CC Scam Possibilities

FlowBlow

Something very strange happened to me the other day and I'm wondering what it is all about.

Basically it is this. I bought something online using a CC from HSBC. About half an hour later I got a phone call asking me to confirm some details. Before they could begin, however, they started asking me security questions.

As a matter of course I refused: you called me so why should I tell you about me; you should be telling me about you. That kind of approach.

The woman - with a strong foreign accent (Indian?) then got stroppy and rang off.

I contacted HSBC about this and they at first messed me around (par for the course) and then sent a simple message saying the call was not from them and I should ignore it.

This set alarm bells ringing and provoked a lot of doubt in my mind.

1) If it wasn't from them how come the person knew I'd just made an online transaction? Was the website hacked? Are my card details at risk?

2) If it wasn't from them then why aren't they issuing major warnings about this scam? Surely they should put out a press release about this kind of thing!

I asked them these and other questions but as yet, no reply.

kermitfrog

The foreign call timing was probably a coincidence. This was a fishing exercise and you did the right thing not giving them your security details. As a rule of thumb, never give any details over the phone to these type of callers that they haven't given you first.

This is not exclusive to HSBC and all banks are issuing warnings about this sort of thing all the time. A lot of people ignore warnings from their bank until something goes wrong.

EDIT
Instead of HSBC, you should contact the online company you did the transaction with as this is where the security leak occurred, if there was one.