Am I paranoid? VM Cold Calling Identity Verification

[MovedGoalPosts]

From time to time I get random calls purporting to be on behalf of Virgin Media. Always clearly from someone overseas. They claim they want to review the services I have and probably entice me into some new deal, or whatever. I never let it get that far.

At an early stage they want me to verify who I am by giving a couple of characters from my password.



They phoned me. I don't know they are who they claim to be. With enough calls over a few months they'd have my password. That is how identity theft works.

So as I won't give a password they want me to confirm other stuff like how I pay them.

They just don't get it.

So VM, and indeed other companies, if you want to sell me something by phone, and I'm prepared to even take your call, then by all means tell me what I could have. If I want to take you up on that, I'll call you then I know who I am talking to and will be happy to do the security bit.

Perhaps as you have my email address you'd be better off sending targeted messages to me that way, so I can peruse at my leisure and take you up on stuff if it appeals. But cold calling me, and wanting me to do security is never ever going to get anything other than a blunt response.

[qasdfdsaq]

I don't think you're paranoid but this is how a lot of legitimate business work as well. The whole reason they don't ask for your whole password is to prevent identity theft. That's specifically taught as good practice among security conscious companies such as banks.

[MovedGoalPosts]

I agree they shouldn't be asking for the whole password. That way even the call handler hopefully can't see the entire word. But on a cold call they shouldn't need anything to just suggest to me there is an offer.

I can call them to take it up. Then I've had the opportunity to verify who I am calling by using a recognised number.

If my credit card / bank want to call me for a security thing they are quite happy to let me call back (on a number I already know) and get passed through to the caller. I've never been forced to divulge my details to someone who is calling me.

[Kymmy]

You could try changing your password to a 128 length alphanumeric that way it would take them 64 phone calls..

[Mick Fisher]

Just add the number to your reject list and be done with it.

Cold callers are all either scammers or time wasters.

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

I don't think you're paranoid but this is how a lot of legitimate business work as well. The whole reason they don't ask for your whole password is to prevent identity theft. That's specifically taught as good practice among security conscious companies such as banks.

If they ask for different letters over multiple phone calls, they could eventually harvest an entire password.

I hate it when service providers call me and ask for my date of birth to prove my identity - that's one of the key pieces of personally identifying details and nobody should be cold calling and asking for it. Like the queen, I have two birthdays ... The real one I give to service providers when it is legally required, and the ceremonial one I give out to anyone who insists on having it in order to sign me up, even though they don't have any need for it.

[jungleguy]

Whenever I get a cold caller that asks for my password, I always give them a completely wrong password. A good way of filtering out a bogus call at an early stage, its also quite amusing.

[v0id]

They wouldn't ask for your password in an email, but hey just give them all your personal details if they call

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Chris

If they ask for different letters over multiple phone calls, they could eventually harvest an entire password.

Yes, but asking for the whole password on one call isn't any better, hence why they do it. Same goes for websites. Do you have any better ideas?

I hate it when service providers call me and ask for my date of birth to prove my identity - that's one of the key pieces of personally identifying details and nobody should be cold calling and asking for it. Like the queen, I have two birthdays ... The real one I give to service providers when it is legally required, and the ceremonial one I give out to anyone who insists on having it in order to sign me up, even though they don't have any need for it.

Not to mention many people's DoB can be found with little digging on social media sites.

---------- Post added at 14:49 ---------- Previous post was at 14:49 ----------

Originally Posted by jungleguy

Whenever I get a cold caller that asks for my password, I always give them a completely wrong password. A good way of filtering out a bogus call at an early stage, its also quite amusing.

Hah! Hadn't thought of that.

To be fair I've never had such a call that I wasn't expecting already.

[japitts]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

I don't think you're paranoid but this is how a lot of legitimate business work as well. The whole reason they don't ask for your whole password is to prevent identity theft. That's specifically taught as good practice among security conscious companies such as banks.

In the past, with my bank and with Virgin I've had them quote me two letters from my password (chosen by me) initially, then I'll quote them the two they request. A mutual security check, works well I find.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by japitts

In the past, with my bank and with Virgin I've had them quote me two letters from my password (chosen by me) initially, then I'll quote them the two they request. A mutual security check, works well I find.

Of course, this only works if they can actually see the whole password (which is usually bad practice if they can). In some environments, they can only enter the characters you state and get a Correct/Incorrect answer from the computer.

[Skie]

Originally Posted by jungleguy

Whenever I get a cold caller that asks for my password, I always give them a completely wrong password. A good way of filtering out a bogus call at an early stage, its also quite amusing.

Good idea!

"Yeah, the first character is Umulat and the eighth character is zeberdee!"