bank. We really don’t mind people questioning us and wanting to call back. In fact it makes us happy that people are protecting themselves.

I’ve done what pps suggested in the past. I got a call from the fraud team at my bank, wasn’t expecting a call as hadn’t noticed anything unusual so I said I would call them back. I did, and it had been them calling me but you can never be too careful. My Mum had £56k drained from her account by a scammer and it took over two years for the bank to recover it!

A few months ago I had a text message from my bank saying they thought someone had tried to fraudulently use my card. There was a number so I rang it. A man answered. I asked him to prove he worked for Lloyd's. He said he couldn't so I said I didn't want to talk to him. He told me to wait fifteen minutes and ring the number on the back of my card which I did. I had twenty minutes on hold and then someone answered and confirmed the previous man was from Lloyd's. Someone had tried to buy a high end bath suite in America.
The man on the phone blocked my card. Told me to go the cash machine and ring the number again. Twenty minutes again on hold. They they unblocked my card for five minutes and I got cash out. I had to wait almost a week for a new card!!!