Fraud Reporting

What is Fraud or a Scam?

Fraud is when there is suspicious activity or when a transaction debits your accounts which you had no knowledge of or didn’t authorise.

A Scam is when a criminal convinces you to knowingly authorise a payment from your account to a person, company, or for goods you believe to be genuine.

If you believe someone has fraudulently used your credit or debit card, you can contact us between 08:00 to 22:00, 7 days a week on:

• 03456 008 050 if you’re calling from the UK.
• +44 1470 697 093 if you’re calling from outside the UK.

If you believe this is a fraudulent bank transfer or bill payment (i.e. not made with your credit or debit card) that you didn’t authorise, you can contact us between 08:00 to 20:00, Monday to Sunday on:

• 03452 669 337 if you’re calling from the UK.
• +44 1470 697 107 if you’re calling from outside the UK.
• If the payment was made through HSBCnet, call 0800 169 9903 (lines open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

If you’ve authorised a bank transfer or bill payment and now believe you’ve been the victim of a scam, you can call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The number you need depends on how you authorised the transfer or payment:

• If you authorised this payment through Business Telephone Banking or Business Internet Banking, call 03455 873 523 or +44 1226 260 878 if you’re calling from outside the UK.
• If you authorised this payment through HSBCnet, call 0800 169 9903.
• If you suspect you may have divulged your security details, please dial 03455 873 523 if you’re calling from the UK or +44 1226 260 878 if you’re calling from outside the UK.

We recommend you also report fraud to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040 or online at actionfraud.police.uk.

We may have detected a possible fraud attempt and have blocked your card or transaction to protect your funds. You may have also received a text message or call from us to discuss if this payment was genuine.

You can speak to our card fraud detection team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on:

• 03456 008 891 if you’re calling from the UK.
• +44 1470 697 005 if you’re calling from outside the UK.

We may text you to check a card transaction is legitimate or to ask you to contact us.

Check our text messages page to see what our regular text messages look like and also see some messages commonly sent by fraudsters.

Stop. Don't click on any links. Don't open any attachments. Just forward the email to phishing@hsbc.com and we'll investigate it.

If your card is lost, stolen or being misused you can contact us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by calling our emergency line on:

• 0800 032 7075 if you’re calling from the UK.
• +44 1442 422929 if you’re calling from outside the UK.

Check out our query transactions page for hints and tips to help you identify why you may not recognise the transaction.

If there’s a card payment which you recognise, but wish to dispute, you can call Business Telephone Banking between Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 20:00 and Saturday, 08:00 to 14:00 on:

• 03457 60 60 60 if you’re calling from the UK.
• +44 1226 260 878 if you’re calling from outside the UK.

There may be other reasons you suspect you’ve been a victim of fraud or cybercrime. Please contact your Relationship Manager (if you have one) or contact our Business Telephone Banking team on 03457 60 60 60 or if you’re outside the UK, it’s +44 1226 260 878. If you need a Text Relay service, you can download the ‘Relay UK’ app and call our number from within it. For other accessible ways to contact us, please visit our Accessibility page.

business.hsbc.uk/bib-help-centre
hsbcnet.com/gbm/about-hsbcnet/security-alerts
cardwatch.org.uk
chipandpin.co.uk
fca.org.uk/
cifas.org.uk
equifax.co.uk
identitytheft.org.uk
getsafeonline.org/business/
actionfraud.police.uk/small-businesses-know-your-business

From 7 October 2024, new rules will come into effect for eligible customers who become the victim of an APP scam and request reimbursement. These new rules will apply to UK sterling Faster Payments and CHAPS payments made on or after 7 October 2024.

Who is eligible to claim?

Eligible customers are consumers, micro-enterprises and small charities.

A micro-enterprise is one that employs fewer than ten people and has either an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total that does not exceed €2 million or sterling equivalent.

A small charity is a charity as defined by the Charities Act 2011, Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 or the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 with an annual income of less than £1 million per year.

What’s an APP scam?

An APP scam occurs when a scammer tricks you into making a payment to an account outside your control and the recipient isn’t the person you intended to pay, or the payment wasn’t for the purpose that you originally intended.

If you need to make a claim

If you’ve authorised a bank transfer or bill payment and suspect you’ve been the victim of scam, call us straight away.

If you make a claim, it will be assessed on a case-by-case basis considering the evidence from you, the bank that received the payment and, where relevant, third parties such as the police. Any information requested from you will be used to help us to progress your claim.

We’ll aim to process your claim within 35 days.

What can you claim?

There’s a maximum limit for reimbursement of £85,000 per claim and we may deduct an excess of £100 from the reimbursement.

What won’t be covered?

You may not be entitled to reimbursement under the new rules if:

• the payment was sent to another account you control
• the payment was sent to or from an account outside the UK
• you didn’t agree to the payment being sent
• there’s a civil dispute between you and the person or business that received the payment
• you’ve been extremely careless when making the payment including ignoring warnings from us and/or the police that it was likely to be a scam
• we reasonably suspect fraud on your part, or
• it’s more than 13 months since you made the last payment

The new rules also don’t apply to:

• payments made before 7 October 2024
• payments made using your debit or credit cards, cheques, or cash, international payments; or
• payments sent to or received from credit unions, municipal banks or national savings banks.

These payments will still be investigated and you may still be reimbursed, so it’s important to report them.

For more information on the different types of scams and how to protect your business, please visit our Fraud Centre.