A man who has never banked with HSBC has been ordered to repay £17,000 following a cunning identity theft that appears to be linked to a post box scam.
Jamie Cavanagh, 37, a civil engineer from East Grinstead, found himself saddled with debt and a battered credit score when fraudsters allegedly raided his letterbox, swiped his identity, and went on a lavish spending spree using accounts opened in his name. In January 2024, Jamie was stunned to receive a letter from HSBC detailing over £12,000 in credit card expenditures, despite never having any dealings with the bank.
To his horror, he also uncovered an HSBC current account in his name, complete with a £5,000 overdraft that had been completely drained, causing his credit rating to nosedive by over 300 points in recent months. Jamie immediately reported the suspicious activity to HSBC as fraudulent, suspecting that the scammers had broken into his letterbox to obtain his personal details and set up the accounts.
The stolen funds were siphoned off in £350 increments from various south London banks, while the thieves also splashed out at retailers including Tesco, Sports Direct, and a number of chicken shops. Residing alone in a large apartment complex, Jamie has been battling with HSBC to shut down the fraudulent accounts and salvage his once “nigh on perfect” credit score.
However, he describes the ordeal with the bank’s process as “beyond poor”, likening it to “dragging your arse across sand paper”. After a 14-week wait and being informed that HSBC’s investigation was still ongoing, he decided to share his experience on X, formerly known as Twitter, which garnered over 40,000 views.
“At first I thought somebody had sent the wrong post, until I saw my name and address at the top of it,” Jamie said. “In January my credit score was 930 out of 1,000, so nigh on perfect.” “Come February, March, it had nosedived to 620 out of 1,000.”
“When I look at my outstanding finances, it shows that I’m in arrears for £12,820 on a credit card account with HSBC and £5,130 for an overdraft on a current account with HSBC. I’ve never banked with HSBC in my life.”
Jamie was taken aback when he found a letter from HSBC in his mailbox on January 21, 2024, considering he banks with NatWest and Santander. To his dismay, the envelope contained a credit card statement showing he had spent over £10,000.
“I saw there were reams and reams of cash withdrawals on this credit card, so I was trying to figure out what had gone on,” he said. “I discovered that somebody had taken out the card in my name, managed to get themselves a credit of £13,000.”
“It showed that they had managed to take out £10,000 in cash at various cashpoints across south London, in Catford, Croydon, Bromley, Orpington, Lewisham..” Burglars who smashed open Jamie’s post box may have used the information they found to steal his identity and then plundered his bank account.
The fraudulent purchases range from spending a few pounds in shops, including Tesco, Joe and The Juice and Lazy Chef, to withdrawing hundreds of pounds. When Jamie realised his post box was hard to open, he thought it was down to rust or the weather.
But he now suspects thieves may have put something in there to retrieve the information they needed to open an account in his name. He said: “They would have had to take receivership of the credit card and the PIN code, which gets sent separately. So I figure, that’s what they were doing, busting into my post box.”
Jamie immediately tried contacting HSBC to warn them that somebody had stolen his identity and taken out a credit card in his name. “I needed to speak to someone human because every time I phoned their telephone number it was asking for a bank account number which I didn’t have,” he said.
“So I messaged them on Twitter and they said just type any number in and it will put you through to someone.” Jamie was hoping to resolve the issue quickly, but was told that he would have to visit his nearest branch with three forms of identification.
“At the time I was pretty distressed,” he said. “I was like, you must be having a laugh? How can someone get all of that and you’re telling me that I need to attend the bank in person.”
That same day, Jamie called Sussex Police who advised he file a report with Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime. He also signed up with the Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System, a fraud prevention service that alerts lenders to any suspicious activity on his credit report.
But Jamie’s shock was compounded when he checked his score for himself at checkmyfile.com: “Not only had they taken out the credit card, but they had also managed to set up a current account with a £5,000 overdraft, again with HSBC, which they had also maxed out.”
The fraudsters had also checked Jamie’s credit rating by creating a ClearScore account using a different email address. They racked up £12,820 on the credit card and £5,130 on the debit card money which, on paper, Jamie now owed the bank.
HSBC told Jamie it would launch an investigation within two weeks. “Two weeks go by and I’m thinking what the hell is going on here,” he said. “I eventually get through and they inform me that the investigation is still ongoing and that it can actually take up to seven weeks.”
Jamie was then bombarded with letters demanding he repay the debt, including a final warning at the end of March that he faced a default notice. “Obviously, I knew it wasn’t my debt, it had nothing to do with me,” he said.
“So I asked them at the very least, can you get this to stop? “. But the demands didn’t stop. “I’m going to end up with bailiffs at my door it just baffles me,” he lamented. It’s been a staggering 14 weeks since Jamie first alerted HSBC to the fraud on April 6, 2024, and he’s still in the dark.
“I rang them myself in the morning,” he recounted. “This is what beggars belief in my opinion. If you are doing a fraud investigation, would I not be top priority to contact? “.
“Even if they suspect that it might be me who is doing this, would it not make sense to call me and question me? Other than sending letters demanding payment for the outstanding debt, they never contacted me. I was quite upset as you can imagine.”
Yet again, Jamie was informed that the probe was ongoing. In just two and a half months, Jamie watched his credit score nosedive from an impressive 930 to a dismal 620 out of 1,000.
“All that’s happening is that my financial situation is seemingly getting worse,” he expressed. “Not only that, but they hadn’t closed the credit account.”
After venting his frustration over the phone, Jamie managed to file an official grievance with the bank, which he was told could take up to five days to address. The following day saw him at his local branch in Crawley, armed with his passport, driving licence, and council tax bill.
After a system check, he was met with the frustrating news that nothing could be done. “I was at a complete loss with my treatment,” he shared.
With no other recourse, Jamie took to social media platform X, once known as Twitter, to share his ordeal. In a span of 24 hours, his post garnered 43,000 views and on Monday April 8 2024, he received a message from HSBC. It said: “Good morning Jamie, thank you for reaching out to us, we would really like to get this matter sorted as quickly as possible. If you could join me in a private chat by clicking the link below, I can investigate this further..”
Despite being sent another link and asked to upload his identification, the credit card has not been blocked at the time of writing, and Jamie’s credit score is still down by 300 points.
“It took me blasting it all over Twitter for them to actually contact me directly, because before then I had not received any correspondence in 14 weeks,” he revealed. “Whoever has done this, I assume does not know me. I believe they’ve probably just pot-lucked as many people as they can.”
A spokesperson for HSBC UK responded: “Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We take all allegations of fraud extremely seriously and this case is being looked into.”
