Indian Call Centre Scam?
Discussion
I've had a number of telephone calls in the last two days purporting to be from a company called UK Finance. They caller is invariabley Indian although he usually has a very English name such as "Alexander Howard" or "Christopher Douglas".
UK Finance claim to act on behalf of all the UK's high street finance companies such as Halifax, Barclays, HSBC etc etc.
They start their spiel by asking to confirm personal details.
At this point I always ask them to confirm who THEY are. For instance, I always ask for their business address. They always give the address as (rather vaguely), Regent Street, London. So far, they haven't been able to provide me with bona fide Post Code (or any Post Code at all, in one instance).
I have then asked them if they are a limited Company. After a bit of thinking, the caller confirmed that UK Finance is, in fact, UK Finance Ltd. I then asked them for their UK Companies House registration number.
At that point, the line went dead.
UK Finance claim to act on behalf of all the UK's high street finance companies such as Halifax, Barclays, HSBC etc etc.
They start their spiel by asking to confirm personal details.
At this point I always ask them to confirm who THEY are. For instance, I always ask for their business address. They always give the address as (rather vaguely), Regent Street, London. So far, they haven't been able to provide me with bona fide Post Code (or any Post Code at all, in one instance).
I have then asked them if they are a limited Company. After a bit of thinking, the caller confirmed that UK Finance is, in fact, UK Finance Ltd. I then asked them for their UK Companies House registration number.
At that point, the line went dead.
Eric Mc said:
I've had a number of telephone calls in the last two days purporting to be from a company called UK Finance. They caller is invariabley Indian although he usually has a very English name such as "Alexander Howard" or "Christopher Douglas".
UK Finance claim to act on behalf of all the UK's high street finance companies such as Halifax, Barclays, HSBC etc etc.
They start their spiel by asking to confirm personal details.
At this point I always ask them to confirm who THEY are. For instance, I always ask for their business address. They always give the address as (rather vaguely), Regent Street, London. So far, they haven't been able to provide me with bona fide Post Code (or any Post Code at all, in one instance).
I have then asked them if they are a limited Company. After a bit of thinking, the caller confirmed that UK Finance is, in fact, UK Finance Ltd. I then asked them for their UK Companies House registration number.
At that point, the line went dead.
UK Finance claim to act on behalf of all the UK's high street finance companies such as Halifax, Barclays, HSBC etc etc.
They start their spiel by asking to confirm personal details.
At this point I always ask them to confirm who THEY are. For instance, I always ask for their business address. They always give the address as (rather vaguely), Regent Street, London. So far, they haven't been able to provide me with bona fide Post Code (or any Post Code at all, in one instance).
I have then asked them if they are a limited Company. After a bit of thinking, the caller confirmed that UK Finance is, in fact, UK Finance Ltd. I then asked them for their UK Companies House registration number.
At that point, the line went dead.
Thats a good bit of info. I often get legitimate calls from my banks asking my details for Data Protection Act reasons so that they are not talking about me to someone else. I think ironically this practice can be used as a bluff by rogues to find out exactly the same thing.
I can just imagine the 'Focus Group' which would have planned out this scam. "Right, we need some english sounding names, check... Now we need a good standard name for a UK finance company... errr... UK Finance!? Done!"
justinp1 said:
Thats a good bit of info. I often get legitimate calls from my banks asking my details for Data Protection Act reasons so that they are not talking about me to someone else.
My wife gets this all the time from HSBC.
She point blank refuses to give out any details and says that when she wants something she'll call them.
Not quite the same.
Assuming it really IS HSBC of course.
Some of the major banks to cold call their customers. For example, Lloyds seem to have a policy of "courtesy calling" their customers whereas Barclays don't.
The calls I've been getting do not claim to be from one of the major banks - but they do claim to be a finance company that deals with these banks.
Assuming it really IS HSBC of course.
Some of the major banks to cold call their customers. For example, Lloyds seem to have a policy of "courtesy calling" their customers whereas Barclays don't.
The calls I've been getting do not claim to be from one of the major banks - but they do claim to be a finance company that deals with these banks.
I have found that the best way to stop these calls is to agree to take any offer without any questions, then give false information. Make it very obvious, such as Prince William, Buckingham Palace, SW1 1XX; give them a fake bank account and Visa number etc. When the operator thinks he has got your Visa number, he will check it and when he finds out it doesn't work will probably put the phone down on you.
I used to get lots of scam calls then I started doing this and now I rarely get any. It's worth the five or ten minutes investment.
I used to get lots of scam calls then I started doing this and now I rarely get any. It's worth the five or ten minutes investment.
did anyone see the recent panaroma program concerning banks and the scams they are pulling ??
Barclays where phoning up to check "everything was ok" and then giving the hard sell on house insurance etc, the covert filming was quite disturbing to say the least.
Your best approach is as said above, i will call you when i want something thanks and hang up !
Barclays where phoning up to check "everything was ok" and then giving the hard sell on house insurance etc, the covert filming was quite disturbing to say the least.
Your best approach is as said above, i will call you when i want something thanks and hang up !
justinp1 said:
Eric Mc said:
I've had a number of telephone calls in the last two days purporting to be from a company called UK Finance. They caller is invariabley Indian although he usually has a very English name such as "Alexander Howard" or "Christopher Douglas".
UK Finance claim to act on behalf of all the UK's high street finance companies such as Halifax, Barclays, HSBC etc etc.
They start their spiel by asking to confirm personal details.
At this point I always ask them to confirm who THEY are. For instance, I always ask for their business address. They always give the address as (rather vaguely), Regent Street, London. So far, they haven't been able to provide me with bona fide Post Code (or any Post Code at all, in one instance).
I have then asked them if they are a limited Company. After a bit of thinking, the caller confirmed that UK Finance is, in fact, UK Finance Ltd. I then asked them for their UK Companies House registration number.
At that point, the line went dead.
UK Finance claim to act on behalf of all the UK's high street finance companies such as Halifax, Barclays, HSBC etc etc.
They start their spiel by asking to confirm personal details.
At this point I always ask them to confirm who THEY are. For instance, I always ask for their business address. They always give the address as (rather vaguely), Regent Street, London. So far, they haven't been able to provide me with bona fide Post Code (or any Post Code at all, in one instance).
I have then asked them if they are a limited Company. After a bit of thinking, the caller confirmed that UK Finance is, in fact, UK Finance Ltd. I then asked them for their UK Companies House registration number.
At that point, the line went dead.
Thats a good bit of info. I often get legitimate calls from my banks asking my details for Data Protection Act reasons so that they are not talking about me to someone else. I think ironically this practice can be used as a bluff by rogues to find out exactly the same thing.
I work in a call centre environment for a bank myself - my advisors only take inbound calls, but when we call our customers back (on request) we have to ask security questions like name, address and usually something you can't get in a letter e.g. payment date or the number of names on the account. Anyone asking for a card number/bank account number etc smells dodgy!
Also, I would suspect anyone who claims they're acting on "behalf" of anyone else - banks outsource all sorts of work but whoever you speak to will always present themselves under the parent company they're handling the work for
i got called about 30 times in one month by HSBC, every time they always ask for my details and i point blank refuse, i simply tell them, "if you don't know who i am then why are you f
g calling me"
I've told them now to ring the number of my personal indian call centre.
i've outsourced answering calls from HSBC to "John John" in Bangalore.
g calling me" I've told them now to ring the number of my personal indian call centre.
i've outsourced answering calls from HSBC to "John John" in Bangalore.
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