Beat the scammers - Phone Password

[jagrabham]

I've just joined the Community, so sorry if someone has come up with this idea before - I haven't had time to read all the posts!

Having been bothered by scammers claiming be ringing from TalkTalk I have a suggestion as to how TalkTalk could stop this.  Would it be possible for all customers to be given the (optional) choice to have a “telephone contact password”.

This would work by the customer giving TalkTalk a password which they (TalkTalk) would use when telephoning the customer. This password could be kept on the Customer’s record on the TalkTalk computer system. In that way, for example, if I received a call from someone claiming to be from TalkTalk, I could ask them to give me the “telephone contact password”.  Only someone genuinely calling from TalkTalk would know this.

It may be that this may be difficult to do from the point of view of altering customer records, but I thought it was worthwhile suggesting it.

[StephenF]

Thanks for sharing your idea @jagrabham we'd love to hear what the rest of the community think about this. 

[brandyman]

That would be fine, but......

As has been reported your data is widely available around the various overseas call centres and as reported has been potentially sold on.

An account containing a telephone password would be part of that data.

[Monty2]

What does TalkTalk think about this.  I have been suspicious that the scam calls are an inside job from the call centre and it look like I have been right all along!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39177981

[StephenF]

@jagrabham Thanks for the great idea, We're currently investigating your suggestion with our products team.  

[Funky-Gibbons]

I'm afraid that I have to agree with brandyman and Monty2, somewhere there are security breaches in the call centres and the password would end up getting to the scammers.

[Monty2]

Would the password suggestion work though if it is an inside job?

[ucsweb]

This is something I suggested to the CEO's office a couple of years ago. If the password leaks you could then update it and stay one step ahead. I was told it could not be done as they could not access account information without the security questions they ask us!

Of course it would also prove that there is a security leak in talktalk.

[givenup]

A year now and still being "investigated"? Every time I phone talktalk I get scam calls within a couple of days.

[OCE_Michelle]

@givenup I'm sorry to hear this. If you could update your Community profile and post a new thread in the Billing section of our Community then we will look into this further for you.

In regards to the orignal idea, I'll chase for an update on this now and will update once I have more info back.

[OCE_Michelle]

Thanks again for your suggestion. This has been shared with our Security team who continually review and update our processes.

We currently block over 1 million scam calls a month as we automatically block calls to our customers from malformed phone numbers, including blank calls or where phone numbers are less than 8 digits. We also work with Action Fraud, Ofcom and others ISPs, in the search for new ways to stop scam calls.