Phishing

This week, I received an unsolicited phone call purporting to be from my insurance company. The person politely introduced themselves and said she would like me to verify my identity before discussing a recent interaction with them.

Now, it is quite possible that the call was legitimate, as I did transact with them in recent months. However, when she asked me for my email address and date of birth to verify my identity, I hesitated in obliging her request. I asked her how I could be sure she was from the aforementioned insurance company. She couldn't answer that question. So, I asked her to reveal the matter for discussion, and she again said she would have to verify my identity before our conversation could go ahead. In the end, we had got ourselves into a stand-off. Neither of us was willing to budge from our position.

I have every right to be a little cautious of this call, after all, I didn't initiate it. Unfortunately, it is easy to be tricked into divulging personal information to a so-called trusted source, and on this occasion, my fraud alert was going off.

I stood my ground and refused to provide any information, so the caller agreed to send me a letter regarding the matter, and I could call them back to discuss when I received it. I don't understand why they didn't do that in the first place.