BEWARE THE FAIR TRADING SCAM

By Jackie Pearson

Another banking scam to look out for is called the Office of Fair Trading Scam. It works like this.

The caller tells you they are from your bank and explains that your bank has been over-charging you for years. The reason for the call is that they need to verify your personal information so they can organise for the Office of Fair Trading, which has supposedly prosecuted your bank for over-charging, to provide you with a refund.

Before you can get that refund, the person calling says they need to issue you with a unique security code and to do that they will need to verify your account details.

The person then proceeds to read you the first four digits of your credit or debit card number and then asks you to verify the remaining 12 digits of the number. This is an easy trap to fall into because, well, who doesn't want their bank to pay them a refund for over-charging.

What most consumers don't know is that the first four digits of your credit or debit card are the same for every card issued by your bank. Those four digits are like the card BSB number.

YOUR BANK SHOULD NEVER, EVER ASK YOU FOR PERSONAL DETAILS OVER THE PHONE. If any caller asks for your credit or debit card number or for the three-digit security card number on the bank of your card, THEY ARE NOT REALLY FROM YOUR BANK.

When I received one of these scam calls on my home phone recently I asked the caller to stay on the line while I called my bank on my mobile phone to verify that they were, in fact, a representative of the bank. Guess what, they hung up straight away!

So repeat after me: "I am sorry, I never give my account or card details to anyone over the phone, even if you say you are representing a charity or want to GIVE ME MONEY. If you want my personal and confidential banking information, send me your details in writing so I can verify them with my bank". If you say those words, even on occasions when you are convinced the call is legitimate, you will stay safe and free of nasty scams!

MOVE TO A MUTUAL

By Jackie Pearson

Abacus Australian Mutuals has today declared that the best way to improve competition in the Australian banking sector is to "empower consumers" and provide building societies and credit unions with fairer access to funding.
In terms of empowering consumers, yes, it is important that the current Senate Inquiry into banking competition does look at the impediments and complexities created by the big banks to make it extremely difficult for consumer to switch.
In particular it needs to take a hard look at mortgage exit penalties and the "bundling" of mortgages with an array of other products.
Abacus CEO Louise Petscher said the group's submission to the Senate Inquiry recommended the continuation of the government guarantee on deposits up to $1 million and the reinstatement of a flat fee wholesale guarantee to help non-banks compete with the big mortgage providers.
Meanwhile there is one definite way that we can all cement the position of credit unions and building societies as the fifth pillar of Australian banking.
We can take a serious look at the service, interest, fees and deals being offered by our local credit unions. We can compare those deals, closely, with the ones currently provided by the big four. In most instances (there are some inferior credit unions) you'll find the mutual down the road has more to offer than any of the big four.
So why not open an account with a mutual and gradually switch over all your direct credits and debits until you're at a point where you can tell your bank what you really think of it. And end the conversation with "goodbye".

Beware bank service scam

By Jackie Pearson
I had a call on my home phone at lunch time today from a woman claiming to represent the Australian Bankers' Association.
She was asking me a series of questions about my satisfaction with my current financial institution.
I presumed she was carrying out genuine market research in the wake of the NAB payment system meltdown so I commenced answering her questions as sincerely as possible.
I am an NAB customer so, to be honest, she copped an absolute earful. I explained that I could not believe a highly-profitable financial institution with the brand-new customer-focussed slogan "Less take, more give" could have systems that would allow such chaos to ensue, leave customers stranded (not to mention customers from other instos) and then take out full-page newspaper ads to say gee I'm sorry before the problem was already fixed.
Anyway she only asked me two questions before hanging up. I can't quite figure out why the conversation didn't continue.
Then it occurred to me that maybe it wasn't the ABA calling at all. So I called them, as a consumer, not a journalist.
They told me the "research" call was definitely a scam. The ABA is not currently conducting phone-based market research to check on customer service satisfaction.
So if you get such a call, give no information, particularly your personal banking details, accounts, PINS etc.
We now know that even a bank as big as the NAB can "misplace" millions of payments and take five days to find them. However, we also know banks don't ever ask you for personal account details over the phone so never fall for the "market research" trick.