HSBC fraud prevention

Alexei

I received a call today from 0207 088 0003:

Mystery caller: "Hello Mr Alexei, I am calling from the HSBC Fraud Prevention Unit. To verify your identity, can you please give me your date of birth?".
Me: "Hi. How do I know who you are?"
Mystery caller: "I am from the HSBC Fraud Prevention Unit. Can you please give me your date of birth?"
Me: "Sorry, I don't want to give that information to an unidentified caller."
Mystery caller: "If you are not happy to divulge that information, please call the number on the back of your credit card. Goodbye."

So, having called the HSBC call centre, it turned out that they had indeed tried to phone me. They asked me to confirm that a transaction for about a grand was genuine - fair enough. I told them it was. Then they told me that "We are aware that a range of HSBC credit card numbers have been compromised, and yours is one of them. Therefore we will immediately be cancelling your credit card, and will issue a new one, which will arrive within 7 days."

What are the chances of them discovering this "compromise" at the exact time that they were calling me to confirm a transaction? Even more strangely, this same sequence of events happened to me about a year ago (meaning that my credit card details are now different, because they cancelled my card and reissued it the first time).

Two questions come to mind:

1) Why on earth is HSBC encouraging customers to reveal personal information with no evidence they're actually talking to the bank?
2) Why do they apparently not believe me when I have authenticated myself and confirmed that a transaction is genuine, and so cancel my card anyway, meaning I can't use it for the next week?

rsykes2000

This is one thing that intensely annoys me about HSBC. They always ask for security details before they proceed with the call, one or two of their employees have been cross with me for (politely) refusing to give away my personal information to people who call *using a withheld number*. They tend to say "We'll send you a letter, then", which rarely arrives, or if it does then it is advertising. Grrrrr.

[Deleted User]

In fairness the call wasnt withheld, due to data protection laws they cannot discuss any financial information without confirming your identity. This is for your Security.:rolleyes:

Knowing your name and telephone number is enough surely? how would anyone else get these details, all you need to confirm is DOB.

With regard to the card, surely its better to have a new card than have fraudulent trasactions on current card? If you arent happy with their Service, then apply for another card elsewhere.

To the second poster, if you have a unpaid debt with a company, i would suggest you speak to them there and then, chances are theyve been trying to contact you with no response or returned call, usually if someone says theyll put it in writing in these cases it means youll recieve a default.:rotfl:

vet8

I agree entirely with the OP. I would never reveal personal details such as date of birth to some cold caller. You have no proof at all who they are, they could easily be scammers.

My husband received an answerphone message from Egg asking him to call back. He got through to their automated phone line and was asked so many personal questions; postcode, DOB, mother's maiden name, three letters from his password etc. that he gave up. As he said he had no idea if it was really Egg or some scam.

[Deleted User]

vet8 wrote: »

I agree entirely with the OP. I would never reveal personal details such as date of birth to some cold caller. You have no proof at all who they are, they could easily be scammers.

My husband received an answerphone message from Egg asking him to call back. He got through to their automated phone line and was asked so many personal questions; postcode, DOB, mother's maiden name, three letters from his password etc. that he gave up. As he said he had no idea if it was really Egg or some scam.

Scammers of what?

Could your husband not find the geniune number from the Egg website and call them? Its common courtesy to return a call. If your not prepared to call them and not prepared to speak to them when they call you..

vet8

Supercharge_Me wrote: »

Scammers of what?

Could your husband not find the geniune number from the Egg website and call them? Its common courtesy to return a call. If your not prepared to call them and not prepared to speak to them when they call you..

They left a phone number to call as we were out when they first called (not a question of not being prepared to speak to them, but not in the house at the time!), That had no real human to speak to, just an automated voice.

I am just saying that personal information like this is VERY valuable to identity thieves, I thought everyone knew that and to ask someone to call a number and then ask for a lot of valuable personal information when they have no real idea who they are phoning is a bit odd.

The number they left was not the same as on the website as they said it was the fraud dept. If that number is not listed on the website how do you know if it is the right number or not?

As for common courtesy to return a phone call, since most calls you get these days are some stranger you do not want calling trying to sell you something why would you want to return the call.

anotherpaul_2

Supercharge_Me wrote: »

Knowing your name and telephone number is enough surely? how would anyone else get these details, all you need to confirm is DOB.

I'm sorry - maybe I misunderstood you. Are you suggesting that anyone who phones you and knows your name is whoever they say they are? I'm sure I must have misunderstood though.

rsykes2000

Supercharge_Me wrote: »

In fairness the call wasnt withheld, due to data protection laws they cannot discuss any financial information without confirming your identity. This is for your Security.:rolleyes:

Knowing your name and telephone number is enough surely? how would anyone else get these details, all you need to confirm is DOB.

With regard to the card, surely its better to have a new card than have fraudulent trasactions on current card? If you arent happy with their Service, then apply for another card elsewhere.

To the second poster, if you have a unpaid debt with a company, i would suggest you speak to them there and then, chances are theyve been trying to contact you with no response or returned call, usually if someone says theyll put it in writing in these cases it means youll recieve a default.:rotfl:

You haven't posted a very coherent message. HSBC always come up on my mobile as number withheld. Why do you doubt this ? Why do you think HSBC calling me might lead to a default and why do you think I have any 'unpaid debt' with them ? None of the calls they have made to me has been anything other than 'reviews' to get me to take on some debt with them or straight advertising.
You seem happy to give your personal details out to an unknown caller that could be anyone, good luck with that in the future...

[Deleted User]

rsykes2000 wrote: »

You haven't posted a very coherent message. HSBC always come up on my mobile as number withheld. Why do you doubt this ? Why do you think HSBC calling me might lead to a default and why do you think I have any 'unpaid debt' with them ? None of the calls they have made to me has been anything other than 'reviews' to get me to take on some debt with them or straight advertising.
You seem happy to give your personal details out to an unknown caller that could be anyone, good luck with that in the future...

Actually i deal with data protection every day and im well aware of what information can be used by 'scammers' and the like.

Apologies if you have had trouble understanding my post, what im questionning is the suggestion that a complete 'randomer' would have my phone number and know my full name . Fair play to them though, they should start playing the lottery with abilities like that;)

Vet8 - Ring the Egg main number on the site and question why they called you, if they have no record of this then you have been called by a 'scammer'. Go ahead, give it a try www.egg.com

My suggestion about banks though is that they rarely call you unless you have an outstanding debt with you, apologies to you if they call you on a regular basis to try and sell you a loan, they must be desperate:rolleyes:

HH62

M & S credit card are a nuisance for doing this. It's happened to me several times where the number comes up as withheld, then someone says they're from M & S card fraud department and asks me all sorts of personal information. I always refuse to give them the information and tell them I'll call back.
When I call back, they say 'oh there was some unusual activity on your card and we wanted to confirm that you're aware of it'. That translates to 'you used the card somewhere you've never used it before' or 'you spent a bit more than you usually do'.
I agree with you OP, I'm not giving my personal information out to random callers.

Alexei

Supercharge_Me wrote: »

Ring the Egg main number on the site and question why they called you, if they have no record of this then you have been called by a 'scammer'. Go ahead, give it a try www.egg.com

If the message told vet8 to call the number on the Egg website, that would be fine. The fact that they leave a message, ask you to call a number which is *not* on the website and so not verifiable, is wrong. They are training every customer who receives one of these calls to blindly trust that the number in the message is genuine. Banks, of all people, should know better.