Telephone calls to/from banks
If you call your bank they will ask you a variety of questions to enable them to confirm who you are. Ensure that none of this information is published on a social networking site (see above).
If your bank calls you - how do you know they are who they say they are? What questions can you ask them to prove who they are? The answer is that you don't know who they are and there aren't any questions set up to prove their identity. They will also ask you the usual security questions so that you can prove your identity to them. DO NOT ANSWER such questions when they have called you. So DON'T ACCEPT CALLS FROM BANKS. The only exception to this is that you might accept a call when you have already been talking to them and are expecting them to call again. At least verify the name of the individual caller.
When you get an unsolicited call from a bank or finance house I suggest you ask them who they are and what department they are calling from and tell them you will call them back. DO NOT call the number displayed on your phone or provided by 1471. Instead look up the appropriate number from your records or from written communications that you have had with them. If it was a phishing call this will become apparent when the bank knows nothing about needing to call you.
... is a retired Information Security Manager. I give no warranty that the advice given will prevent your system from suffering from viruses, worms, spam, spyware, usage trackers, keyloggers, abuse or any unauthorised programs or macros of any kind introduced by any means. It must be accepted that the subject is not fully explored in this document and descriptions of problems and solutions are necessarily brief and incomplete. New security problems are regularly being discovered in PC operating systems and other software and users need to be constantly alert to the latest threats. Nor do I give any warranty regarding personal identification protection, use of social networking web sites, or calls to or from banks and finance houses. Neither do I take any responsibility for any third party web site nor for any products offered or supplied by those sites or any retail outlet or the companies promoting them. If in doubt ask for advice for your specific system or problem from a company offering such advice or service. Always follow the specific advice of hardware and software suppliers, banks and finance houses as appropriate.
© Copyright 2007 Tim Boddington
