The other day someone stating they were from Anglia Water Homecare called my home number and asked to speak to Mr Bell to which I replied ‘Speaking’ as normal.

The caller then stated that,  ‘for data protection purposes I need to check your identity’ and asked for my full name, date of birth and address, including post code.

In the security world gathering such information is called Social Engineering and you use it to help you hack into a system, whether it be computers, telephone or for some other purpose.

Now I am a cantankerous bugger at the best of times; so I asked the caller to prove who she was to which she replied that the call couldn’t continue  if I didn’t answer the questions. My reply was ‘That’s OK, I’m not interested in what you are trying to sell me anyway’

I think she was a bit miffed…