There needs to be a better way to verify.

https://youtu.be/63zSYqmLuhE?si=w5zSiEog-jxw7VIe&t=47

I have no idea about phone systems so this mighy be out of touch

Well, then, looks like the problem was solved nearly three years ago!

This model also doesn’t work for businesses that route all outgoing calls through one number, as that is essentially caller ID spoofing.

The Google dialer does ask me whether unknown callers were businesses and try to ID businesses that enough people report

The banks (and utilities etc) are training the Boomers that they will call and claim to be from the bank.

I. have. no. words.

It was legit.

Where do you live that this is possible? I'm genuinely curious. In most places a phone number is required to open a bank account or use most/any government services.

> I myself have an additional rule that I always reject calls from unknown numbers

I'm highly skeptical of unknown numbers and they're almost always telemarketers or scam calls but ... my circle includes people who can lose phones, have batteries go flat, ask others to pass on a message, etc - fully whitelisting isn't always an option.

This is generally true, but...

In Switzerland calls from banks (and doctors and lawyers) don't submit numbers. That's due to secrecy laws (at least in the case of banks)

That said, in 45 years I never received a call from a bank.

Be careful about this. Scammers have bought Google adverts to advertise fake phone numbers for banks, so "ask Google what my bank's phone number is" unfortunately isn't secure against scammers.

I mean, yes, you need to independently source the official number; just make sure that your father knows how to do that and doesn't try to do it in a way which may be compromised.

Wiretapping the Secret Service Can Be Easy and Fun | Bryan Seely | TEDxKirkland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c6AADI7Pb4

He has actual paper phone books, several address books, and spent some time as a naval signals officer ..

We're both of generations that have always been skeptical of infomation on computers ... I can't imagine life as someone who'd ask google what my banks number is.

You can avoid 99% of all phone scams by never giving personal information out on an unsolicited call. Regardless of what the caller’s phone number appears as.

A legit caller won’t care if you call back yourself.

The few times this has happened, the note is simply 'call the bank's 0800 number and quote your account number', their robo menu will then automatically forward me to whoever is trying to reach me as soon as I hit the 'speak your account number' menu point (and if for some reason that fails, it then goes to a human operator who will then forward me to whoever was trying to reach me.

I've never even had a whiff of them being annoyed by this chain of events the 3 or 4 times it's triggered (always due to steam triggering fraud protection)