[conspire] (more?) efficient verification ...?: (was: Re: Fraudulent e-mail addresses (was: ...Straffic data breach))

[Michael Paoli]

> From: "Rick Moen" <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> Subject: Re: [conspire] Fraudulent e-mail addresses (was:  
> ...Straffic data breach)
> Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2020 20:49:01 -0800

> Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):
>
>> For Barbara Corcoran, $388,700 is probably pocket change. 
>
> But making yourself look like a hapless idiot in front of the entire
> world: priceless.  ;->
>
> (I gather that this idiot is some sort of celebrity, but I've never
> heard of her before.)
>
>> Meanwhile, at my house the my wife answered a phone call reportedly
>> from my bank asking about some transaction.  She gave me a note with
>> the bank's phone number.I set the note aside and looked up the bank's
>> phone number.  It took some time to to finally get a person. Then I
>> had to answer a set of security questions.  Now I was sure I was
>> talking to the bank and they were sure I was who I claimed to be. 
>> Then my call was transferred a couple more times and lastly to the
>> bank's fraud department. Yes they had called because I had made some
>> unusual recent transactions.  This took half an hour of my time, but I
>> thanked them for being diligent. 
>
> That's unfortunately about as efficient as the (correct, non-fraudulent)
> process is likely to get.  You and your wife (obviously) did the right

Perhaps an alternative to try/consider - which *may* - or may not - be
(significantly) more efficient and/or desirable.
So, these days, most financial institutions, even many businesses, have
on their web sites, available "live online chat" (generally just text,
but regardless).  Some/many even operate all days and hours.
So - if one's already set up with such web site(s) and the (at least presumed)
relevant account(s) or account holder(s) - login and authenticate to
the site, then try the live chat.  Might then proceed with:
"Received call claiming to be from <phone_number> and claiming that ..."
"Is that a legitimate call and/or can you tell me more about the  
alleged matter?"
Results may vary wildly among institutions/businesses, but one might find
that the on-line "chat" might be much faster and efficient ... or not,
phone may be much better.  But, may want to - at least if one uses such
on-line capabilities anyway, run the experiment once in a while, to see
if it may be (much?) better ... or not.
One of the advantages - especially with financial institution, is one is
pre-authenticated to them at that point (and them to you), so those bits
are already mostly or entirely knocked out of the way.  Things may or
may not go faster from there, but usually at least worth potentially
considering.
Do also keep in mind, some communications, may be better or more appropriate
for voice, rather than text.  Likewise, text can or may also be advantageous,
at least for some circumstances.
As for which is more efficient, personally I'd say results have been
quite mixed, and mostly correlate to the particular business/institution,
and to lesser extent, the particular matter at hand.
Likewise to consider for, e.g. tech support, order inquiries, etc.