To be sick of companies asking me to confirm my identity when they are the one who have phoned me out of the blue?

[MuddlingMackem]

Just had the phone company ring me, saying they have some discounts I may be entitled to but can I just confirm my identity for data protection purposes.

I'm getting really sick of this and now point out that they should be confirming the info with me so that I can be sure they are who they're saying they are. The caller replied that anyone could have picked up the phone, they need to make sure they're speaking to the right person. They phoned my landline! I pointed out that I need to be sure that the person I'm speaking to is from the company he claims to be, I'm not the one who should be confirming my identity.

I suggested that maybe the way around this is for two part passwords on file, so the company says one part to confirm their identity and the customer says the other so both parties can be assured that they're speaking to who they think they are.

I know I'm being arsey, but in this day of so many telephone scams, AIBU to think that this is something thing which businesses should be taking into account?

I'm haven't rtft but DO NOT give out your personal information to unsolicited callers. People out to steal your money will pretend to be reputable in order to gather information on you

I always say after you confirm your identity and how you got my details..they always hang up then.

I worked for a well known bank and had to call customers occasionally (night shift so calls only allowed up to 9pm)

Until the customer confirmed thier identity we were not allowed to say what we were calling about (ppi refund claims made by the customer - not cold call but about claims they have already sent into us). We were also not allowed to tell them what bank we were calling from until they confirmed identity.

It was madness. I would say 95% of calls were not successful because people didn't want to give me security details and I don't blame them. I wouldn't either. My standard line was to tell them to call or visit the bank and I would leave a note on the system with the details I needed. As I couldn't say what bank I sometimes had to send them a letter (on headed paper) saying I had called but they were not willing to speak and I required them contact the bank.

The bank was genuinely clueless as to why we were back logged and struggling to meet our targets.

The vast majority of the time it has nothing whatsoever to do with data protection and everything to do with increasing the likelihood of making a sale.
They call existing customers to offer new products, upgrades, sales etc, but they can go through the details of the offers without needing to have full access to the customer's account.
I have made it very clear to my bank that if they have any promotions, they can send them to me, because I will never go through security with an unsolicited phone call.

YANBU to some extent but I have to do outbound calls for the bank and unfortunately given the person calling you a hard time or making what you think are clever comments such as you give me info and I'll confirm if it's correct doesn't throw them, it's just bloody annoying when you are doing your job and trying not to break the law. The caller isn't at fault, they are following the law. So I would suggest to those recommending to be rude not to waste your breath as it's just wasting both parties time and just find the telephone number for the company from a legitimate source, call back and check that it was really them who called. If it's genuinely e.g your bank calling then chances are it may be important.

I had someone claiming to be the police call one night. They said they had found my bank card and needed me to confirm my details. I said forgive me but you could be anyone. I'll call you back. They gave me a number to call and a shoulder badge number to quote. The number was the met police non emergency one, not sure now, but it was correct. HOWEVER they held the line open so when I disconnected the call, it didn't close the line. When I dialled though it did seem to go through. My suspicions were already raised because I had my bank card and then it was too easy to get back through. They wanted me to give them card details but wouldn't tell me what bank the card was with (presumably because they didn't actually have it) so I just said I had multiple cards with different banks and unless they could give me more details I couldn't help. In the end I think I frustrated them by being faux helpful and they terminated the call. I then tried to call the actual police to report the scam and our phone wouldn't work. Took about 10 mins before I could make an outgoing call.

Which is why I don't give out info when I get the incoming calls. Data protection act is supposed to be for consumer benefit in protecting data so I will never confirm anything to someone ringing me unexpectedly.

So YANBU OP.

I'd absolutely NEVER confirm details to someone who'd called me. A genuine company would write re. an account. I'd also check any number they gave was a real one too.
My bank have sent texts to highlight they've spotted suspicious activity. So i just went into my bank to check it out.
My refusal to confirm really gets the back up of the SLC though. Funny how banks etc actually handling all my money understand my need for security but a company getting regular payments from me seem to think I am legally obliged to talk to them over the phone!

My refusal to confirm really gets the back up of the SLC though.

I have a special reserve of rudeness for SL companies. I'm still on old style SLs so when I need to change details I'm meant to do it through SLC. If I move or change bank details or change my name I send all relevant paperwork though. SLC change it no problems. The loan owning companies OTOH seem to pick and choose which information they change and sometimes revert backwards when they feel like it. Which means I've had incidents where I've said I'll call back and they won't then deal with me because I cannot match the information they hold. They're a bloody nightmare.

One company I've purposely written to telling them to remove all my phone numbers and that of my guarantors too - because they harassed the people who now own that phone number when they couldn't contact me by phone rather that writing to me. Because they had reverted back to an old phone number.

It's cold callers who are the worst.

They ask you to confirm the number because they have no idea which of 100 numbers they rang at the same time answered.
Quite often, I pick up the phone to nobody or I can hear them chatting in the background. I bet they get annoyed when people actually answer and they have to start working.

