Giving out bank account details to cold callers

Hi,

I've just signed up for a cable TV contract with a cold-calling representative, it is probably all above board, but after he left it occurred to me that I had given out a lot of information over the phone. For the monthly direct debit they asked for my:
Name
Address
Mother's Maiden Name
Account Number
Account Sort Code.

Is it safe to give out all these details, or could someone empty my account with them ?

Thanks,

Usjes.

Re: Giving out bank account details to strangers

I'd be a bit nervous giving them out to a cold caller. Probably good idea to phone the cable company and check out they are who they said they were. In fairness, the caller could have been anyone

Did he physically call to the door?

Did he have ID?

I would not do it on the phone - I probably would trust a representative from a major brand such as Sky.

As it happens it was a Sky representative who called to the door, but I really don't see that that makes any difference, my question is, what are the minimum details someone would need to empty your account? This guy had sky branded paraphenalia, and a photo id but in fairness I could mock up an equally impressive ID on the colour printer at work in all of 5 minutes. So the question remains, is the supplied data sufficient to clean our an account?