SINGAPORE: A few weeks ago, my wireless phone received an approaching call from a nearby range. ” Hello, I’m Alvin Lee with the HSBC anti-fraud department,” the caller said.
In the past, I’ve been charged with my credit cards by fraud, which I resolved over the telephone with banks staff. I wasn’t a member of HSBC, but like any other Singaporean who was a victim of scams, I was soon suspicious.  ,
One tiny fact made it difficult for me to get up right away: He had a native voice.
I retorted gingerly,” I don’t have an HSBC accounts.”
You applied for an HSBC Advance Credit Card on December 4th, using your Singpass. He inquired. I hadn’t.
He therefore rattled off my full name and actual NRIC. How did I obtain my data, exactly? I inquired.
When you, or someone else, used Singpass to obtain this credit card, all of this info entered our system, he said.
May we purchase credit accounts using Singpass? When I tried to Google this, he was now saying,” Your Singpass seems to have been compromised. Have you recently scanned any suspicious QR codes or clicked any nefarious links in the last six months?
I asked,” Where are you calling me from, not where?” instead of answering his question.
He responded,” Oh, from our HSBC office at 21 Collyer Quay,” without skipping a beat. I searched for” HSBC Singapore headquarters” on Google right away, and that is where I saw the first address, though I momentarily overlooked one small but crucial fact: It is located in HSBC Capital ( Asia ).  ,