I had one of those scam calls on Easter Monday. When I went to pick up the landline phone, it told me the number was "withheld". Not sure who it was, I picked up the call. An extremely well-spoken man asked me if I was Addy and gave me my address, to which I replied that he was correct. He told me he was from HSBC bank and that they were reopening their branch in my village. It had closed about 2 years ago and has since been turned into a gym. When I asked where they were reopening the branch, he told me it was the old NatWest building (NatWest had also closed 6 months ago).
He asked why I had not replied to their letter about issuing new bank cards. I said I had not received such a letter. He said that funnily enough a lot of people had said that, so he was following it up with a call. I needed to get my debit card changed quickly and I could either get it done at branch A (which is my nearest one, a bus ride away) or he could deliver it personally to me that very day. When I said I could get to Branch A myself, he corrected himself and said Branch A was being refurbished and I would need to get to Branch B which is an even further bus ride away. No problem, I said, I can get to Branch B too. He kept stressing he could save me the bother and deliver it personally that day. I asked what the urgency was and he said the card would expire in 2 days' time. I repeated in that case I would get to Branch B before it expired. He then asked for my date of birth. I told him I do not divulge such information over the phone. At this point I heard a click and he had hung up.
I suppose I should have realised it was a scam, because what bank would ring you on an Easter Monday and personally offer to deliver a new debit card, but to be fair, the call came out of the blue in the late afternoon, when I was a bit weary, and the man was so well-spoken -not like a lot of scam callers where English is not their first language and it is difficult to decipher what they are saying. I was therefore initially thrown into thinking the call was genuine, until it didn't seem to make sense.
I am glad I did not offer any sensitive information, although the man clearly had my name, address and phone number. I reported it when I went into Branch A the next day, although they seemed pretty disinterested in my story. I also reported it to their Fraud Team at Headquarters, who just advised me to keep an eye on my online account. I also reported it on our local Facebook area group and to my surprise two people knew someone it had happened to the week before and one lady said she had had the very same call with the very same details of conversation on the same afternoon as me.
I don't know how these scammers sleep at night. Their parents must be really proud of them.
2 comments:
When working from home, I sometimes get calls from an agency in Italy who are advertising their artisan products specifically to German customers. Since this is a cold call and I have never had any relations with that agency before, under German law such calls are forbidden - but not under Italian law, which is probably why the calls are made from Italy. I always insist that they delete me from their list but sure enough, half a year later I receive another call. They are not scam, just illegal in Germany - and unwanted from me.
Some years ago, I had a call from a man whose English sounded Indian. Our conversation was very short and went like this: "Hello Madam, I am calling from Microsoft..." - "No, you're not!" and I put the phone down.
Where there is either a lot of criminal energy and/or despair, people will do such things and probably still sleep quite well at night. As you say, their parents must be proud of them.
It used to be that you could always trust the human at the other end of the telephone but now we are all suspicious. I wish we could get these scumbags and stick them in the village stocks for a day or two - pelting them with rotten eggs, bad fruit and the contents of our potties. Do you still have one under your bed Addy?
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