Trying to activate a new credit card and got the third degree!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

Just a damn BP gas card and even though I was calling from my home phone, a number I've had for 25 years and 3 or 4 area codes, these guys wanted all kinds of security info. They asked me for SS# (gave it), age (gave it), confirm an old address (I've been at the current one 10 years so I said forget it), my HEIGHT ON MY DRIVERS LICENSE (I said I'm not answering any more stupid questions!) and they transferred me to a security guy who re-asked me the SS# and age.
I told THAT guy that's all the information he's getting from me and magically it was now enough.

Anyone get the third degree like that lately? Is this a new trend?

[siligut]

1. I don’t like giving someone over the phone all that info.

With phishing, identity theft, waiting to snare us, I get irritated after a while too. There was a time, that if you called from your home phone, you got a recording, typed in the card number and you were good to go.

Last time I activated a card; I did so after about a year of receiving said card, so I think that is why I got questioned, but maybe I would have been questioned anyway, don't know.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

19. This (new) card was sitting on my desk for a few weeks.

Plus, I hadn't used the old one in a few months. On the other hand I've had a card with Amoco (and now BP) for 2 or 3 decades.
If they were worried about me, they shouldn't have mailed me a new card at all.

[grasswire]

2. we tried to send money via Western Union...

...to a family member in Maine with a debit card on the phone, and lord almighty we talked to half of India, I think, and they wanted so much info! Then after answering all their questions, got transferred to another agent who asked all the questions over again! But the worst of the thing was that they then double-debited the transaction! Eight hundred bucks were tied up for almost a week as we tried to get that resolved.

[suninvited]

4. I was sending money to my daughter via Western Union

using a debit card, too. I know it is for my protection that I answer all those questions. I know it is a common practice to try to get more cash from a stolen card by sending money than you are able to withdraw from a debit card in a day from an ATM, but you would not believe the questions.

They asked what city my ex mother in law lived in. Mind you, I have been divorced from her son for 22 years. I got that one right.

They asked how old my ex step daughter was (I have been divorced from her father for ten years, but still knew how old she was, however she had since married, and I just happened to have heard what her married name was)

Then they asked about a car I owned about 8 years ago, the year it was or the make.

I guarantee you one thing, nobody who wasnt me could have answered those questions correctly.

[grasswire]

7. so how did they know if you answered those correctly?

Hmmm?

That was our experience, too. The questions involved information that had never been given to any entity for credit info. How would Western Union be able to ask you about a previous car, or your ex stepdaughter's age, or yada yada. How would they know any of that??!! They must be pulling up some kind of extensive dossier on people. And they are speaking from an overseas calling center. So what are these dossiers? How are they compiled? How are they safeguarded????

[suninvited]

23. Thats what I asked them.

They said public records.

I dont get it either. I get the car part, you have to register those. And I could see them asking me for information on an ex husband, like a middle name or something. Marraiges are recorded. But asking me questions about relatives of TWO of my ex husbands? Weird.

[forthetroops]

28. Well

Well, it's aggravating, but a few moments of hassle is better than making it easy for some shmuck to open an account in your name.

[suninvited]

29. Oh, I know.

I was nice to lady, and even laughed with her about where they got that information about me. I was sending a considerable sum of money, enough to make me call for further authorization.

I just found it fascinating that this information about me is somewhere that Western Union can just pull it up and verify I am me.

[Dora]

3. Did this involve a call center in India?

I activated a new cell phone last fall, and while on the phone with the cust service rep, I began getting annoyed because she continued to ask me varying permutations of "May I help you?" Over and over, "Do you have any questions, do you understand, is there anything else I may do..." etc

until my tinfoil hat came on and I realized A-HA, she was milking the call! I wondered if perhaps the call center gets paid by-the-minute for the calls, so she was trying to keep me on the phone as much as possible. I have no idea if this is true or not (I know nothing about Indian call centers) but my hunches tend to be pretty good.

I think you encountered the same monster I did - keep the customer on the phone so we can bill the company for six minutes, instead of two.

[khashka]

5. I got it too

I found this guy's credit card in a parking lot. I didn't know who he was or where to return it to. So I called the credit card company. Massive hassle.

They raked me over the coals. I kept telling them I hadn't used it and wouldn't. I didn't want his address or phone number, I'd send the card to them. But I didn't know if he knew he'd lost it, would they inform him?

Then they started wanting all sorts of personal info and acting like I was some monster. So I lost it. "None of those questions are any of your business. So fuck you. If you won't help me get it back to him, I'll fucking slice it into so many pieces no one can use it." Which I did. But damn it, I was trying to do the right thing.


Khash.

[siligut]

6. I had a somewhat similar experience.

When I called to say I had found a debit card, at first they didn’t know what to do with me.

A manager came on the line and started to ask me all sorts of personal information. I was irritated pretty quick and I can blast ‘em as good as the next.

He relented and told me that no one ever calls about finding a card and he appreciated that I did. Anyway, he looked at the account and said everything looked OK and I should just cut the card up.

[huskerlaw]

8. Really?

I actually had the opposite experience. Someone had left their Wells Fargo card in the ATM, so I had to remove it to do my transaction. The ATM was attached to a bank, but it was after hours, so I called the number on the back of the card and the customer service rep was extremely nice and didn't ask me anything personal...not even my name.

