First Mobile / Vodafone cold calling asking for pin

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hairy1

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#59904 14-Apr-2010 17:56

Howdy all,

My wife received a weird phone call from a "First Mobile Vodafone" woman today. She started by saying "I would like to help you with your cellphone plan. What is your pin number?" My wife didn't give the pin out and said "Sorry, my husband pays the account".

This all sounds completely dodgy. Does First Mobile make these cold calls?

Cheers, Matt.

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#318465 14-Apr-2010 18:06

This reeks of fishy business!! Your wife made the right decision in not giving out the pin. I don't think any business especially one such as vodafone should be or is using this technique.

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freitasm

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#318472 14-Apr-2010 18:21

Never ever provide your PIN to anyone calling you... Good on your wife not giving it.

heavenlywild

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#318479 14-Apr-2010 18:31

Yeah good on your wife for not letting the caller have the PIN.

It's sad to know that out of 100 people this dodgy fella calls, there are bound to be one or two who would get sucked in.

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#318480 14-Apr-2010 18:32

For all we know this person could be just a fraudster trying to get a PIN to then transfer the phone number or get a new SIM and put his calls on your wife's bill.

hairy1

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#318487 14-Apr-2010 19:03

It wouldn't have sounded so dodgy if she hadn't asked for the pin in the first sentence and said "First Mobile Vodafone". I thought that it was going to long lengths to get a pin to call their mates....

I would be keen to hear from First Mobile whether they do telemarket like this. The fact that she knew what plan my wife was on made me think that perhaps they were from First Mobile. Perhaps it was a lucky guess.

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#318492 14-Apr-2010 19:15

Dodgy in the extreme. Good on your Wife for not giving it out, but as others say there would always be a few sad cases where people would give the PIN...

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#318511 14-Apr-2010 20:30

I had a customer courtesy call from Vodafone today. The first question they ask is "what is your PIN".

This is the second call I've had in six months and the calls are legitimate.

Damager

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#318520 14-Apr-2010 20:52

Poor telephone skills. Perhaps they should say "In order to authorize you fully, can I please have your PIN" or something similar.

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#318521 14-Apr-2010 20:55

Damager: Poor telephone skills. Perhaps they should say "In order to authorize you fully, can I please have your PIN" or something similar.

Wrong. You never give your PIN or password to anyone CALLING you. What if it's just a scam artist trying to get this piece of information from you to them use for his own benefit.

You only give your PIN if you call a service.

I repeat: You never give your PIN or password to anyone CALLING you.

Damager

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#318531 14-Apr-2010 21:19

freitasm:
Damager: Poor telephone skills. Perhaps they should say "In order to authorize you fully, can I please have your PIN" or something similar.

Wrong. You never give your PIN or password to anyone CALLING you. What if it's just a scam artist trying to get this piece of information from you to them use for his own benefit.

You only give your PIN if you call a service.

I repeat: You never give your PIN or password to anyone CALLING you.

Very True! So Vodafone should really be teaching their telemarketers correctly. You'd expect a company like theirs to know that asking for a PIN on an outbound sales call is not going to be very successful.

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#318534 14-Apr-2010 21:25

hairy1: Howdy all,

My wife received a weird phone call from a "First Mobile Vodafone" woman today. She started by saying "I would like to help you with your cellphone plan. What is your pin number?" My wife didn't give the pin out and said "Sorry, my husband pays the account".

This all sounds completely dodgy. Does First Mobile make these cold calls?

Cheers, Matt.

Vodafone always ask me to say my PIN out loud and I usually refuse. How secret is it if everyone who calls you gets to know it and anyone within earshot can too?

I've always thought this was pathetic......yet it's been going on for years and they still do it.

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Linuxluver

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#318535 14-Apr-2010 21:28

freitasm:
I repeat: You never give your PIN or password to anyone CALLING you.

Agreed....but Vodafone do this regularly. The latest call to me was just a few weeks ago about one of my accounts. It was a customer sat call.....and they asked me for my PIN.

I said no and eplxained i had no idea who they were. So then they rolled off a load of personal details related to my account without actually knowing it was ME they were talking to.....because I hadn't given them my PIN.

It was comical.

Security-wise, it's a complete and utter joke. They will give out all your info to whoever answers the phone if you do NOT give them the PIN and challenge their identity.

I gave them my PIN then as they were clearly Vodafone....and i didn't want any more of my personal info sprayed about.

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johnr

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#323381 27-Apr-2010 08:27

Vodafone NZ have taken on board the feedback and will NO longer be asking for the 4 digit account PIN this includes all resellers as well IE First mobile / digital mobile

We appreciate this is not a good look, there are many other ways of confirming identity that are more appropriate for our customers

Thanks John