A key worker who became the victim of a £10,000 push scam has criticised HSBC's approach to dealing with her case, after being told she might not get her money back and having her account frozen.
The Yorkshire-based woman, who requested anonymity, said she was "duped" by a clever push scam in May, which targeted her just days after a bond had matured.
She expressed concern at having fallen for the ruse, and was dismayed by the coincidental timing of the scam. She told FTAdviser: "It was the first time in my life I had ever had so much money in my HSBC bank account."
When she reported it to HSBC, the first person she spoke with in HSBC's call centre said such authorised push payment scams were known to the bank, adding she probably "was unlikely to get her money back".
She was not given a reference number to take it further, and was told the operator had not decided whether to raise it as a case.
A few days later, after having called the APP scam team at HSBC and finally getting it confirmed as a case, she was sent a letter stating her account had been frozen, and she would be unable to pay any bills unless she drove 30 minutes to the nearest open branch.
>It could not surely be right to leave me without access to my accounts for up to 15 days APP victimThe customer, who was left "crying in front of three different members of staff", said: "I had more stress to add to this sorry saga of HSBC.
"I had received a letter from them, obviously as a result of my initial reporting of this. It told me my online/mobile banking had been suspended as a result of the 'unusual activity' on my account and to ring a specific number to reactivate my access.
"I did so and was then told my telephone banking passcode had failed - no idea why, as I had used it with the scam team on Saturday and it was fine. I explained to the agent I was following the instructions of HSBC in how to reinstate my access; he said it could be suspended due to the investigation.
"I said it could not surely be right to leave me without access to my accounts for up to 15 days. He said the only way to reset this passcode was to go into a branch; there was no alternative."
She said the staff in branch were helpful "but it was just another instance of how HSBC have failed me as a customer".
The problems began on Tuesday 12 May, when the customer was called from a number that was the same as on the back of her HSBC debit card. The person on the phone asked her to check this for her own peace of mind.
They told her they had noticed someone in Aberdeen attempting to access her account, and took her through security questions. However, the customer said the scammers did not ask for the full security code - they knew it from just one number, nor did they need to be told her full date of birth - they already appeared to have it.
She said: "This level of detail gave me a false sense of security so I went ahead and took their advice to transfer my money from one account to another at a different bank. I should have realised at the time, but with everything else going on, and the fact I had only just had money in my account from a savings product that had matured, I was desperate to protect it."
She added she had questions as to how the scammers had obtained personal and sensitive information from her in order to dupe her. The next day, when the scammers did not call her back as promised, she made a point of calling HSBC on Thursday 14.
"I was on the phone for three hours being bounced around various departments. The first man I spoke to said, 'You've been scammed; this happens all the time', that such a scam was known to HSBC, and that 'I should not expect to get any of [my] money back from HSBC' because it relied on it still being in the fake account to which I was scammed into transferring it."
The customer also said she was not given a reference number, despite asking the man if he could provide one. He said he had not raised it as a case, so there was no number, and said HSBC would call her back.
The key worker - who is a teacher - did not hear back from HSBC, so on Saturday 16, she called HSBC's APP team, and was given a case number when they finally raised it as a case.
She has been told it will take 15 days for her to find out the outcome of her case, and it is still not sure whether she will get any, let alone all of her stolen money back.
The customer has queried why HSBC did not block the £10,000 transfer out until hearing from her, and why she had not been notified by email or text about any such scams if, indeed, it was already known to the bank, as the original call handler had said.
>Scammers are unscrupulous criminals who use a range of sophisticated techniques in order to trick people into sending them money. -- HSBC spokesmanHSBC customers are usually presented with fraud warnings before making payments to new beneficiaries on mobile banking, and HSBC has been actively warning customers to remain vigilant, especially as the number of financial fraud complaints generally have risen across the UK since the Covid-19 crisis began.
As reported by FTAdviser, scams have abounded as a result of increased financial vulnerability owing to the crisis, with Action Fraud stating more than £2m had been lost to scammers in the UK by mid-April alone.
On May 26, Canada Life research showed some 5.2m people in the UK had fallen victim to, or knew someone who had been duped by, a financial scam since the beginning of the virus outbreak.
The research found the most common financial scams were related to banking, accounting for 60 per cent of victims, followed by 35 per cent of victims reporting being targeted by an insurance scam.
A spokesperson for HSBC UK said: "We are sorry that [the customer] has fallen victim to an authorised push payment scam and we know how traumatic these experiences can be. Scammers are unscrupulous criminals who use a range of sophisticated techniques in order to trick people into sending them money.
“We adhere to best practice standards to prevent financial crime and where we identify a scam or potentially fraudulent payment, we take timely and appropriate action. We are thoroughly reviewing this case and [the customer] will be contacted by the team once the review is complete.”
However, the customer said: "I still feel their response is unsatisfactory in answering the questions raised so I believe they are still failing in their duty of care of alerting customers to these types of scams."
She added: "If these movements of money on my account did not qualify as something to raise a red flag, I don't know what does."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
