I’ve called small local businesses and they know who I am based on my phone number.
But really big places like a bank don’t look me up based on my number? They ask me. instead
Guess it’s just what software they use.
Most likely, they have an old phone system that doesn’t support caller ID. It could be quite expensive to change all the equipment to switch over.
I called my bank’s 800 number this morning, and the automated voice actually said, “We recognize you from your phone number,” so companies are starting to switch over.
They think you could be spoofing your number, because that’s what they do.
My understanding is that when you call a toll-free number like that, the company is paying for the call and thus gets information about the number that’s calling them.
It probably doesn’t happen nearly as much as it used to, but for a while, lots of people had two phone numbers – land line and cell.
In other words, the phone number you’re calling from NOW may not be the number associated with your account.
Do you really want your bank to assume you are in fact you based on nothing more than the phone number that’s calling them?
This exactly. They know the number, they just want to see if you do. It’s a security measure.
I only have a cellphone and it is set to block my number from caller ID recognition. So there’s that.
No, but they have other ways to check my ID, too, and if they know my phone number, that’s fewer digits that i have to enter.
I don’t think it’s a security measure at all. Surely if you know how to spoof a number, you would also know what number you are spoofing.
I think it likely has to do with how the redirects are set up. When they redirect you to a different line (which is extremely common these days), I suspect the original calling number might be lost. So unless the part that received the call sends the number, they won’t know it for sure.
Plus, well, in my experience, they tend to be asking about the phone number of the account, not the phone number you are calling from. Sometimes people do wind up calling from a different number. I do it when the account has my house number or cell number, but not the other one. Plus I’ve called at other people’s houses or with other people’s phones.
These places would instead have other systems set up to actually verify you are who you say they are, that don’t depend on who called. Asking you for the phone number on the account does make sense as a security measure, as it’s possible someone might know your name and account number but not your phone number.
I called the 700 club number for prayer, and a few days later, they called me, leaving a message saying to call if I needed prayer again.
I get this a lot when I’m bounced around. They make you enter your account number before you talk to a person, but every time they transfer you, you have to start over.
On the other hand, when I call Alaska Airlines from my cell phone they know who I am and have my booked flights available at their fingertips to discuss.
Until we switched to VoIP, we didn’t have caller ID. Now it’s just phone number, no caller name look up (which can be quite unreliable) since it’s an extra charge.
But, back before, I was surprised at the number of people who just assumed we had caller ID.
I still run into a lot of people who just assume our number is a cell phone and want to text us. I can’t even get a close relative to email me stuff and they keep trying to text it. Over and over and over despite me reminding them that texts won’t work.
In short, just don’t presume that everybody has every calling feature.