Strange conversation with a Bank

[silentC]

Yesterday afternoon, the phone rang. I was in the kitchen and the missus was outside, so I answered it (it's usually for her anyway).

Me: Hello
Him: Hello, can I speak to Leanne please
Me: She's not here at the moment, can I help?
Him: Would I be speaking to Darren
Me: Yes.
Him: This is Brad from the National Australia Bank. I'm calling about an account that you both share. Can I start by asking you your date of birth.
Me: Hang on, if you are calling me, you know what my date of birth is.
Brad: Yes, I have your date of birth here. I need you to tell me what it is so that...
Me: Yes, but you called me.
Brad: Let's take a step back here. Due to the privacy legislation I need...
Me: But you're the one who called me, I didn't call you.
Brad: Well, I'm not prepared to go any further with this call until you can give me your date of ...
Me: [click]

I mean, how stupid does he think I am? Someone rings out of the blue, introduces himself as "Brad from the National Australia Bank", and then starts asking me to supply my personal details; the same personal details that anybody who had a phonebook could put together with my name, address and phone number in order to masquerade as me.

I have no doubt that it was Brad from the National and I also have no doubt that he was calling to let us know that our credit card is overdrawn, but we already knew that

Banks: 10,000,000 - Me: 1

[bennylaird]

Well done, luv your work

[keith53]

Onya Silent, you crafty devil.

[Rocker]

SilentC,

You could have had a little fun by asking him what his account number and date of birth were. Then, if he refused, suggest that you are as unwilling as he to give out personal details over the phone to unknown strangers. Perhaps the banks need to develop a procedure to enable people to know for sure that they are not being scammed when their bank contacts them. I can't see why the bank could not have sent you a letter anyway.

Rocker

[silentC]

That's what I said to Leanne. If they want to contact us, let them send us a letter.

It'll probably backfire and he'll just pass it on to debt recovery, but I've had my fun with him

It is a serious issue though. I get many emails purporting to be from banks wanting me to click on a link and enter my personal details to confirm them. Even if only 1 out of every 1000 people who receives one of these emails follows the link, it's worth it from the criminal's point of view. The upshot is that even legitimate emails are no longer trusted, so it's a real problem for these organisations. Now with the privacy legislation, they're not allowed to discuss personal banking matters over the phone with you unless they establish your ID, even if they called you. I have no sympathy though, because they shouldn't be phoning people to bother them anyway. If they want to contact me about it, they can write me a letter.

I'd better get that order in to Timbecon in before they put my card on the negative card list :eek:

[Buzzer]

I too had a similar conversation, but with someone claiming to be from Telstra, asking me for personal info. But I did not give it too them and hung up on them.

This call was strange considering I am with Optus.

Cheers.

[keith53]

I too had a similar conversation, but with someone claiming to be from Telstra, asking me for personal info. But I did not give it too them and hung up on them.

This call was strange considering I am with Optus.

Cheers.

Might have been one of those 'tell them anything so long as you get the business back' call centres that Telstra use.

[Rocker]

It'll probably backfire and he'll just pass it on to debt recovery, but I've had my fun with him

I believe banks charge you a hefty fee, if you exceed your credit limit, so they may have the last laugh.

Rocker

[Wongo]

And after the conversation Brad opened your record and commented Darren as “The smart ars e”.

Lovely work though.

[Groggy]

Next week Darren receives a letter from Bank advising of suspension of account. Any questions please call "Brad" during business hours.

Following day problems begin appearing due to questions over your credit status . . .

I'm reminded of that movie "Meet the Fokkers"

[Gumby]

Next week Darren receives a letter from Bank advising of suspension of account. Any questions please call "Brad" during business hours.

and don't forget to have your birth date handy

I don't think it's unreasonable for them to ask your details even if they ring you. What if somebody else answered your phone and they gave away some of your private details. You'd be pretty I think.

[Wongo]

Darren: G'day Brad, hows going?
Brad: Yeah whatever
Darren: Do you want to know my birthday.

..
Darren: C'mon mate don't act like that. Say something.
..

[Groggy]

and don't forget to have your birth date handy

yep, that brief warm feeling you get from having a win actually originates from the testes; as hot bankers hands are positioned ready to squeeze...

[bitingmidge]

Before I tell you we never let them go that easily, let me say that as a shareholder of NAB, Brad is an employee of mine, and I can't condone that sort of treatment of my staff!!

However, when dealing with other banks, as Rocker says, we ALWAYS ask for name, date of birth, position, employee number (all call centre employees seem to have them) and a return number.

This causes a bit of angst, but usually we do call back to confirm, then ask them to call us back!

We had a nice one recently, paying off a loan we'd had for 20 years. The bank refused to deal with Mrs Midge (who has been their sole contact point for all that time) because she wasn't "authorised".

She told them using what we refer to as "tone", to check the copy of the trust deed they had on file (in another branch in another city, and probably in another country) to confirm that as a director of the trustee company, she did indeed have the authority, and if they wanted to get me down to the bank to verify this we would be invoicing them for my time at my current charge-out rate of $275.00 per hour, could she have an order number please?

I'm not sure if there were too many big words used or if it was too hard to get authority to spend the $275.00, but it was all miraculously fixed without any further conversation.

Mind you, I think she has a "be scared of this woman" mark on our accounts, ever since the day she held up a teller for over an hour trying to fix a 25c anomoly.

Good luck with Brad, glad to see he's looking after my interests as a shareholder. Hope the penalty's a biggie!

P

[MurrayD99]

Mr C, it could be he was going to offer you a significantly higher credit limit. Then again, "a banker is a man who will lend you an umbrella on a day when it is not raining..." Yer did right.