08007838422 Scam or Genuine HSBC?

jo1981_2

HSBC started calling me at work, ended up having to tell reception to inform them that I'm not allowed personal calls!!! As if I want to discuss my money issues with them in front of my colleagues anyway!!!

Geordie_Rover

Hiya :-)

I submitted a query via HSBC's online e-messaging system and within 24hrs I had a call from this number....I missed the first call (no message was left on my answerphone)....they tried again 20 mins later, I managed to dash out the office to take the call - I could hardly understand a word they were saying, but from what I did hear, I thought it was a sales call, so hung up....

24 hrs later, another call from the number....so I answered it, expecting to have to let rip :mad: but, despite again being very hard to understand what he was saying, the man on the end of the phone explained he was calling in response to my online query.

When I called HSBC's customer services they advised me that there were NO notes on my account re any calls or attempted calls....very odd.

Chris_R_4

Geordie_Rover wrote: »

When I called HSBC's customer services they advised me that there were NO notes on my account re any calls or attempted calls....very odd.

Its odd, because they don't seem to grasp the idea of updating their systems at all. They have told me the same last month when I called them up following repeated calls. At this point I told them to update my details to say I would not discuss any bank details over the phone with them and that they should send a letter requesting me to contact them if needed.
Even after speaking to them (by contacting the number on the back of my card, not when they ring from this number as they refused to verify who they are and I cannot tell what number they are calling from until afterwards and doing a 1471 - no caller ID you see) and discussing my huge crime of being 32p overdrawn a day before payday. They then continued to call for another 6 hours every hour. At the peak it was fourteen phone calls just to my mobile in one day, they tend to call the home phone then the mobile so must be more than that total if I was at home to hear it ring...how they justify it for chasing pennies is anyones guess.
To be honest its nothing short of harassment IMO, I pay my bills in full every month, never miss a single payment, have been regularly paid a nice wage for over a decade on the same day every month and yet they still insist on ringing to moan about pennies. That was a genuine mistake on my part as I rounded one of my payments when working out how much cash I had left to spend just before pay day.

What I am in the process of doing is making sure it cannot happen in future - I moved my credit card, savings, current account (trying to move my daughters trust fund which is proving a little more difficult) to another bank.
I have blocked the HSBC number from my mobile phone which handily has auto reject option on it.
Just about to call BT to see if they can do the same from my home phone line too.

dragonv480

I had this number call a few times recently, never leaves a message. I called it back today and a recorded message said it was HSBC, but that no action was needed and I didn't need to call back.

When it then called again, I answered and as per this thread, they asked for my DOB, which I wouldn't give for obvious reasons. So he tried to "barter" with me, telling me to give him just 2 parts of it, and he will confirm the rest. Again, I refused and at which point he got very angry, raised his voice and told me he wasn't going to argue with me, that it was a very important call and I should go to my branch. I said OK then, and he just said "fine." and put the phone down.

I immediately called HSBC to complain, and the guy there called around several departments before coming back to me saying that no notes are on my account, that noone has called me and that it might be fraudulent. He then advised me to change my security number, to which I said I would do this in-branch. he then offered to lock my phone and internet banking as a precaution, which I agreed to.

the guy also said that if HSBC do call like this, they always leave a message saying that HSBC tried to call and you should call the normal number. Which, in the past has happened to me.

So, is this fraudulent? Is it HSBC? No idea, but I had him put a note on my account saying I had called and that he had confirmed that NOONE from HSBC was trying to call me.

I will go to my branch tomorrow to take this further. Be careful out there.

blancy

I just had a call from this number (0800 7838422).

He was asking for my wife and said he was from the Beneficial bank. I don't know if she has an account with them but told him she wasn't here and couldn't be contacted until Monday. He asked if I could get her to call 0870 1504541 to talk to the bank.

Chap on the phone sounded African to me which set off alarm bells as the wife had all her cards stolen in South africa last year. Having read this thread it is possible he was Indian I guess.

Why would a bank ask you to call a premium rate line? And why is this call allegedly from Beneficial bank when all others mentioned above are to do with HSBC (same number)?

Any thoughts on whether this is genuine? (I'll ask the good wife about it later when she is back)

alanwjones

blancy wrote: »

I just had a call from this number (0800 7838422).

He was asking for my wife and said he was from the Beneficial bank. I don't know if she has an account with them but told him she wasn't here and couldn't be contacted until Monday. He asked if I could get her to call 0870 1504541 to talk to the bank.

