!! Be careful of HSBC based out of Buffalo !!

[Saxum]

HSBC used to be a good bank - they are based out of Hong Kong and we signed up with them because they had branches in Hong Kong, Alexandria and Buffalo.   There was a branch very near my office which made it very convenient and we were planning a trip to Hong Kong to visit family and this would enable us to not to need carry money through airport and less chance of pick pockets and other thieves.  Everything went well for a number of years but there was pressure from China to try to get assets moved to China so they did some reorgs and moved money to US based bank making hard for them to take (not calling it seize which is what legal means does).  HSBC HQ is in Buffalo.  

 

As part as reorg they eliminated many branches and concentrated on "Wealth Management" adding many remote services.  Many banks in a area are shedding branches. Unfortunately Alexandria branch was closed making visiting branch time consuming.   We started to get calls about questionable attempts to use credit card each one in Canada from between $1000 and $2000. This is not a credit card we used a lot. In each case we denied charges. Then we got call from "HSBC Security" - they clearly had information about us but the questions person was asking were questionable.  Then they asked us to change some settings in order increase our security which made no sense.   In meantime my wife opened chat with HSBC because the person was very pushy and the person from known HSBC person said there was no investigation ongoing.  The other person was getting very insistent and I told him I was talking to HSBC on other line and he hung up.   We requested our credit card be disabled and they person from HSBC suggested we get a new card and we said no.  We changed security information. In a week we received new credit cards and my wife used new number in one store (BJs).   After that we had reports of new card was again repeatedly attempted to be included in suspicious transactions and we deactivated card.  We instructed only to accept instructions from two phone numbers.   Later we got call that someone with security information, information which we had changed before, was trying to activate credit card again.  We instructed them to not and told them we were going to close our account.  We have some investment which we will pay early closing penalty on but it is more of a risk to keep there since attacker is clearly internally linked.

[Irv]

Got hacked on Facebook and webmail this week.  Dude asked for 500 bitcoin or there would be all kinds of threats.  Unfortunately this seems like the way it will be.  

[Fleezoid]

Time to start socking away cash in shoe boxes!

[Augie]

It’s not EVERY year, but our cards are frequently compromised at this time of the year. It’s probably happened half the time in the last 10 years, always during the holiday season. It just seems to go with the territory, unfortunately. 

[QCity]

11 hours ago, Irv said:

Got hacked on Facebook and webmail this week.  Dude asked for 500 bitcoin or there would be all kinds of threats.  Unfortunately this seems like the way it will be.  

 

Just pay him the $22 million.

[Irv]

1 minute ago, QCity said:

 

Just pay him the $22 million.

I don't even know what bitcoin is.  It's like a write-off.  

 

 

[Beck Water]

18 hours ago, Limeaid said:

HSBC used to be a good bank - they are based out of Hong Kong and we signed up with them because they had branches in Hong Kong, Alexandria and Buffalo.   There was a branch very near my office which made it very convenient and we were planning a trip to Hong Kong to visit family and this would enable us to not to need carry money through airport and less chance of pick pockets and other thieves.  Everything went well for a number of years but there was pressure from China to try to get assets moved to China so they did some reorgs and moved money to US based bank making hard for them to take (not calling it seize which is what legal means does).  HSBC HQ is in Buffalo.  

 

As part as reorg they eliminated many branches and concentrated on "Wealth Management" adding many remote services.  Many banks in a area are shedding branches. Unfortunately Alexandria branch was closed making visiting branch time consuming.   We started to get calls about questionable attempts to use credit card each one in Canada from between $1000 and $2000. This is not a credit card we used a lot. In each case we denied charges. Then we got call from "HSBC Security" - they clearly had information about us but the questions person was asking were questionable.  Then they asked us to change some settings in order increase our security which made no sense.   In meantime my wife opened chat with HSBC because the person was very pushy and the person from known HSBC person said there was no investigation ongoing.  The other person was getting very insistent and I told him I was talking to HSBC on other line and he hung up.   We requested our credit card be disabled and they person from HSBC suggested we get a new card and we said no.  We changed security information. In a week we received new credit cards and my wife used new number in one store (BJs).   After that we had reports of new card was again repeatedly attempted to be included in suspicious transactions and we deactivated card.  We instructed only to accept instructions from two phone numbers.   Later we got call that someone with security information, information which we had changed before, was trying to activate credit card again.  We instructed them to not and told them we were going to close our account.  We have some investment which we will pay early closing penalty on but it is more of a risk to keep there since attacker is clearly internally linked.

 

Question: the second call from "someone with security information, information which we had changed before" trying to activate credit card again -do you mean the second caller had your recently changed security information?

 

Sounds as though HSBC itself has been hacked, if so.

[NoSaint]

4 hours ago, Augie said:

It’s not EVERY year, but our cards are frequently compromised at this time of the year. It’s probably happened half the time in the last 10 years, always during the holiday season. It just seems to go with the territory, unfortunately. 

it’s weird - I hear that a lot but never had a single issue. 
 

are you doing sketchy things, Aug? Be honest.

[Saxum]

19 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

Question: the second call from "someone with security information, information which we had changed before" trying to activate credit card again -do you mean the second caller had your recently changed security information?

 

Sounds as though HSBC itself has been hacked, if so.

 

Yes that is what happened - we changed security info and someone tried to enable a disabled credit card.

As soon as a check is cashed on the checking account we are closing all accounts.

[Augie]

19 minutes ago, NoSaint said:

it’s weird - I hear that a lot but never had a single issue. 
 

are you doing sketchy things, Aug? Be honest.

 

I swear, these hookers and blow dealers seem like straight up peeps. I get Christmas cards from them! 

[NoSaint]

2 hours ago, Augie said:

 

I swear, these hookers and blow dealers seem like straight up peeps. I get Christmas cards from them! 

augie checks his statement… 

 

sonofa…. I didn’t spend $562 at the hallmark store!

Edited December 22, 2023 by NoSaint

[Augie]

43 minutes ago, NoSaint said:

augie checks his statement… 

 

sonofa…. I didn’t spent $562 at the hallmark store!

 

 

Ehhh, I mighta’ done that. Can you tell me which county and state?