How often do we received a call whom claimed that he is from the Blablabla bank and he wants some of your information in order for them to do updates or anything which he think it necessary for the sake of their work? Do we give those precious information straight away or do we stop there.. and thinking is it a genuine or imposter caller? The latter should be the less what many people would do.Surprising, isn’t?.
I used to worked at Fraud Detection of Credit Card companies and make a hundred calls per day to credit cardholder.Depending on their status, I can easily figured it out which cardholder would be easily co-operate and a person who will stop at no point to ask about me,my staff number,where do I work,whose your supervisor and even hardly pushing me to the limit ” I want to speak with your manager!!”. I guess calling my manager to speak to the customer isn’t a good idea; I shall booked more appointment in my manager room and make him start a talk about “How to keep your job and still doing the same job”. Most of management level working background are brave (or shall I say have some guts) to question why I call to check his credit card particulars and demand some identification of me as an authorized person to make such call. But 70% of the cardholder will feel scared,shocked or become blurry for a while and proceed to co-operate with me. But I know it’s not their fault as it’s common thing to have some alertness for something like this and it’s actually normal; you’re still not an insane. Thus, I can conclude that the important thing that most of the people don’t realized is banking services still didn’t implement a safe and secure ways to introduce themselves over the phone and make smooth the entire process of whatsoever they want it using mobile communication.Did’nt you realized that?
There’s a few tips we avoid some unfortunate things to happen..
1. If you were received a call from your mobile phone, makes sure the call is from a fixed line or any phone number except a mobile phone number.Banks saves a lot of money by installing a line from phone companies using a packages offered and one more thing to remember, bank employee still have their own office, a desk, a PC and so on… they are not ” a mobile staff who needs to make a call to cardholder because their office was collapsed after a earthquake “. They are obligates to use their company phone line.
2. If they are from Fraud Support, they have much time ( or a bit more than the Marketing or Sales team) for you to have a quick chit chat.Just ask them a few questions about how they are really sure about your card has been compromised or suspected were being used by somebody else. Ask them about how can you meet them to discuss about it. Usually the Investigation team is always willing to meet you personally. Each case which will be opened must be carefully considered by both parties and there will be some paper to be signed. So, you can always ask the person who call you about what is their identity and how can you contact them.
3. Never ever reveal your CVV number ( the number behind your card placed at the right side and have a single 3 digit number) to anyone. The banking personnel shall ask you a general question about your card such as embossing name (the name printed on your card),your mother’s maiden name,your card number or your card expired date. The CVV number is anti fraud security feature that shows you are in possession of the credit card your own now. In UK, some credit companies provided the cardholder to have their own PIN number-which is most advisable to have since you’ll have it in your mind and not something which is printed like the CVV number.
4.The banking personnel seems to have formal ways to address themselves the “brotherhood of the bees and honey” (find it yourself..heheh) and unlike the impostor which straightaway asking you to get your credit card information. Sometimes they sounds desperate and have no ethical ways at all.Use your instinct. Don’t be panic.Fight like a man.Fear no enemies.It’s just over the phone and not something like “more than meet the eyes”. Okay, I may have gone too far from the topic of discussion now.
5. If you find yourself talking to someone who you feel something is wrong, you can always call the customer care center or any hotline of the banking services to ask them has anyone from the Fraud Support has called you regarding your credit card.If something is suspicious, they can issued a temporary block to your card and ready for any possible attempt of fraud to your card.For safety issue, you can always seek advice from them and it will be most likely that you have to make a card replacement in order to have a fresh start of using your card again with new cardnumber,CVV number and expired date.
Ridhzuan Harun