I returned the card to the bank the next day and the teller said they'd contact the card owner. The teller didn't ask me anything personal either.

[khashka]

10. It runs about 80/20 I think

Most times I think people try to be helpful and decent and assume the same of you. And mostly it works out that way. But when you are as trusting and expecting of trust (as I know I am and assume most people are) when it doesn't happen it looms large.


Off topic: What kind of law do you do? Tell me and I'll tell you a quick story about one of the many lawyers I dated. You might like it.

Khash.

[huskerlaw]

15. I actually don't practice law...

I'm a law librarian and I teach legal research at a law school. But I love lawyer stories! ;)

[khashka]

16. Ok I'll tell you

I was dating this guy and it might seem strange that after dating for awhile I'd never asked him what he did for a living. After sleeping with each other "what's your job?" is hardly an intimate question. But I'd never asked. But eventually I did.

"What do you think?"
"Like you look. College prof."
"I'm a lawyer."
"Damn. Why do I always end up with lawyers?"
"Because we have a strong sense of right and wrong and protecting people, so do you, so there would be a natural attraction."

Cool, but weird.

Khash.

[huskerlaw]

20. Sounds like he was

the good kind of lawyer, at least!

Those of us who get into this profession for the right reasons do indeed have the above characteristics. Though I also find that to be true of politically minded people...at least the liberal variety. ;)

[khashka]

11. self delete

[khashka]

9. The worst one of all

I was driving home from work. About 1 am, in Alaska, in winter. I had to slam on the brakes and skidded onto the sidewalk because there was a guy dragging another guy (unconscious or dead) across the road by his hair. I almost hit them.

When I got home, about a block away, I called 911. The response? "What business is it of yours?" "Uh, trying to be a good citizen?" And that went round and round. I finally agreed it was none of my business at all. But send a squad car to check it out and if it was totally innocent, they could bill me for it.

But really! Come on!

Khash.

[siligut]

12. Did you ever hear anything about it?

I had a similar experience with 911. I talked with the workers the next day and they knew who did this: It was around two am and I was up late, I was in school then. I heard some noise and went to look out the kitchen window. Two guys were hooting and hollering and destroying the work that had been done on these townhouses.

They were pushing out windows and I heard they even pushed over the Honey pot. I called 911 to report it and the moran who answered the call was asking me how I knew and why did I care. Another operator broke in and quickly gathered the information and sent a couple officers over.

I was in shock that anyone at 911 would ask someone why they would report wanton destruction.

[Habibi]

22. That's freakin' crazy!

I've called my local 911 and reported a loud party and a loud barking dog (we're talking 3 am here), and the response I've gotten is: We'll send someone right over.

Now, they didn't necessarily send someone *right* over, but eventually my complaints got checked out and I wasn't hassled about my call. Good grief! "Why do you care?" What crappy outsourcing firm is employing these dipshits?

[petronius]

13. I just activated mine, and it was all automatic

However, there were a lot of sales pitches mixed in to the call and it was deliberately vague about when the activation part was actually done...

[Gidney N Cloyd]

18. As was the card I did just before this one.

[5LeavesLeft]

14. I'd watch your credit rating

if I were you. They should know all that info, except for your height on your DL, which they don't need for anything. Never give your SS# over the phone to a company that shouild already have it; it's always better to let them tell you and then you verify it. There is a lot of identity theft out there, so it's good that they made you jump thru a few hoops, but some of this sounds a bit fishy.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

17. "let them tell (me) and then verify it." Good idea. Wish I'd been that together.

Part of the problem is I'd just verified another card (day off, catching up with stuff) and the first one went much more according to past experience.

Honestly, I think these goofs were legit but they don't appreciate how some people's scam-dar switches on these days.

[Love Bug]

25. No, no, no!

They should NOT be giving out your SSN on the phone, either. How do they know who the caller is? They should be asking you to verify the last 4-digits. That way they get their verification if they are legitimate. If they are not, they don't get enough of your SSN to steal your identity.

[JPZenger]

21. So where do you keep all your valuables? Do you have an alarm system?

Are you sure you had the right number? Did they ask you where you keep all your valuables? Did they ask if you keep a house key hidden some where? Did they ask if you have a gun or an alarm system? Did they ask if your local police department resemble the Keystone Cops? Did they ask you about your vacation plans?

[mainegreen]

24. The best is cashiers who want info when you buy stuff.

They want your address, phone #, age, zip code. I never give them that info and they try to argue that they need it. Oh really, you mean you wont sell me this camera if I don't give you my phone number and zip code? I find that claim highly dubious.
My wife hates it when I do that though, so if she's with me I just hand out bogus information.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

26. I used to give the clerks at Radio Shack a hard time for asking for my name and zip code.

When I was paying cash a couple times I told them my name was Andrew Jackson and my zip was none of their business.

At some point I mellowed, I guess.

[LynneSin]

27. Annoying as it is - someone who might have stolen that card wouldn't know your height

Please don't yell at the people asking you too many questions just to activate your new credit card. If it wasn't for identity theft we wouldn't have to go through all this shit. If anything I think that's a good question to ask since a person committing idenity theft might not have that information available.