I’ve had the unpleasant business of calling up call centers regarding two of my accounts – one’s with a bank and the other, about a subscribed service. I never really thought about it much before but call center agents have quite the access to our personal information.
For example, with the bank – all you need is to provide them with your name and account details and they can pull out your record and see everything pertinent about the account – all the personal information on the application sheet, your credit, your transaction history, etc… Heck even food delivery services have quite the database on them, right. Just give the guy your phone number and everything else is logged – name, address, landmarks, and even a brief physical description of it.
With the rise of identity theft nowadays, how safe is our information at the hands of these call center agents? What does it take to get access to accounts anyway? An answer to a security check simple question like “What’s you mother’s maiden name”? If these agents have such an easy access to our data, it’s just a matter of time when some enterprising bastard does something with them and gets away it.
I just wonder what measures companies are taking to protect out information.
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Quick, easy answer: they’re not doing anything.
Glad to hear, Ade. Though I might’ve planted the idea. Oh no!
Haha. I was just speculating where did those bastards who ripped off my girlfriend’s mom got her credit card information. First thing I thought of was call centers. Evil me.
I tagged along with a friend one night to a drinking session with his other friends. I met new people. Nothing weird about it until one of his acquaintances showed up talking about working as a customer service rep for a credit card company and how he can supposedly help this other guy in the group earn money by giving requiring him to give his mother’s maiden name. The rest of the story got fuzzy ’cause I was on my second bottle already and a second one meant I was somebody else. Not to perpetuate your suspicion but information is truly hardcore power, so be careful giving away such pertinent details to just anybody, especially in a drinking session, he-he. This means that thieves can also be a friend of a friend and not just a trusted CS Rep on duty.