I am reporting a business practice being executed en masse by HSBC Retail Services which I find highly suspect, legally questionable, and can only be characterized as harassment of law abiding citizens via incessant telephone calls. I have been the recipient of such harassment for the simple reason that I have the same name as someone who is in default of an account in HSBC's portfolio. Unfortunately, HSBC's practice of harassment on this basis is pervasive. A quick online research of similar complaints will produce countless postings of similar grievances.
Allow me to preface the following details of this appalling practice by stating unequivocally that I have never been - nor am I currently in — default of any financial accounts in my name. A recent credit report confirms this.
HSBC's practice can be described as follows:
HSBC Retail Service appears to be a collection agency that targets persons who are in default of an account, but whose valid address or telephone number cannot be found. As a result, HSBC scours massive data bases and retrieves the telephone numbers of all people who share the same name of the person in default.
HSBC then proceeds to call the hundredsif not thousandsof names in search of that one person. (For example: if John Smith in Los Angeles is in default, HSBC will harass ALL the John Smiths in Los Angeles till they find the one they are looking for.)
Their calls are incessant and of a harassing nature. They use both computer generated calls and real people requesting that their call be returned. They will not stop calling until their call is returned. And, as in my case, even though you tell them I am not the person you are looking for, and I have no account in default, they continue to call me.
Additionally, when a law abiding citizen returns their call (as this is the only way to try to put a stop to their telephone calls), they then ask for your social security number.in a time when identify theft is out of control and many unsuspecting citizens are prey to such practices, I find this practice reprehensible. (I make it a policy to not give out my social security number to entities with which I do not conduct business, and for this reason I did not give it to HBSC as well.)
As a law abiding citizen with all accounts current, I should not have to be subjected to harassing phone calls by a computer or a person simply because someone with the same name is in default. Aside from their questionable practices, this is an egregious invasion of privacy.
I recommend that everyone write the attorney general of Illinois with their complaint and cc the company. (I also recommend cc'ing your local attorney general office and senators. Thge more they hear from us the more likely they will act on our behalf.) I am providing that information below:
Ms. Lisa Madigan
Illinois General
Consumer Fraud Bureau
500 South Second Street
Springfield, IL 62706
Carl E Reichardt, Chairman
HSBC Retail Services
HSBC North America Holdings, Inc.
2700 Sanders Road
Prospect Heights, IL 60070
Bobby Mehta, CEO
HSBC Retail Services
HSBC North America Holdings, Inc.
2700 Sanders Road
Prospect Heights, IL 60070
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