Chap on the phone sounded African to me which set off alarm bells as the wife had all her cards stolen in South africa last year. Having read this thread it is possible he was Indian I guess.

Why would a bank ask you to call a premium rate line? And why is this call allegedly from Beneficial bank when all others mentioned above are to do with HSBC (same number)?

Any thoughts on whether this is genuine? (I'll ask the good wife about it later when she is back)

Found theses on Google that might help.
http://www.stevecastledine.com/sc.nsf/dx/16092005105627SCADNU.htm?opendocument&comments

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/08007838422/3

blancy

Thanks.

I'd actually found those already and have trawled through a fair amount of the posts on those pages. The general concensus there seems to be that it the number that called (0800 7838422) IS a genuine HSBC number, but all the other incidents deviate from mine as this bloke claimed to be from Beneficial bank and asked for my wife to call a premium rate line (08701 504541).

Guess I'll have to wait til she gets home and found out if she has a Beneficial bank account and then she can call the bank direct if so. If she doesn't know anyting about it I hope its not the start of a call deluge

Have found this page which sounds interesting, though I'm not yet willing to pay the premium rate to find out if that's what is happening here

https://www.thebeneficial.com/security_warning.asp

Also found in their intro blurb:

"Beneficial is a full-service bank that specializes in serving the savings and credit needs of the Greater Philadelphia Region."

So doesn't sound like they are likely to have UK customers. My first thoughts are/were instantly scammers, but it was the fact that HSBC seem to use this number and are not scamming that has thrown me.


UPDATE:

Spoke to the wife. She has an RSPCA credit card which is managed by beneficialcard (HFC bank), which is a member of HSBC. I'm sure the bloke on the phone said benefical bank though (which is a different institution). Anyway, have given her the genuine number for beneficialcard (another premium rate number - the thieves) and asked her to call that and see if they had tried to contact her.

natweststaffmember

I think that many banks and credit cards have outsourced their cards overseas and HSBC collections seem to be in India and calling from the 0800 number mentioned.

vm1307

Found this thread after doing an internet search on the 08007838422 number, which I know from past experience to be an authentic HSBC number. I was trying to find out which department it was linked to as my sister took a message for me from 'Christine' on that number this morning - she just left the name Christine and the number 08457 404404 (standard HSBC number) and asked me to call back.

As several other members here seem to have found, when I called back a matter of minutes later, the man I spoke to had absolutely no record of any notes on the system or reason why I'd have been called. I know that all my accounts are currently up to date and within their limits (it's my birthday tomorrow so I'm enjoying a 'birthday money' boost to my usual income!). The only possibility he could suggest, after contacting several departments to try and track down the elusive Christine, was that it was a call from Customer Credit department and that I'd have to wait until Monday - having had plenty of unpleasant experience with HSBC in the past (some of my own causing, some of theirs!) I am now worrying that something horrible has gone wrong with my account - stress stress stress!

The fact that they call so many times (I had several missed calls on the same number on both my home phone and mobile this week) really annoys me - I would be interested to find out, as someone else has suggested, at what point this behaviour can justifiably be termed harassment!

ETA: (15 mins later) FINALLY managed to catch one of the calls and took part in a nonsensical conversation about a cheque I'd written a week ago that I belatedly realised was due to clear one day before a deposit into the account cleared (woops - and I'd been so good until then too!) I'd already phoned and arranged for that cheque to be covered for 24 hours until the new funds into my account had cleared... which they now have. As far as I can tell (and I'm still not quite sure!) I've just spent 12 1/2 minutes having a conversation with the guy that went along the lines of "You had funds due to leave the account before your incoming fund had cleared"; "yes...."; "and your account balance is now xxxx"; "yeeeeees..."; "which is within your agreed overdraft limit"; "yeeeeeeeeeees! I'm sorry, but why are we having this conversation?"; "Well, you had a cheque due to leave your account before the incoming funds had cleared" AND SO ON!

To be honest I don't think the guy had a clue why he was phoning either - this automated system is a joke.

blancy

to follow up on my post above, wife called the credit card company direct today and it turns out there is a couple of grand of transactions on her account that are not hers, so in this case the number and call were kosher. Its a bizarre way to operate though as my initial thoughts were that this has to be a scam. Can't they see why people are going to think this?