Does this sound like a potential mortgage scam attempt?

thetannery

I've had a bit of an issue with my mortgage lender whilst trying to remortgage. They've made a proper mess of it and transferred the money into my account instead of paying the old mortgage off with it. For some reason they've processed it as a home owner loan rather than a remortgage. I've had a call again from them today from a Indian sounding gentleman asking me to return the funds so they can correct the mistake and he said he would give me an account number to transfer it to. I didn't like the sound of that and said I'd rather have an official letter or I'd rather ring customer services myself to get the details, or even pay it into my old mortage account. I've googled the number and there is a lot of results and not all sound like it's genuine. He tried to give me a number to call but I declined and said I'd ring the one I know is official.

Could this be some kind of scam? additionally, rather than sending them the money back to an account they choose, what if I did chose to play it safe and pay it into my mortgage account which I know is a genuine account, to effectively pay it off (which is what the remortgage should have done in the first place) and then I'd be left with a home owner loan which I never actually applied for. What would be the legal position on that?

Penguin_

Can you log into your existing mortgage account online & either use a live chat or find a telephone number from there?

Was a number displayed from call from Indian sounding gentleman?

thetannery

03456032775 mixed reports when I google it, some say HSBC, some say sounded dodgy.
I can't get into the online banking, they've cocked that up as well.

davidmcn

thetannery said:

03456032775 mixed reports when I google it, some say HSBC, some say sounded dodgy.
I can't get into the online banking, they've cocked that up as well.

Why don't you just phone them on a number you trust and take it from there? Presumably you've had some sort of paperwork from them?

kingstreet

You can't remortgage with your existing lender as no change to the mortgage, the security tying the loan to the security property, is required.
This is a customer retention product if you are doing a rate switch and/or a further advance/additional borrowing if you are increasing your loan.
If you are taking a new mortgage with a new lender, the solicitor appointed to handle the matter should receive the funds from the new lender and discharge the old loan/security.

theoretica

I would talk to my own bank about how to get the money back where it belongs without risk to myself. 

Silvertabby

This has got SCAM written all over it. 

thetannery

I called HSBC and they said they have no record of anyone calling me today....

thetannery

kingstreet said:

You can't remortgage with your existing lender as no change to the mortgage, the security tying the loan to the security property, is required.
This is a customer retention product if you are doing a rate switch and/or a further advance/additional borrowing if you are increasing your loan.
If you are taking a new mortgage with a new lender, the solicitor appointed to handle the matter should receive the funds from the new lender and discharge the old loan/security.

No idea what you mean? the only change was to extend the term, no additional borrowing. Sounds like it's been a !!!!!! up at their end but somehow some scammer has information about it and has been able to contact me to try and get me to transfer the money. It didn't sound right and thinking back he didn't ask for any digits from my security number either. I don't even know if the emails from theor complaints team are een real, the logo looks really dodgy and off centre.

davidmcn

thetannery said:

kingstreet said:

You can't remortgage with your existing lender as no change to the mortgage, the security tying the loan to the security property, is required.
This is a customer retention product if you are doing a rate switch and/or a further advance/additional borrowing if you are increasing your loan.
If you are taking a new mortgage with a new lender, the solicitor appointed to handle the matter should receive the funds from the new lender and discharge the old loan/security.

No idea what you mean? the only change was to extend the term, no additional borrowing. Sounds like it's been a !!!!!! up at their end but somehow some scammer has information about it and has been able to contact me to try and get me to transfer the money. It didn't sound right and thinking back he didn't ask for any digits from my security number either. I don't even know if the emails from theor complaints team are een real, the logo looks really dodgy and off centre.

(put your new comments under the quoted text, I've sorted it above)

The point was that you called it a "remortgage", which is generally what people call moving to a different lender, not just changing the product with your existing one.

If they've made one c0ck-up, not sure why the rest of it can't be c0ck-ups either. Would be an odd coincidence for a scammer to know about the advance to you.

theoretica

davidmcn said:
If they've made one c0ck-up, not sure why the rest of it can't be c0ck-ups either. Would be an odd coincidence for a scammer to know about the advance to you.

An update of the fake cheque scam?  Scammer finds way to appear to put money into account (not their money), gets victim to transfer money to scammer.  Original money vanishes or also from fraud.