Test and trace - verification and scammers

[WhyNotMe40]

If we are to have unknown callers ringing us to inform us of contact with a positive case - how will we know they are who they say they are, and how will they know we are the right person?
If they ask identification questions then that gives an opening for scammers to extract information from the vulnerable.
Is anyone else wondering about this?

[EnlightenedOwl]

@Barnabyboyo

So all these months of moaning about lockdown and we get a solution and it’s still not good enough? Really!!!! The reason you can see your family now is because of this. Jesus Christ, I despair

People are already receiving scam emails.. Also not willing to be suddenly held to house arrest at whim.

[countrygirl99]

A friend has already received an email claiming to be from the NHS tracing team and telling on her to click a link within 24 hours. It threatens legal action for non compliance. She clocked it immediately, others wouldn't.

[maxonebitch]

There needs to be clear and extensive publicity via all media channels about how this will work and what will be asked to minimise the number of people who hand over information thinking they are doing the right thing.

If there is mass publicity about what will be asked then that is handing success to the scammers on a plate. Maybe the tracers should phone us with some information that scammers wouldn't know (partial NI number for adults? partial NHS number?) as verification?

[Barnabyboyo]

So all these months of moaning about lockdown and we get a solution and it’s still not good enough? Really!!!! The reason you can see your family now is because of this. Jesus Christ, I despair

[Notasyoungasiwas]

I've just been sent a text - I tested positive yesterday. They've given me an account ID to sign in but no password!!

[EnlightenedOwl]

I'm not engaging sorry

[YogaLite]

There is no way I would give anyone numbers or emails of my closest friends and I wouldn't want anyone giving mine out.

The numbers are registered to addresses, have names and bank details associated with them - surely that is a potential for fraud/scam in hands of hackers.

[Flowersinthewild]

Just reading up on this tracing thing, and stumbled across this thread. Still don’t understand it full or how it will work. I come in to contact with many different people and don’t have their numbers etc some don’t even know their names, how would they be traced? Or if they had tested positive the chances of them tracing me are very slim as well. really trying to understand how this will work.

[daisychain01]

I really don’t get the mistrust. It’s to get life back to normal and it’s Public Health England running it

I'm not a neysayer as I will be continuing to be extremely careful even when things are "back to normal" (IMO they can never be normal while we have a virus out there with no effective treatment).

However I cannot believe you are questioning the "mistrust" - how about because there are untrustworthy people out there who will take advantage of this health escalation to get what they can, such as identity theft, financial theft, cyber-crime etc, you name it.

It's good that people don't trust blindly! That's a positive thing!.

[mondaynoon]

No one apart from your household I mean.

[mondaynoon]

I guess to start with the track and tracers aren't going to have much to do. They are only contacting close contacts - those who you have spent longer than 15 minutes with at a distance of less than 2m. So for most people at the moment that will be no one.

Once schools start, there will possible be more people as social distancing may be difficult.

[iVampire]

Sorry - I missed out a few words which makes a bit of a nonsense about what I posted! Let me post it again, one hopes correctly this time!!

“The message needs to be: always verify who you are talking to before handing over any personal data, whether yours or someone else’s

[QueenofmyPrinces]

Children are all playing with the same toys

[happypotamus]

weepinggreenwillow are you wearing a surgical mask while you see your patients? I work in an inpatient setting and wear a mask all shift. I imagine that when outpatients clinics return the staff will be wearing masks there too. Test and trace only ask about people you have been in close contact with while not wearing PPE apparently.

[QueenofmyPrinces]

I’m assuming that if contact occurred in an NHS setting it will be disregarded as it will be assumed the NHS member of staff was wearing a face mask.

On my ward all the staff wear masks but none of the parents do (I’m in paeds) so if a parent is asymptomatic but infectious (we are getting positive results for them) then they could easily pass it on to the other children and their parents in the bay. The beds are not 2m apart and the parents naturally get friendly with each other and don’t stay 2m apart from each other, especially if the children are playing with others. Plus, the children are all playing with the same time that are being handled by all the parents etc etc

So many opportunities to pass the virus on.

