Scam or TSB incompetence?

oldagetraveller1

"I phoned and the rep. confirmed the account was open, running, accessible and no issues were being flagged up. He couldn't understand why I had received the e-mail."

Which I would class as incompetence, or being more generous, "Left hand and right hand spring to mind, not knowing what the other is doing."

I wouldn't know how to "flounce". Do you?

masonic

In the rush to get new accounts working as soon as possible, this sort of thing does happen. Accounts are provisionally approved subject to further checks carried out in the background. If those checks lead to further documentation being needed, then it is asked for and if a satisfactory response isn't received the application will be cancelled in a similar way as if you asked to cancel within the cooling off period. It is not just TSB that makes accounts available before all of the checks have been done. Requests for additional documentation can also happen much later, sometimes years later, but in that case you'd be given the standard notice that they were closing your account if you didn't comply.

The person at TSB you spoke to should have been able to tell you that the request was genuine, so that is a failing on their part. If you were told on the phone not to act on the email and didn't switch out before they had a chance to close the account, then that would have been grounds for complaint.

oldagetraveller1

Without the rep confirming it was genuine and not knowing any reason for it to be sent I had to consider it to be some kind of phishing attempt. That was in spite of it appearing to be very genuine, e.g. addressed by name etc..

As a result of that I deleted it and "flounced off" as smudge2006 so eloquently wrote.

No doubt smudge2006 would have blindly complied without checking and confirming it's validity?

Yes, the rep. advised to ignore it because he could see there was no reason to request any further identity checks.