 Social engineering victims or just a crap bank?
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
In the past few weeks, I’ve had three cold calls from three different people, all from blocked numbers, and all claiming to be from the National Australia Bank.
While I never got to find out what they wanted, the conversations went loosely something like this:
Me: Yeah.
Them: Hello, can I speak with Ivan Lutrov?
Me: Yes, you are.
Them: Hi, this is **** from the National Australia Bank. We need to speak with you about a banking matter. Can you please give me your date of birth?
Me: Why?
Them: So you can authenticate yourself.
Me: Authenticate myself? No thanks, I already know who I am.
Them: You won’t give us your date of birth?
Me: That’s right, I won’t.
Them: We need that information before we can proceed.
Me: Ok.
Three seconds of uncomfortable silence.
Them: Hello?
Me: Yes, hello.
Them: Mr Lutrov, I need you tell us your date of birth for authentication purposes.
Me: What’s this about?
Them: It’s about a banking matter.
Me: Oh, I see.
Three seconds of uncomfortable silence.
Them: Hello?
Me: Yes, hello.
Them: Mr Lutrov, will you give us your date of birth please?
Me: You rang me and you want me to give you my personal information?
Them: Yes sir.
Me: No thanks. I don’t give out my personal details to anyone that calls me. Understand?
Them: Well, in that case, could you call us?
Me: No, send me an email.
Them: We don’t have access to email.
Me: In that case, send me a letter.
Three seconds of uncomfortable silence.
Them: Ok, thank you for your time, Mr Lutrov. Have a nice day.
I’m still waiting for the letter, a couple of weeks later. As far as I’m concerned, this is either a social engineering scam or a genuine attempt by a crap bank to sell me something. A bank who expects their customers to just give out their personal information to a total stranger who won’t even reveal the number they’re calling from.
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This type of stupid tactic is quite common here in the UK too. Vodafone and Orange both do this type of thing, or at least they used to. I have a feeling that your people at the bank are real, they just have a stupid policy when it comes to contacting their customers.
Love it! I haven't had a cold call that ridiculous before but I can't wait to give the caller a hard time when I do!
My favourite cold call was last Friday...
Them: Hello, is this Mrs Smith?
Me: No, no one here of that name.
Them: That's okay this isn't a personal call...
I just got another call from one of their monkeys last night. They must all be reading from the same script because the conversation was exactly the same except for the last line. Last night the monkey concluded our conversation with "no problem", so I assume the letter is on it's way. I'm so excited, I can hardly wait. It will at least prove that they're not social engineering victims; they're just a crap bank.