I work for an ins co, I warm call people who have just gone online or are online doing a quote. I call because they put their phone no in and it says they will be called

Little tip - change the last number of your phone no and we won't hassle you 👍🏼

I get people who refuse to confirm their details, whatever, means they can't have the extra discount I just offered them

As an FYI, if I DID then go throw the quote without confirming data, we really do record all our calls and I have 7 listened to a month. I would be fined 25 % of my commission (potentially £300) for the month and if I made another tiny error that month, potentially £1200

Such fun

So when the agent is sayin they can't talk to you without doing it, they probably 100% agree with you but are treated like a fuckwit by their employer

I'm fine with being called if I have just put in my number. I'm expecting the call and have no problems giving my details to confirm it's really me.

In particular if they know my name and address, I don't mind giving them my date of birth, for example.

Not when they have to ask what my name is...

It's a vicious circle.
I work in finance and my team deal with mortgage applications. They frequently need to make outbound calls with updates on the application/requests for missing info etc. The number of times the applicant refuses to answer the security questions so we have to write or email them instead -delaying their application.

I would have thought if you had something like a mortgage company, a call from that company should be expected.

Unfortunately, we can't even say we're calling about their mortgage application before we are confident that we're actually speaking to the applicant!

I would have thought if you had something like a mortgage application going through, a call from that company should be expected.

Don't mention SLC to me, I can't believe how so many people working for them don't have a clue how the Data Protection Act is supposed to work. I think they hide behind it as an excuse for not doing their job.

Going back a couple of years, my loan is an old one that got transferred sold to Erudio. The loan was paid off a few months after Erudio took it over. So, a few months later, I got my yearly statement and all the forms including a new, very long, intrusive one wanting details of absolutely every penny & every loan, bank account & cc both myself & my DH have. (All this being totally unnecessary under the terms of the loan & a lot of people were very unhappy about at the time, but that's not really relevant) The thing is, the statement accompanying this tree's-worth of paperwork showed a nil balance.

After trying for a couple of days to get through on the phone to them, I emailed & asked them to confirm in writing that I didn't owe them anything & they had closed the account.
I get back an email saying they couldn't discuss this without going through security - would I email them my dob, loan account numbers, current address etc.
I pointed out that THEY had written to me, so if I was responding to their mailing I already had all this information on a piece of paper in front of me, so it wasn't a good way to confirm that I was actually the person who had the loans. Besides which, I am not going to use an email system to supply any sort of identifying info (other than my name & the loan numbers of course)
And in any case, all I wanted from them was a simple letter, written to the address THEY currently held, just to confirm the account balance.
We went back & forward for a few more emails (each time they took about 2 weeks to reply)
They kept refusing to reply properly, citing "DPA".
Eventually I gave up.

I haven't had any more statements from them though, so they must have got the message and closed my account.

Yanbu!

We have had identity theft and I never, ever, give out Info to someone calling me. 'I have had identity theft, I do not give out information to anyone who has called me. I will call your company straight back from another number'. Usually they say 'oh ok thank you', sometimes they're confused.

It's a ridiculous system and anyone who thinks otherwise is barmy

Please don't just change one digit of your phone number, if you must fill in the number section before proceeding and don't want to give yours, put a line of zeros.

I get a phone call for 'Mr Jones' or 'Mrs Smith' most weeks, sometimes several in a day then nothing for a little while. I get more calls for them two than I do for myself. Too often to be a genuine wrong number. I am convinced that a couple are giving out my number and a fake name.

I would change my number, but that's a pain in the bum, and the previous number I had was recycled from a local business that shut down many years before. But was clearly still on some records somewhere as I would get foreign call centres trying to flog me stuff in broken English, and shouting at me when I tried to make them understand that I wasn't the business owner!

monster yes genuine companies, phones, banks will send you a letter ( hopefully!) but will call you if a payment hasn't gone through, late payments, not sticking to agreements too to try to sort it out.

agree with CrohnicallyAspie Please don't change a digit, this just means others get bombarded.

I never get these types of calls, mine are all about the terrible accident i had

The most ironic call yet that I've received has been from a telemarketing company selling membership of a consumer rights association.

It's mostly the telecoms that ask for my details.

I have had cold callers pretending to be from the Telephone Preference Service. I hung up when they asked for the details of the credit card with which I paid my phone bill, even though they promised it would stop the calls!

chronicallyaspie they've Sussed that - won't accept 000000000 or area code then 00000
Mobiles have to start with a recognised 078 etc

Infuriating

I know this is a few days old, but I have just heard an IT security expert, and former hacker, on the radio talking about how we shouldn't confirm security details to people who ring us like this , and that although banks always say they won't ring or text asking for information, they actually do it all the time in the form of these phonecalls and that needs to change.

So those of us who are uneasy about this aren't just being smart arses.

Qod..online quotes and everywhere accept area code then 6 0s. Been doing that for years!

If I receive an unsolicited call from anyone no way are they ever getting any details from me.

If you want fake - but valid - phone numbers, OFCOM is your friend

stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/numbering/guidance-tele-no/numbers-for-drama

It's how we test autodialler and SMS software without risking upsetting someone (and a good interview question for candidates applying for testing/QA roles).