Confide in no one and be on your guard

I in general think of myself as being pretty savvy when it comes to scammers or at least being above average self-aware. Unfortunately there have been occasions when I have fallen for the scam or been at least been very close to doing so. Some of my adventures in this environment have been described in a series of blogs and the links to those posts can be found at the end of this post.

Usually my encounters are humorous and I have been known to string a scammer along, thereby wasting their time and so preventing them from being a nuisance to others. On Thursday the 31st of August of this year (2023), things did not quite run in my favour.

I had been out all day with friends and on my return home, I was naturally rather tired. I received a telephone call from a Geoffrey Richardson, representing Barclays Bank fraud department. He had for me some very disturbing news. There had been three attempts to use my debit card, two were from Belfast and one was from Birmingham.

Now I had been out all day remember and I had visited an antiques shop, amongst other places. I had certainly spent some money that day and I had used my card several times during the course of it. I was not however, in either Belfast or Birmingham. Nor had I used my card online, as I had as stated been out all day. The gentleman informed me that all three of the payments had been queried by the bank and placed on hold, pending the result of this telephone call.

I was very pleased to hear this and I thanked him profusely for the diligence of Barclay’s Bank. I was quite impressed and he reassured me several times that no payments had been authorised. He advised me to log into the banking application on my mobile telephone to check this but this I could not do. I do not have such ‘apps’ on my telephone but as fate would have it, I was already logged in to Barclay’s Bank on my laptop.

I scanned my recent payments and could see nothing suspicious. To be safe however, I requested a new card. This would not be a problem I was told. I asked if the usual email confirming the card being replaced would be sent but I was told no, as it was not necessary. I did think this was rather odd. In the past I have always received a confirmation email of my interactions with the bank and sometimes transcripts of conversations with their customer services.

Then rather oddly I was asked to provide my sixteen digit card number to confirm the card. This I very foolishly provided, despite the bells beginning to ring at the back of my mind. I was then asked to put the card into a device I have called a PIN Sentry and give him over the telephone, the confirmed activation code. This was the first time, I had ever been asked to do such a thing over the telephone. It was at this point that I touched the red spot on the screen of my telephone and I ended the call.

I sat for a moment while the import of my stupidity washed over me. What a complete idiot. I am usually so very careful but this time I had fallen for the ‘flannel’ and friendliness. Then the telephone rang, a private number again. The bugger was trying to call me back. Such nerve, such cheek.

I rejected that call, I turned my debit card over and finding the number for customer services, I made the necessary and all important call. I was soon put through to a very pleasant, caring and patient young woman. She confirmed my identity the correct way by sending the normal authorisation text, with a number that I had to repeat to her. We had already gone through the usual security questions.

I explained that not being terribly technologically aware, we may have to go a little slower than the norm and that the man who had called, had certainly had the advantage in regards to that field. The woman was very kind and did state that my not using technology quite as much as those of a younger age, may have actually been an advantage. The frustration of me not having the banking ‘app’ on my telephone, may have caused him a few issues.

I was reassured that any payments from that point on would be rejected and that my card would be blocked. Although I felt extremely stupid at giving out my card number, the woman pointed out that I had not given out my card’s expiry date or the card verification number on the back. Without those and even with my date of birth, the criminal I had spoken to would find the information he had quite useless. This was a great relief and I was reminded that I had ended the conversation when I became suspicious. I had not left it too late.

Perhaps as this helpful representative of the real fraud department observed, my distrust and dislike of electronic technology may have been to my advantage. When asked to use technology that I am not particularly used to using, I started asking questions. Questions that someone more used to such ‘applications’ and gadgets, may not have asked but rather have taken for granted.

I was advised that a new card may take up to five working days to be posted out and I was asked if that would be a problem. My answer was no, I have cash, I can get cash, I could manage a week. I thanked the young woman for her help and consideration. I ended the call with a great sense of relief and I felt thanks to her kindness, a little less foolish. My new card arrived with impressive speed on Monday the 4th of September.

There you have it my dear reader. The story of how a tired old man, a little foolish and somewhat technophobic; can fall for the most simple of tricks. Although we can ask was it really that simple? He was clever, he knew my name, my date of birth and the name of my bank. All of this can be found on line of course but it is a sobering reminder, of how such often necessarily public information can be misused.

‘Confide in no one and be on your guard, for you are walking with disaster.’ Ecclesiasticus chapter 13 verse13 from the Apocrypha of the Revised English Bible (1989)

A Cultivar of Lies (Spammers and Scammers 2023)

Do ‘birds’ flock on Twitter?

Nelly Gris (Shaheed) and how not to send a Facebook Friend Request.

There is a disturbance in the web-verse.

A failure of Intuition

Facebook and the Puzzle that are Friend Requests

GAMBIAN SCAMMERS