HSBC encourages disclosure of security details

SammyD_2

Can't believe HSBC. They have rung me three times today on my mobile phone saying that they need to go through security with me before they speak to me about an important matter. Each time I have refused to give details saying I have no idea who they are and I am not giving out my details.

I have just rung their help desk, who have confirmed that the number which the caller comes from was indeed HSBC, and that it was a sales call, and there is no "important matter" or else it would be on my file.

In this day and age of scams, I find it absolutely disgraceful that a major bank asks for security details when THEY call YOU completely unsolicited and get stroppy when you refuse to hand over your details. It was worse because it was clear that the call was from overseas as there was a very long connection time on the call. Oh, but then this is the same bank that outsourced everything to India and then had problems with people nicking customer records. Thanks HSBC.

bpyoung

They're legally obliged to identify you when they call you up. Imagine the fun if someone had stolen your phone and then HSBC contacted "you" and sold you a load of products.

If you don't want them contacting you for marketing purposes, just tell them.

saver6

Bank of Scotland did the same thing to me about my credit card. I said that I had no intention of going thru my personal details with someone who had phoned me up out of the blue, when there was no way I could verify who they were, no matter how important the issue was with them. So I told her that I would phone the registered number myself and speak to them knowing who I was speaking to. Turns out it was a legitimate call, however in this day and age of emails purporting to extract just these details, I wouldn't be surprised if it carries over to phone calls, so I think it's better to err on the side of caution.

KTF

They never ask for your passwords on these sort of calls anyway.

_Andy_

SammyD wrote:

Can't believe HSBC. They have rung me three times today on my mobile phone saying that they need to go through security with me before they speak to me about an important matter. Each time I have refused to give details saying I have no idea who they are and I am not giving out my details.

I have just rung their help desk, who have confirmed that the number which the caller comes from was indeed HSBC, and that it was a sales call, and there is no "important matter" or else it would be on my file.

In this day and age of scams, I find it absolutely disgraceful that a major bank asks for security details when THEY call YOU completely unsolicited and get stroppy when you refuse to hand over your details. It was worse because it was clear that the call was from overseas as there was a very long connection time on the call. Oh, but then this is the same bank that outsourced everything to India and then had problems with people nicking customer records. Thanks HSBC.

Granted, saying it was an 'important' matter was wrong. However, clearly the CSR was professional enough to insist on going through the company's outbound verification procedure.
I'm sure you'd be on here complaining if the bank didn't follow any procedure like that and they disclosed information to someone else?

All you need to do is ring any of the bank's call centres, e.g. 08457 404 404 and tell them to change your 'customer preferences' for telephone to 'no'. Not a big deal at all.

johnmoney05

bpyoung wrote:

They're legally obliged to identify you when they call you up. Imagine the fun if someone had stolen your phone and then HSBC contacted "you" and sold you a load of products.

If you don't want them contacting you for marketing purposes, just tell them.

It sounds like easy. If you received 4 or 5 times a day this kind of calls everyday, sometimes in your lunch, in the toilet, even in the bed (doing something else rather than sleeping)! You would be soon pi44ed off.

bengal-stripe

johnmoney05 wrote:

even in the bed (doing something else rather than sleeping)!

I’m sure your partner would appreciate, you turning the phone off (before doing the ‘something else’, not after the phone has rung)!

SammyD_2

bpyoung wrote:

They're legally obliged to identify you when they call you up. Imagine the fun if someone had stolen your phone and then HSBC contacted "you" and sold you a load of products.

If you don't want them contacting you for marketing purposes, just tell them.

I have told HSBC on three previous occaisions that I do not want to be contacted for marketing purposes. It also seems completely inconsistent to on the one hand say that you should never give out your details to unsolicited callers, then have their call centres instructed to ask for those details on unsolicited calls. I have no idea who is calling me when they ring - after all, a crook is hardly going to identify themselves as that are they?

1jim

KTF wrote:

They never ask for your passwords on these sort of calls anyway.

We used to be plaqued by calls from the Halifax, they used to call the home phone number and ask me to confirm my date of birth/my mothers maiden name/ number or letters x and x of my password

if I had given these everytime it wouldnt be long before "someone" would have all of the details to call the halifax and pretend to be me

All of calls from the Halifax turned out to be sales calls but the person making the call would never say that, they used to say that they needed to discuss my account with me as a matter of urgency and that they couldnt disclose more without the requested details, each time it was a sales call. I did ask to be taken off their sales/phone list but they told me tht they had a 8-12week delay in doing this


The banks cant have it everyway.... yes we want our accounts to be protected and I am sure that they dont want anyone pretending to be them.... but they have to train their sales staff to act reasonably, they cant say in one breath "to never give out your security details when you cant confirm the identidy of the caller" but in the next breath to say "but we are your bank you need to take our word for it....please give me some of your security password and i can then try and sell you something you really dont want or need":mad:

debster369

SammyD wrote:

I have told HSBC on three previous occaisions that I do not want to be contacted for marketing purposes. It also seems completely inconsistent to on the one hand say that you should never give out your details to unsolicited callers, then have their call centres instructed to ask for those details on unsolicited calls. I have no idea who is calling me when they ring - after all, a crook is hardly going to identify themselves as that are they?

If you've said no to marketing it probably wasn't a sales call (which was probably a pure guess from the inbound csr who thinks that outbound only do sales...) they were probably phoning to let you know you were overdrawn or something equally important.

They also won't ever ask for acct or pass number details, only DOB and post code. The worst they could do is send you a birthday card with this info. And if it was a sales call I can guarantee it came from within the UK. The long connection time is part and parcel of the dialler.

I don't mean that to sound as sarcastic as it does. I've done the outbound role but to be honest, I'd never trust anyone phoning me. I'd always phone back on a number I'm comfartable with.

peter999

debster369 wrote:

They also won't ever ask for acct or pass number details, only DOB and post code. The worst they could do is send you a birthday card with this info.

Are we meant to have a manual to check what a bank may or may not ask.
They should not make unsolicited calls related to your account, so they should NEVER need to ask for any security detail.

Financial companies should not being doing this anymore.
It's time public tell them this is a security risk & won't be tolerated.

If there is any acceptance of unsolicited sales calls related to an account you already have
-the worst that can happen is your identity is stolen.

Thieves will use this acceptance to make calls & get your security details.

peter999