Take five to help keep your details safe
Q I WAS phoned last week on my mobile by a number I did not recognise. When I answered, it had a call centre sound with a poor line but the caller said she was from Nationwide Building Society and was calling about my mortgage.
I don’t have a Nationwide mortgage – or any other because I rent following my recent divorce.
But when I was still married, we did not have a Nationwide mortgage either, although we had one from another lender.
When I tried to ask where they had my details from, the caller put the phone down on me.
What is this all about? Jennifer W
A
THIS is a scam, designed to get your personal information. The perpetrators know the chances are you won’t have a Nationwide home loan but that does not matter. It’s their way of engaging you in a conversation whatever your response.
If you say “yes”, then they’ll press for details promising you a better remortgage deal. If you say “no, but I have one with another lender” then they can use this to push for information. Telling them you rent lets them offer you something involving bank details.
If you say you’ve paid off the mortgage, you could be an older person who might be susceptible to pensions fraud.
The best thing is to ignore these calls – once you hear that call centre noise, hang up.
Your call came from a number seemingly based in Derby (Nationwide, which never phones like this, is in Swindon). Fraudsters know many do not trust overseas calls or unknown mobiles but will answer landlines with UK numbers.
It’s easy to clone a number looking like UK landlines. Recent phones mark these calls as “spam”.
Nationwide supports the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign. If you are phoned or emailed about finances, take a deep breath and think for five minutes whether it is genuine. Mostly, it is not.
Nationwide says: “When we learn of attempted scams, we promptly request the number is disconnected. This number has impersonated other companies besides ourselves.”
But fraudsters can access many numbers – often hundreds. When one is blocked, they quickly move to another.