Why is Virgin Media asking customers for their passwords?

[Lt-DavidW]

Why is Virgin Media asking customers for their passwords?

Because either it is stupid, or thinks its customers are, or both. Actually, that's slightly (but only slightly) unfair.

The company says that it has indeed been calling customers and asking them to confirm their identities by giving up their passwords and home addresses in order to comply with the Data Protection Act. Which, of course, is the kind of thing a company says when it doesn't have a proper grasp of Data Protection Act compliance.

So what's going on? If you're a Virgin Media customer then you may recently have received a call from someone claiming to be a Virgin Media employee conducting a customer services review on behalf of the company. So far, so believable. Then, this unexpected caller will have asked you to confirm your identity by revealing your password. Or your home address. Or both. How do we know? They called me.

At this point, your identity-theft alarm bell may have sounded at the possibility that you were being phone-phished, socially engineered or otherwise being taken for a berk by someone from Nigeria with 419 similar calls already under their belt. Ringing up and asking for such details is a classic scam.

Except that this isn't a scam. It's real: Virgin Media has actually been doing this. But it must, to comply with the Data Protection Act, remember? What does the Data Protection Act say on compliance? Well, it says a quite lot - around 37,000 long, dull and tedious words - but it doesn't say that companies should call customers unexpectedly and ask for their passwords. That would be stupid.

How stupid? Ask the security-meisters at the Home Office: "Never give personal or account details to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly. Be suspicious, even if they claim to be from your bank or the police."

Admittedly, the Home Office advice doesn't say to be suspicious of callers who say that they're from Virgin Media, so perhaps it's okay to be reckless with your personal data in this instance? Well, actually, no.

When asked to explain the company's policy, Virgin Media said that many major organisations call customers and ask them to confirm their passwords as part of Data Protection Act compliance procedures. This review is, we're told, an ongoing process that could involve any customer at any time. The chap at Virgin Media cited his own bank, NatWest, as an example of another major organisation that does this.

We called NatWest: it doesn't do this. Indeed, NatWest's advice for customers answering unexpected callers is handy: "Be cautious if you're asked for personal information. Remember that they have instigated the call and should already know who you are. NatWest will never ask for your full security number or password." Virgin Media, take note. (Spokesman, check your bank account.)

Our advice is never to give out these details - because it could really be conmen (or women) on the phone trying to get your details.

Source: Guardian

[Nick Sheldon]

Unbelievable.

Trajic really isn't it.

We try everyday to drum it into people at work about scams / phishes etc, and then these buffoons come along and do this!

[Louis of Switzerland]

some are outright stupid.

hilarious post :D

[funkymunky]

WTF??

A whole password is a joke

It should be 2 random characters from the password!!!!

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Lol, if they called, I wouldn't give out anything personal - they should be able to tell me all that they know!

[randomnut]

If you are asked for any more than just a few letters of your password, just tell them to go do one.

Asking for any more than 3 letters and alarm bells should ring.

[neo1911]

Noobs....

I literally hate Virgin Media.. Premium charge for customer support lines even if problem is on their side ???

Bunch of cheaters

Never give out any passwords on such calls. Even if it is legit from any virgin

Thanks for making us aware of this new scam

[andy2004]

do they also offer to transfer $86000 ugandan dollars into your account ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxcS3IiIPVE...feature=related :laugh: :woot: :shifty: :shiftyninja:

[FloatingFatMan]

I don't even ID myself by name when someone phones me... I just say "Hello" and wait for them to ask for who they want. If VM phone me up asking for this kind of info, they can go swim in a lake of piranha fish!

[Nathanael]

do they also offer to transfer $86000 ugandan dollars into your account ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxcS3IiIPVE...feature=related :laugh: :woot: :shifty: :shiftyninja:

These are just friggin awesome. Doovde lol.

[SMELTN]

what kills me is the fact that when contacted, Virgin didn't say you know, we are sorry, this is very unsafe and we will change the way we are doing it. They literally just said, it's what we have to do, so tell us or else.........

[That Guy Veteran]

If your a customer of Orange you're expected to give your password. They are quite possibly the worst ISP I know (apart from Tiscali Dial-up).

They are also guilty of not securely shredding customer documents at their offices, leaving customers personal details in bin bags that anyone could steal.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

LOL @ this.

if they call me im going to give them the wrong password and see what they say :p

"whats your password, sir?" ... "...hedgehog" ... "that password is incorrect sir" ... "oh well, nevermind, better luck next time" *puts phone down*

:laugh:

[Borbus]

Virgin Media is a joke. We used to be on 20mbit, never got over 8mbit, and usually barely even got that. So downgraded to 2mbit. Now I can usually download at around 6-8mbit, more often then I could on 20.

[CoolCatBad]

No problem, my password is asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk.

[funkymunky]

If your a customer of Orange you're expected to give your password. They are quite possibly the worst ISP I know (apart from Tiscali Dial-up).

They are also guilty of not securely shredding customer documents at their offices, leaving customers personal details in bin bags that anyone could steal.

No you don't

It's two random digits from your password with Orange.

I was on the phone to them last week