Fraud Investigation Management (FIM) frequently asked questions

We’ll aim to complete our investigation into your case as soon as possible. However, the investigation times can vary depending on the complexity of your case and what kind of transaction is involved. We aim to complete standard cases within 45 days, but this can take longer if there are exceptional circumstances.

If we need more information from you to complete the investigation, one of our Fraud Team investigators will call you.

If you’ve lodged a complaint in relation to your case, we’ll provide you with a response within 30 days. The timeframes for resolving a complaint and for finalising our investigation into your case are separate and not related.

If you’d like to know more about our feedback and complaint process, please visit our feedback and complaints page.

Please rest assured that one of our Fraud Team investigators will call you once they have an update or an outcome from their investigation. They may, however, get in contact with you sooner if they need more information from you to help with the investigation. 

If you're unhappy with the outcome of your investigation, or the way it’s being managed, you can raise this with us. Information on to how to make a complaint can be found on our Feedback and complaints page. 

Once a payment has been authorised to be sent to another bank (whether local or overseas), the payment leaves HSBC and we’re unable to stop it after this point. We can only attempt to retrieve the funds. 

We’ll do our best to help recover your money. However this depends on your money still being in the account it was sent to (at the beneficiary bank). Unfortunately, in many cases scammers move money out of the account very quickly – sometimes within minutes.

Depending on the response we get from the beneficiary bank(s), any money we may recover will be refunded into your nominated account. One of our Fraud Team investigators will give you an update on all recovery attempts once they’ve completed their investigation.

If you need access to your accounts after they’ve been blocked or restricted following a scam event, please visit an HSBC branch or call our Customer Service Centre. They’ll be able to help you create new logins, passwords, set up new security information, and then remove the restrictions on your account.

If you’d like us to keep your accounts blocked until the investigation into your case is complete, please let us know.

If you’re experiencing financial hardship or worried about being able to meet your repayments because of this event, and you have a loan or credit card with HSBC, please reach out to our Customer Assist team. You can call them directly on 1300 555 988 (+61 2 8661 1902 if calling from overseas) between 8am and 5pm (AEST) on weekdays, or by emailing customerassist@hsbc.com.au.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a loan or credit card with HSBC, and you would like to speak to someone about your overall financial situation, you can speak to a financial counsellor. Financial counsellors offer free advice – you can contact National Debt Helpline: 1800 007 007 (Open from 9.30am-4.30pm, Monday-Friday) to speak to a financial counsellor.

Being impacted by a scam event is a distressing situation. We encourage anyone who needs extra support to talk to their GP, local health professional or someone they trust.

Here are some counselling or support services that may help:

If you think your personal information was compromised by this scam, we suggest you: 

Scams can happen in many different ways. It’s possible that your debit/credit card and/or personal details were compromised through a data breach from an online merchant; or a cyber-attack impacting another business that you deal with (eg Optus or Medibank). It’s also possible that your device was infected with malware which records your keystrokes and gives criminals access to your device. Through these examples of data theft and social engineering, criminals can often gain access to a wide range of personal information that allows them to scam unsuspecting individuals.

For further information on how to look out for identity theft and what to do, please visit the Australian government’s Moneysmart website.

We take fraud risk and data protection very seriously. Managing and mitigating fraud risk is a significant focus of our approach to risk management. To manage and mitigate these risks, we:

HSBC is also required to assess and report eligible data breaches to the Australian Office of the Information Commissioner (OAIC) in accordance with Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). In the event a notifiable data breach occurs, HSBC will notify any impacted customer(s) and the OAIC. HSBC is unable to disclose information relating to notifiable data breaches to third parties, unless required by law or regulatory notice.

If you have fallen victim to a scam, we recommend you file a police report or register the incident at Report | Cyber.gov.au.

Fraud and scams can happen to anyone, so it’s important that we work together. We’ve got controls in place to protect you, but learning about common scams and tactics criminals use can help you spot when something’s not right.

For more tips on how to protect yourself, visit our fraud and scams page.