Early on Boxing Day I logged into my HSBC banking app and found that £80,000 had been transferred out of my business account. One £40,000 payment was taken on Christmas Eve and another on Christmas Day.
The payments had been made to a Barclays account that I didn’t recognise and I hadn’t had a notification from HSBC. I own a small company and have a £40,000 daily payment limit on that account — whoever transferred the money seemed to know this.
I spent two hours on the phone trying to get HSBC to take action but no one seemed to understand how urgent it was. While I was on the phone, another £40,000 was transferred and I then lost access to my account. I was told to go to my local branch but it was a bank holiday so I had to wait until the next day. I got there first thing in the morning and a member of staff took notes. They wanted to send me away but I insisted that they take the matter seriously — I reminded them that a six-figure sum had been stolen and that without access to my account, I wasn’t able to pay my staff the next day. They eventually put me through to the fraud department over the phone and I had to repeat what had happened.
It was a rigmarole but I regained access to the account that day. I transferred money from another account to pay my staff, but a few hours later I lost access again.
Over the next few days I kept calling the bank and going into the branch to ask what was happening, but no one could tell me anything. I have asked all my suppliers for some understanding — most have been sympathetic, but not everybody.
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My business is online and my revenues are still flowing into HSBC but I can’t access the cash, not to mention the fact that £120,000 has been transferred out and I’m worried about what’s happened to it. In fact, I’m so worried that I can’t sleep. I have also reported it to Action Fraud and have been given a crime number. Is there anything you can do to help?
Name and address supplied
Troubleshooter says
Scams and fraud leave victims feeling vulnerable and shaken. It was scary that someone had been able to move your money directly from your bank account, and one of my first questions was how had they managed to pass HSBC’s security checks?
It turned out that you were the victim of a scam in November — you had two phone calls from people who said they were from HSBC. You said the callers had asked you to confirm your name and address and told you that you had passed the voice ID checks that you have set up on your account.
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In the first call you were told that the bank had received a cheque for a few thousand pounds to be paid to your company. You said the caller refused to be specific about the amount and had told you that the bank didn’t want to cash the cheque because it was concerned it might be fraudulent. You said: “I thought that conversation was a bit odd, but no one was taking money from me so I wasn’t worried.”
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In the second call you were told that a £32 payment had been taken from your account. You told them you didn’t recognise the transaction so the caller said they would refund it, which happened later that day.
You said: “The callers seemed to know all my banking details and it was like they were looking at my account while they were talking to me. I didn’t give them any of my log-in information — I don’t even need to type a password because I use facial recognition.”
It sounds as if these callers were trying to scope you out and gather information to scam you, but neither of these calls had raised your suspicions at the time.
You said you didn’t give them any information and that you hadn’t downloaded software that would have given them remote access to your device. Yet somehow in November the fraudster logged in using an iPhone 8, a device you didn’t recognise. HSBC had sent you an email to flag that you were logged in using a new device, but you were having problems with your inbox at the time, so had missed it. It now sends you text messages to alert you to unusual activity.
The fraudster was lying in wait for a month before they started moving your money. I suspect they were waiting for the Christmas lull when many businesses tend to be half-asleep, which seemed to work, given how slow HSBC was to act.
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When you first reported the fraud on Boxing Day, the agent made a mistake by not directing your call to its fraud team. You tried to speak to the fraud department three times that day, and each time you got through to an agent, your call was disconnected.
When retrieving stolen money, time is of the essence and yet it wasn’t until you were at the branch that you completed a fraud report, which finally spurred the bank to investigate.
Frustratingly HSBC wasn’t able to get the money back from the Barclays account because the £120,000 had already been moved. Two weeks after my intervention, your bank agreed to refund you and gave you access to your account again.
In April HSBC completed its investigation and accepted that it didn’t give you enough guidance. It said it could have given you the option of a temporary loan while this was under review, especially as the lack of funds caused you a lot of anxiety.
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HSBC said: “Protecting our customers from scams and fraud is an absolute priority for us and we are sorry that our customer has been the victim of a sophisticated fraud running over a period of several weeks. We have apologised to him for the distress and inconvenience he experienced when he initially reported the fraud to us. The customer service he experienced fell below the standards we would expect.”
It gave you £500 as compensation and you said: “The whole saga has affected me mentally and I am working hard to get my company back on track.”
If you get a call out of the blue from your bank, it’s best to hang up and call it back on the phone number on your bank card or statement. Your bank will never email or text you asking for your PIN or password.
If you have a money problem that you would like Katherine Denham to investigate, email troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk. Please include a phone number.
• Troubleshooter has saved readers £1,149,169 so far this year
