Maturing State Savings. Cold Caller asks for Personal Details.

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gledswood

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Last week I was notified that my State Savings were maturing. I was sent a form for completion.

I completed the form and sent it back with an original header of my bank statement with IBAN number etc. Dated last month.

Today I get a cold call asking me to provide my date of birth and address for verification purposes. I asked the caller what he wanted this information for and he said for verification purposes. He said that he would also require my bank details.

He did not seem to know that I had sent a copy of my bank statement header with the form that I sent last week when I told him that I had.

He seemed frustrated with me and ended the call saying that he would post me a letter asking me these questions.

I have already provided this information in the encashment form that I completed last week and it seems that I have to now go and do it again.

Am I being unreasonable in not giving this information to a cold caller?
 
gledswood said:
Today I get a cold call asking me to provide my date of birth and address for verification purposes. I asked the caller what he wanted this information for and he said for verification purposes.
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Been through this experience a few times and it is not a pleasant one. They can get quite annoyed as you say when you mention the fraud aspect. If you do not give them the information then it delays the repayment if the documentation has to be posted out.

I would say that they are frustrated that most people have the negative reaction and most likely realise how much their job is so out of touch with what should be provided by a financial institution these days.
 
"I recently had some 10 year Solidarity Bonds mature every month and every month they ring me and we go through the same stuff. I'm using the same IBAN to receive the money but they insist on ringing me.
Maybe with all the scams going around they are being over vigilant."

I posted above message elsewhere back in 2024. Personally I think it's over the top. I also remember reading that NTMA themselves actually got stung with some scam.

 
They also tell you not to click suspicious links but then they have multiple different domain names for different parts of the business. PTSB have ptsb.ie, permanenttsb.ie, open24.ie and probably others. I am pretty sure when I had a BOI account they sent me an email and part of it had a link to http://www.something-boi.ie (www.something-boi.ie) which is the type of thing phising attacks do to make their links look legitimate. It is infuriating.
 
The financial services industry really needs a wake up call, regarding their silly procedures for call backs etc.

It would be quite interesting to hear a few of their CEOs having to explain the logic behind people being asked to give out their personal details, to an unknown caller, or being asked to click on some of the links that the institutions send out.
 
gledswood said:
Today I get a cold call asking me to provide my date of birth and address for verification purposes. I asked the caller what he wanted this information for and he said for verification purposes. He said that he would also require my bank details.
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Assuming that this isn't simply a scam call and is genuinely State Savings calling you then this is outrageous and flies in the face of the most basic information security advice.

(Of course it's also outrageous if it IS a scam call... ;))
 
This is on their website.

Recognising genuine contact from Ireland State Savings​

Telephone:​

Ireland State Savings will never contact you by phone requesting your account number(s), password(s), login details, Debit Card CVV, verification codes or PIN.

Ireland State Savings will never ask you for your PPSN when confirming your identity over the phone.

In response to a communication or instruction from you we may contact you by phone and ask you to confirm your name, address, date of birth and in some cases we may ask you to confirm information in respect of a recent transaction or indeed some other security question.

In my case he wasn't aware that I had sent him the header of my bank statement and he became flustered when I asked him had he received it. I got the impression that his job was to deal with follow up calls but someone else dealt with the paperwork. When he phoned me he didn't know my name but asked for my wife by name. He didn't ask me any other security questions, despite the fact that I told him that I had other State Savings products and also Prize Bonds. He seemed unprepared.

I am not sure what extra information I can provide them that hasn't been given already.
 
Might this process be simpler if you requested encashment online via your State Savings account? Or is that what you did here?
www.statesavings.ie

Radware Page

Loader page.
www.statesavings.ie www.statesavings.ie
This still doesn't mean that calling people to ask for the sort of sensitive personal data that you were asked for is acceptable. I'm gobsmacked that they do this in this day and age.
 
gledswood said:
Ireland State Savings will never contact you by phone requesting your account number(s), password(s), login details, Debit Card CVV, verification codes or PIN.
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redstar said:
And yet they did.
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They didn't ask for any of the information listed above according to this.
gledswood said:
Today I get a cold call asking me to provide my date of birth and address for verification purposes. I asked the caller what he wanted this information for and he said for verification purposes. He said that he would also require my bank details.
Click to expand...
 
ClubMan said:
They didn't ask for any of the information listed above according to this.
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Correct, but anyone cold-calling me asking for DOB, address and my bank details can get on their bike. Nowadays I tell every cold caller to write to me. This means I never hear again from most of the satisfaction surveys and the like.
 
patfert1 said:
Correct, but anyone cold-calling me asking for DOB, address and my bank details can get on their bike.
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I agree, but in this case that would probably delay or jeopardise the encashment of your State Savings judging by what others have posted here and elsewhere on this issue? I have some Prize Bonds that I'll probably encash soon do I guess I'll find out...
 
I got the call and called back using number from the website. He just checked name , dob, address and asked about the transaction amount. Nothing about Iban. I was happy with the process.
 
ClubMan said:
I have some Prize Bonds that I'll probably encash soon do I guess I'll find out...
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I have been encashing all my "wins" in Prize Bonds that were made to me over the last number of years in...... recent times. So far I have cashed in about €4k worth.....mostly in lots of circa €500. No problem with that. Done by post.

I will have a large, one off amount to encash next month, over €50k, it will be interesting to see if I get a phone call even though I have cashed in about 8 lots this year already.
 
My understanding is that all a third party can do with an IBAN is transfer money to you.
Maybe knowing your account number is an entrée to bigger things but I would have thought much more verification would be needed to do any harm.
 
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