Recently, I had reason to question the level of security of personal data held at high street banks.

Wondering whether a cheque had cleared late Wednesday afternoon, I called the National Westminster Bank telephone banking centre and was eventually put through to a young fellow who was eager to help me, (he was equally eager to point out that I should I sign up for online banking.)

In order to confirm my identity, he asked a few questions, but most importantly, he requested I confirm my date of birth. This I duly did, he responded to my request regarding the pending cheque and that was the end of the call.

The following day, I decided to go into the bank to withdraw some money for the weekend. When I presented my withdrawal request and ID (I was not at my regular branch of NatWest) at the counter, the clerk looked very serious and informed me that the date of birth on my passport did not match the date of birth on record for my account. I was subsequently invited to a back office to talk to a manager, feeling a little confused as I had used my passport as ID on many previous occasions.

The manager proceeded to ‘correct’ the information on file after seeing my driver’s license and passport. I got as close as possible to ensure he was genuinely entering data and he was. When done, he tried to sell me an array of NatWest products which, needless to say, I was not interested in.

I left the bank not merely agog at the level of subterfuge these people will descend to in order to push their wares, but wondering just how easy it is to alter confidential personal data within the banking environment, what data is available for bank staff to alter, and how easy it might be to inspect an audit trail on my account. Was this an elaborate ruse by the bank in order to get me in a position where they can offer up their wares? Or was there a genuine lapse in security?

I have had the account in question for more than ten years and there has never been any issue over the accuracy of my personal data when checked over this period. This leads me to conclude the change was made recently. A week prior to the incident, I had transferred a quite large sum of money in to that account. This leads me to think it was orchestrated in order to sell me something.