You receive a call on your phone. The caller says they're from your bank
Phone calls from scammers posing as banks or financial services are becoming increasingly sophisticated, often exploiting in‑app notifications, spoofed caller IDs and even 2FA flows to gain trust. Commenters describe strategies to stay safe—such as never sharing personal data on inbound calls, independently calling back via known numbers, or relying on app-based messaging—while criticizing banks for mixed messages and insecure practices that train customers to trust phone outreach. Several technical and policy ideas are floated, from call-screening bots and verified-caller protocols to requiring all sensitive contact to be initiated from within banking apps.
Bank-initiated calls and identity verification
- Many dislike when banks call and demand personal details while offering no way for the customer to verify them.
- Several people reported hanging up and calling the bank’s main published number, sometimes being routed back to the same agent via an extension or reference code.
- Some banks explicitly train customers to never share information on incoming calls and instruct them to call back via official numbers; others are inconsistent and even send confusing “we’ll never ask for X” messages while asking for X in practice.
- Bank fraud controls while travelling are described as both overzealous and poorly coordinated, sometimes ignoring prior travel notifications.
User strategies for avoiding phone scams
- Strong norm: never reveal information to an unsolicited caller; either don’t answer unknown numbers, or let them go to voicemail.
- Some avoid giving banks/government their phone/email at all so any contact via those channels is assumed fraudulent.
- A few note old phone systems where hanging up didn’t always disconnect, but others say modern systems make this mostly obsolete.
Telemarketer trolling and automation
- Several users describe intentionally wasting telemarketers’ time with elaborate stalling, seeing it as protective for others.
- Tools and services exist (pre-recorded, Markov/AI-based, VOIP) to automatically tie up spam callers or play fake “number out of service” tones.
Technology & call verification
- Pixel and some Android phones’ call-screening and spam filtering are praised; lack of comparable non-Google options is noted.
- Ideas raised: HTTPS-like authentication for calls, STIR/SHAKEN, out-of-band verification via apps, “verified calls” that send caller identity/reason through a trusted channel.
- Some mention app-based messaging or in-app calling as safer than traditional telephony, but note usability and sandboxing constraints.
Experiences with specific scams
- Referenced cases include a Chase UK in-app-notification scam and Coinbase “suspicious transaction” calls that try to push users into revealing credentials or moving funds.
- Consensus: once someone on a call asks for full card details, payment, or gift cards, it should be treated as a scam regardless of how convincing the context is.
Accessibility and special contexts
- Deaf users still face scams via sign-language relay services; there was controversy over whether interpreters could warn users, now reportedly allowed.
- Language switching (to a non-local language tied to the user’s home country) is suggested by some as an informal check, though others note high-quality local-language scams.