Always sceptical of these mass email scam warnings but my Sis-in-Law reckons the guy sounded very plausible, so thought it worth passing on…

Received a call earlier today on our landline – Withheld Number from a guy claiming to be from HSBC Bank.

He stated that as we had been a HSBC bank customer for over 15 years and had during that time received charges and that they are obliged under European banking law to pay 8% of those charges back, however the charges would come from a European bank and not HSBC.

He asked for our sort code and stated that it began with 40 (all HSBC sort codes do) and also stated that the card number began with 4592 (again which all HSBC cards do). As they wanted to repay the money to the account.

We refused, stating that they would already have the details if they were HSBC and the guy hung up.

He called HSBC direct to check out the call and they advised that this was a 'NEW' scam.

We are vigilante with our details and shred everything but they have got the information from somewhere.

😐

>We are vigilante with our details

😯

They probably just go through the phone book, knowing that thousands of folk will be with HSBC. They don't necessarily know that you're with them. Always good to have a heads up though nonetheless.

Bank and scam- two words you wouldn't expect to see together!

Good scam. The issue being that we've had legitimate calls from HSBC where they ask you for your security details to confirm who you are – in such instances I've always pointed out that surely they should tell me my security details to prove who they are.

The issue being that we've had legitimate calls from HSBC where they ask you for your security details to confirm who you are

barclays have done similar to try and sell me insurance.

The issue being that we've had legitimate calls from HSBC where they ask you for your security details to confirm who you are

Likewise, and it's really bad practice. I always say "you called me, I know who I am, I've no clue who you are." I've suggested adding a note on my account to set some kind of identification password, but it seems they can't do that.

With HSBC though, all legitimate cold calls end the same way; "can you call us back on the number on your card?"