Identity theft precautions and TELEMARKETERS

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freitasm

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#310808 24-Mar-2010 16:07

ahmad: Have just called the power company and indeed I am signed up for their power now.

Lesson learned for next time...

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ahmad

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#310815 24-Mar-2010 16:22

freitasm:
ahmad: Have just called the power company and indeed I am signed up for their power now.

Lesson learned for next time...

Yep, although as I said, I would never have spoken to the telemarketer had I not already intended to join.

Now I know to use precautions next time for safety!

MikeyPI

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#310821 24-Mar-2010 16:30

ahmad:
freitasm:
ahmad: Have just called the power company and indeed I am signed up for their power now.

Lesson learned for next time...

Yep, although as I said, I would never have spoken to the telemarketer had I not already intended to join.

Now I know to use precautions next time for safety!

Freitasm and my point is you had no way of confirming that it WAS actually that call center.

ahmad

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#310823 24-Mar-2010 16:38

MikeyPI:
ahmad:
freitasm:
ahmad: Have just called the power company and indeed I am signed up for their power now.

Lesson learned for next time...

Yep, although as I said, I would never have spoken to the telemarketer had I not already intended to join.

Now I know to use precautions next time for safety!

Freitasm and my point is you had no way of confirming that it WAS actually that call center.

Sorry could you please clarify your "point"?

Are you meaning that on the night I was called I had no way to confirm it was the call centre, or that I (today) have no way to confirm it was that call centre?

Because surely the fact that I'm now signed up for power with this company strongly suggests that I wasn't phished for information by an unauthorised party the other night?

I might be misreading something. Cheers.

freitasm

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#310824 24-Mar-2010 16:40

Basically on the night you were called you had no way to confirm right there what was happening.

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ahmad

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#310827 24-Mar-2010 16:42

Not that I see myself ever talking to Telemarketers again (this was a one-in-a-blue-moon due to wanting to switch anyway and being offered an account credit for doing it on the spot), but I still would like to know if anyone knows if you would be given a phone number if you asked to phone the Telemarketer back.

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MikeyPI

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#310850 24-Mar-2010 16:59

If you tell your are suspicious of phishing and want to call them back, its up to them if they want to make the sale.

ahmad

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#310852 24-Mar-2010 17:04

Cool, thanks for the info.

I didn't actually give the full story in OP because it was irrelevant and it was already a long post.

I was actually at a family member's house when I was handed the phone to deal with the call.

As I knew we were being ripped off in Dunedin for power, I took interest and signed this family member up. As they were offering a credit for joining "on the spot", I requested that he call me at my home at 8pm.

I went home at 7:55pm and guess what? At 8pm pretty much on the dot I got his call.

THAT impressed me. Sure, he was there to sell something, and I was an interested buyer, but can you ever recall the last time someone promised to call you back and they actually did? I can't.

So that's the side story :) Can't wait to hear how many rules I broke here!! LOL

ahmad

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#310867 24-Mar-2010 17:25

LOL just got phoned by Contact asking me why I was switching.

I told her because of prices.

She said "well actually, I can offer you a pricing plan fixed until January 2011 that would save you $200 based on your usage history".

I said "what, you mean the same discount as would be provided by my new energy supplier but which you would not have offered me had I not taken up their offer to switch?"

JasonDarwin

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#310957 24-Mar-2010 20:28

I had 2 calls from Telecom about 18 months ago on same day.

I always ask for telemarketers full name, address, DOB and credit card number. On the second call they asked why do you want all this information? I said those are the questions you're going to ask me. They hung up on me.

I'm always very careful about giving personal details out to parties I don't know.

A tip. If you want to get priority calls through to your bank call centre look up their annual report, and I know that with Westpac in the back of it it lists the number for high net worth customers. Call usually answered after a couple of rings and straight through to a person.

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#311057 24-Mar-2010 23:14

Firstly - good on you for giving your currently e. supplier a rev up for offering a discount after switching ...

Secondly - is this legal? Given a quick scan of your OP, I suspect that it's a grey area. One of my telecommunication providers (I'm not going to name them) managed to switch where I was flatting over to my personal tolls account ... thankfully they refunded the full bill after I explained to them that I had never given my authority in any way to have that actioned ... not withstanding that the flat phone was in someone elses name and with a completely seperate telecomms provider ...

Thirdly:

- my electricity usage for the past 12 months
I would not have given an accurate amount here

- my current power company
I'm not sure I would have given this

- my home address where power is delivered to
I wouldn't have supplied this

- my phone number (at least I confirmed it)
This would have raised my suspicions ...

- my Electricity supply number
No, no, no. Never give a cold caller your account numbers. (Bank, CC, utilities company account number)

- my Date of Birth
I am very guarded when I get asked this ... I usually tell people I don't remember (which is actually the truth ...) It's quite disappointing how many companies use this as a "security" question ...

Of course, reading through more I notice that you were kinda ready to switch ... so I imagine that you would have been more careful if it had been the Australian Holiday People calling...

Anyhow ...

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richms

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#311482 25-Mar-2010 23:55

Whats worse is the mothers maiden name - how the hell is that security?

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wazzageek

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#311526 26-Mar-2010 09:20

richms: Whats worse is the mothers maiden name - how the hell is that security?

Well, it is slightly more difficult to find than ones birthdate.

There's also Primary School, High School, First pets name, etc.

And of course, a little social engineering on Facebook, Oldfriends ...

At the end of the day, you need to be very guarded about what you do (and do not) reveal.

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