Thank you for your help and advice about my scams. Jean from
Cornwall, wouldn’t your bank get in touch if it were worried about sudden, odd
payments? That’s what my scammers started off with. Both lots knew the first
four digits of my debit card. Alexander says they are likely to have bought that
information on the Dark Web, and advised me to get a new card, so I’ve done
that. Oh, for the days when one could go into one’s branch and weep on the
shoulder of the Bank Manager.
Recorded messages are much easier to shrug off, mentally.
However serious they sound one has but to reflect – what if my cleaner had
answered the phone? Or Archie? Or one of the cats?
Otherwise, not much was achieved. My personal trainer came,
and we walked twice around the Gardens – nearly half a mile. That was
encouraging, after yesterday’s total feebleness. Italian tomorrow. I finished a
re-reading of Mansfield Park. Goodness, it’s good.
As for knitting, I made a good start on winding the yarn for
the pocket square. There’s quite a lot of yarn, and it’s sort of slippy because
of having silk in it, and Perdita came and sat on my lap, so I didn’t finish
winding. And I can’t find the card on which I made all those laborious notes
about how I knit pocket squares the first time. It’s not a complicated pattern.
I may even be able to remember.
I'm sure there are some ways my bank could contact me, but I forget now. What I do know is that they didn't contact me about doubtful transactions - they just blocked them. This was before the days when you could notify them of your travels, and I tried to use a cashpoint in San Francisco, and got refused. I should have been able to ring a number on the card, but it was on the back where the embossing was and illegible.
ReplyDeleteThe first four numbers of you card long number are the code for the card type Visa, Master etc. so no prizes for guessing that.
My credit card froze me once for spending too much on a Christmas present — but let me go to CT, stay in a hotel, and hire a car around the time of Theo’s wedding.
DeleteI have two current accounts in different banks — both Visa debit; different four-first-numbers. Except that both begin with 4. We’ll see what they come up with for the new card.
Me again - we have just been comparing cards here - we have a joint and my personal a/c at the same bank and system - matching first four numbers. We both have credit cards with different banks but on the same system and they have the same first four.. So there is a correlation there somehow, but I can't work it out.
DeleteMy bank contacted me when one of my cards was compromised. They left me a voice mail and instructed me to call the phone number on the back of my card regarding a questioned charge. They never gave me a number to call nor did they say any of the card's numbers, only that it was with their particular bank.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I don’t think my Bad Men this week (or the other time, indeed) knew which bank my account was in. He asked me to read the telephone number on the back of the card, and I did, and that let him know that we were talking about the RBS.
DeleteIt is so easy to inadvertently provide the most innocuous-appearing information, therefore, I don't say anything at all. And never say 'yes' to anything. That can supposedly be cut and pasted into a recording allowing them access to whatever they are looking for - although that particular trick might have been thwarted by new security measures by now. Still, better safe than sorry...Chloe
ReplyDeleteI do like having a local bank, although my credit card isn't with them. When I left my ATM card in the machine accidentally not too long ago, a teller called me, and said although they were closing if I came by and rapped on the back window he would come out and give me my card. Real customer service. Glad you got a walk in. I am currently working with a silk, wool, mohair blend and it is lovely but so slippery. I have to use bamboo needles, which are not my usual style.
ReplyDelete