Recently, I received a robocall purporting to be from a nationally recognized pharmacy chain. As part of the interaction, the computer-generated voice asked me to enter my date of birth.
Rule-of-thumb: If you haven’t signed up to receive robocalls from a company, hang up and dial the company in question yourself. It could be a scam*
It’s difficult to gauge the probability that the call really was from the national pharmacy chain. Regardless, it baffles me how anyone could think date of birth was useful in verifying identity. Date of birth is a very easy datum to obtain on most people.
There are many genealogy sites that aggregate public records such as birth and marriage records. The purpose of these ancestor look up sites may be perfectly wholesome and innocent, but that does not preclude nefarious use. Additionally, many counties publish their tax rolls online (including name, address, photos, mini-blueprint of your house, and assessed taxes).**
* The FTC website is a good source of information about defense against robocalls: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0076-phone-scams#Robo
** This information has always been public, but before digitization, the process usually meant visiting a government building, going into the records basement, and pouring through analog paper records. The digital age has changed all that.