I’m assuming that all the parents of other children who’ve been near an positive person would have to be informed and that the nurses/doctors on the ward would have to provide the details of them?

To be honest, I imagine a lot of us would prefer to phone the parents ourselves and tell them as opposed to hand over their personal details to someone on the end of a phone.

[countrygirl99]

Anyone who doesn't think scammers won't use this is being naive. Scammers know fear is a massive driver to get people to hand over information and they can be very convincing. There needs to be clear and extensive publicity via all media channels about how this will work and what will be asked to minimise the number of people who hand over information thinking they are doing the right thing.

[Comenext]

Sorry @cathyandclare but I have lost all faith in this Government. Never had much to begin with.
Perhaps 'quick fix' was the wrong phrase. I meant 'catch phrase'.
Test and trace is the best method that has been used elsewhere but whether OUR Government can make it work remains to be seen.
The timer is ticking ...

[Weepinggreenwillow]

How does this work for NHS staff does anyone know? I'm an NHS clinician, seeing outpatients in a clinic setting. Always for more than 15 mins, sometimes less than 2M apart. If I was asked to give details of people I had had contact with I wouldn't be able to due to patient confidentiality. Also, will I be expected to self isolate for 14 days every time a patient I have seen gets COVID? If so there will be no staff left in my depertmentnquite soon!?!

[QueenofmyPrinces]

I’m assuming this T&T service relies on people with symptoms being tested?

Who is to say a man who is relatively well in himself and has a bad, persistent cough, will actually go and get himself tested? He may not want to get tested because he knows a positive result will impact on him going to work and possibly losing two weeks pay.

I really do see the thought process behind T&T and obviously want it to work but I think it’s relies on an honest public which makes worries me as to how effective the system will be.

I know no service is perfect and it can’t pick up every positive case and we just have to hope the majority of society will be compliant.

[iVampire]

I think the possibility for scamming is high.

Telling people that it is OK to hand out personal data that is not their own, simply because someone rings up and asks for it, is a charter for harvest by scammers and future phishers

The message needs to be always verify who you are to before handing over any personal data, whether yours or someone else’s

It is naive to think that the scam will occur only during the harvesting data call

[cathyandclare]

@comenext

It's anything but a quick fix. It's laborious and painstaking. What way do you see out of this then? As far as I can see there are a few:

1. Lockdown, wait for a vaccine, which may not come.
   
2. Gradually loosen restrictions and hope for the best.
   
3. Gradually loosen restrictions, track and trace to identify clusters of infections and lock them down.
   
4. Shield the vulnerable until a vaccine is available, and let low-risk individuals work etc.

[Comenext]

I don't think this is ever going to work for many reasons.
People don't answer calls from strangers.
People don't want to self-isolate anyway. Why would they?
In my view the whole concept of test and trace has been thought up by very naive 'experts' who like the sound of the alliteration. It is a quick-fix idea which will never be fully implemented in practice.

[Fallsballs]

What happens if you don’t answer your phone, how many times do they try and do they leave a voicemail ? I think it sounds like a disaster.
Must tell elderly mother to watch out for scammers yet again 🙄

[TabbyMumz]

Is public health England working with Wales and Scotland with regards to people who live in one and work in the other?

[GrimmsFairytales]

@QueenofmyPrinces

I don't really understand - If I had the details for the people I had been in contact with wouldn't I just contact them myself?

Exactly - I find it baffling.

Plus, what about the potential to lie? What’s to stop me telling the T&T person that I’ve been in touch with x, y and z, when I haven’t just so they could have two weeks off work?

My sister would love two paid weeks off work....

There’s so many possibilities for the service to be abused.

I said similar last night when it was announced. It's ripe for abuse / scamming others.

Plus, what about the potential to lie? What’s to stop me telling the T&T person that I’ve been in touch with x, y and z, when I haven’t just so they could have two weeks off work?

My sister would love two paid weeks off work....

This is also a very valid point. You're relying on others to provide the information, so there's going to be misuse / misinformation.