Telephone Scams

Current Telephone Scams are a continuous threat and in this post, I will share top tips and tricks to help you protect yourself against getting caught out by them. Telephone scams are a major issue for one main reason you’re having a conversation with someone you can’t even see. Similar to live chat over the internet, it could be anyone.

Things to Watch Out For

There are loads of Telephones scams happening all the time. The trick is to stay vigilant and if something doesn’t sound right just put the phone down.

Things to watch out for with these types of scams:

• Don’t give out any personal information when they ask you to confirm who you are. Remember, they called you so they already know who you are.
• Don’t give out any bank details or card numbers over the phone, it could be anyone.
• Block their numbers. If you are using a mobile get used to blocking numbers straight after the call so they can’t call you back.

Bank Telephones Scams

They will try calling you and they will tell you that they are customer service. They usually start by telling you they are responding to some suspicious activity on your account. They will then ask you things like whether have you been shopping today or used your card for large amounts. This makes you think it’s a security check.

They will say before they go into any more detail they need to confirm it’s you.

This should be the giveaway, as they will ask you:

• What is your full name
• Account number
• Sort Code
• Do you have any direct debits going out (Planted in to make it sound legit)

If this was the real Bank they will never ask you for all your details. They will usually ask for segments of your details or a security password.

The reason Banks are extra careful is not because they know you need to be sure it’s them. It’s because they have scammers ringing them and also pretending to be customers trying to get details from them. So it’s not just customers being scammed, banks get scammed too.

So they have all sorts of extra methods of protection and encryption going on to prevent fraudulent behaviour.

If you are ever not sure a good tip is to say I’ll just check with my bank in town, to be certain

If they are dodgy they will try and talk you out of doing it as they want to keep you talking to them. Then you know it’s dodgy. Also, listen for strange accents as this is sometimes a giveaway. Banks’ customer services are usually based in the same country. They never rarely contract out to different countries.

When my wife had a call like this, it was from a guy with a very strong Indian accent who wasn’t great at English either. Also, you could tell he hadn’t had any customer service training so this was another giveaway. He was talking very informally. Most call centres now go through tough training to make sure they deliver fantastic customer service.

Hi, I’m Graham, I’m the creator and founder of grahamhodsdon.com. I hope you found my telephone scams post useful. Always be careful of anything over the telephone as you can’t see who they are or who they claim to work for. If you have ever come across any telephone scams please share in the comments below to help others not get caught out. Thanks in advance for taking the time to place a comment.