Data Protection and Security Questions

Am I the only one that is getting a bit sick and tired of the big
company attitude by Banks, Utilities and other such companies when it
comes to so called Data protection? For the last 2 weeks or so, I have
been having the same conversation regarding security questions and my
phone number (which I never ever give out). The conversation always
goes:

Me : "Hello, I would like to [do whatever]."
Company : "That's find, just need to run through some security
questions"
Me "Ok"
Company "Can you confirm your address and postcode?"
Me "Its [whatever]"
Company "And can you please confirm your home phone number?"
Me "Erm, Actually I don't think you have it, I don't give it out
so I don't get cold-calls offering services."
Company "Actually, we do have it listed"
Me "Strange, I don't give it out. Ok, tell me the last digit and I
will confirm the rest
Company "I cant do that because of data protection reasons"
Me "But its one digit - what harm can that do"
Company "Im sorry but... " and so on

I feel they are trying to updating their databases with more
information that they don't have - or an I being paranoid?

Also, with my bank (the abbey) I was recently forced to use their
internal on the wall phone within their branch to talk to a manager in
their call centre to sort out one of their mistakes. During this
conversation, they asked for all the usual details including my bank
account and security questions. I was not happy to give these out one
after the other as people were standing around not 2 meters from me and
would have all my details, but the Abbey they didn't seem to think
this was a problem.

Are others in this group as me, or am I over reacting?


Jaffa

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Unsolicited calls from banks
    ... security questions and the call has been terminated. ... The scary thing is that in all these cases, the call from the bank was ... when I refuse to do so. ... wonder how seriously banks take the whole fraud thing. ...
    (uk.finance)
  • Re: Unsolicited calls from banks
    ... security questions and the call has been terminated. ... that I do not give out personal information over the phone to anyone I do ... That's because the bank staff who are calling are generally stupid sales/call ... them for a random few digits of my account number or the amount of the last ...
    (uk.finance)
  • Re: Business Account Bank Charges
    ... Yes I will take a closer look at the Abbey. ... average credit balance is never less than £5,000 usually a five figure ... Bank of Scotland!= Royal Bank of Scotland ...
    (uk.finance)
  • Re: not my money
    ... Abbey kindly desposited over £10K into my bank last year. ... the transactions on my online statement changed and failed to show the money ... going in/coming out.. ...
    (uk.finance)
  • Re: Business Account Bank Charges
    ... Yes I will take a closer look at the Abbey. ... average credit balance is never less than £5,000 usually a five figure ... Bank of Scotland!= Royal Bank of Scotland ...
    (uk.finance)