Bank rep fail

[mariamousie1]

My brother has a slightly high voice. I wouldn't say he sounds like a girl, maybe an older kid. But then I'm used to it. Bro got a phone call the other day that went something like this.
Rep: Hello, this is Blah from Canadian bank, I would like to speak to Bro regarding his account.
Bro: Yes, this is Bro.
Rep: No, I need to speak to Bro.
Bro: Yes, I am Bro.
Rep: Bro is a man.
Bro: Yes, I'm a man.
Rep: You sound like a girl.
Bro: Um, thank you?
Rep: *hangs up*

We went to the bank the next day to talk to them about this, since we felt this was pretty unprofessional. Nobody from the bank branch made the call so they told us the call must have been made from the home office. They gave us a number at the home office to call to complain. The calls are recorded so they will be able to find out who called. As soon as we have spare moment we are going to call. We still don't know what they were calling about. My mom said if they didn't know about my bro's bank account she would put it down as a prank phone call. So far they haven't called back.

[siskaren]

It may not have been a prank. It may have been like phishing, except done on the phone, which is called "vishing". ( I guess a combination of "voice" and "phishing".)

[bainsidhe]

Either a scam or more likely, they were trying to sell you something. I occasionally get calls where my bank wants to offer some affiliate program blah blah blah. I say complain, this was utterly unprofessional.

[Mikkel]

A scammer would probably not care if they got the right person, as long as they got the information they were after.

[rose_metal_nz]

A scammer would probably not care if they got the right person, as long as they got the information they were after.

This is a good point. Sounds like a call centre; I dunno about your country but in mine, the branch themselves vary rarely call customers direct....

[RealUnimportant]

Calls from the bank aren't terribly uncommon in the UK, but they would require more than vocal timbre to make (or disprove) an ID!

[PepperElf]

i've had calls from the bank before, when they thought my account was compromised.
but most times i missed the calls and had to call them back

[MoonCat]

It could still have been a scam...they could have been pretending to be from the bank and they had your brother's name. If the guy thought he was talking to a girl, he probably figured "she" wouldn't have your brother's account info so the scam would go nowhere.

[mariamousie1]

That's true, but I don't know how they got my brother's name or knew that he has an account at that bank. Hopefully they didn't do anything creepy to get that information, like hack a computer or something.

[Aria]

If it wasn't a scam, it needs to be reported... that's terribly unprofessional. And if it WAS a scam, it needs to be reported even more. Either way, let the bank know.