How a simple name, telephone number, and customer or account number can be enough to get scammed

Sometimes the hackers only need very limited information to be able to scam you out of thousands and thousands of pounds. You sometimes see when companies get hacked or leak information that one of the immediate defences they raise is to assure people that financial information hasn’t been released.

But sometimes just a name, telephone number, and account number is all they actually need…

Imagine this: you get a call from a company who already have your number and account details, and they need talk to you about upgrades, or perhaps come round and do some work, or utilise your computer to help fix an issue. If they call and already have information like your full name, telephone number, and account details, some people wouldn’t question it.

The problem is though, they may not be the company you think they are at all. In fact, they may be scammers who have got hold of your personal information through a leak or a hack and are now taking advantage of this to try and trick you in to revealing more sensitive information.

I know that a lot of organisations these days proclaim that they will never ask for sensitive information when they call you, but when they already have so much information about your account, it can be hard to tell who is who.

So, just snippets of information could lead to much more serious problems, and we have helped and advised people who have sadly fallen victim as a consequence of these sorts of leaks and hacks.

How to protect yourself

It isn’t easy to know for sure who is who, but the advice we always give people is to never reveal information over the phone.

I myself got a call from (I believe) my telecoms provider after a fault was recently resolved. I’m probably 99% certain it was them calling to confirm that they had resolved an issue that I had actually raised with them, but their opening statement was asking for the name of the account holder. I assume it was for data protection reasons, but I ended the call to be on the safe side.

It really is better to be safe than sorry!

Can you claim as a victim?

We help victims of singular hacks and leaks as well as those making claims as part of a group action, and we can help you if you have fallen victim to a leak or a hack.

Just call us on 0800 634 75 75 or contact us below using our enquiry form and we’ll get back to you as soon as we possibly can.

University of Greenwich Data Leak – how do you know if you’re affected?

The University of Greenwich Data Leaks – why people SHOULD be concerned about fraud and identity theft