Text Message from HSBC Bank claiming Bank Account of Customer has been locked is a scam

In a recent scam, the scammers claimed that they are from the HSBC Bank and are sending fake texts to try stealing your bank details. These fake message claims that it is alerting the customer about their bank account which has been locked, and thus the customer would not be able to access his/her funds.

After sending the fake text message, the fraudsters ask the customer to either go to their local branch in order to unlock his/her account or else the customer is asked to click on the "secure link". If clicked, then the link takes the customer to a website that asks him/her to fill up a form with all the personal details. The truth is fraudsters run this website, and they can further use this personal information provided by the customer to steal their funds.

On Twitter, many people reported about receiving these text messages. Some of them are not even customers of HSBC Bank. For example, one person receiving this message said "just received a text message from HSBC saying my online banking has been suspended. Shame I've never banked with them". This kind of thing is happening because scammers have been using a technique called "phishing", in which random messages are sent to as much people as possible so that somebody fall prey of these attacks.

The phone numbers have been masked by the fraudsters in almost all the messages so that it appears being sent from the HSBC, although a few names contain spelling errors like "AHSBC" and "??HSBC".

The social media team of the HSBC Bank has confirmed about this scam by replying to a few reports on the Twitter. In one of the replies, the HSBC Bank wrote "this has not been sent by us, we will never send a text message with a link attached". The bank also advises the customers to forward any such messages to phishing@hsbc.com, if received.

A spokesperson of the HSBC told to The Sun that "we advise consumers to be wary of unexpected contact from their bank, and if they are in any doubt they should not click on links in unexpected text messages or e-mails and never reveal a Secure Key code to anyone, as this could help scammers get access to your account".

» SPAMfighter News - 2/28/2019