Credit cards are convenient for daily consumption, but they are also the target of thieves. The DAB received help from several citizens, saying that even after their credit cards were stolen and they reported to the police, individual card-issuing banks still demanded repayment of the misappropriated payment on the grounds of “serious negligence” of the cardholder, involving RMB 90,000 to RMB 1.5 million. wait. The DAB urges the HKMA to issue more specific guidelines on the definition of “serious negligence”, and believes that if a bank discovers an unusual transaction, it should first contact the cardholder for authorization.
Ms. Zhang was stolen by thieves on the street in August last year. Three credit cards and ID cards were stolen. Two of them were Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC credit cards. It was billed 332,000 yuan. Ms. Zhang knew that her credit card had been stolen when she received a debit text message from the credit card company. She immediately called the bank to “lock the card” and called the police. Standard Chartered Bank canceled the transaction two months after the incident, but HSBC regarded Ms. Zhang as “serious” negligence” and asked her to repay the loan. Zhang questioned the bank’s security and risk management loopholes, because the amount of this transaction exceeded 90% of the limit of his credit card, which was different from the usual credit card amount of only hundreds to thousands of dollars, but the bank did not provide any verification.
Another sufferer, Mr. Chen, received a text message from a familiar number, so he entered a phishing website by mistake and his credit card information was stolen by the thief. The thief successfully carried out 7 transactions, but it was not until the 7th transaction that Mr. Chen received the SMS notification from the bank, and a total of about 90,000 yuan was stolen. He immediately notified HSBC that his credit card had been stolen, but HSBC still required Mr. Chen to repay the relevant amount.
According to the Code of Banking Practice, if a cardholder’s credit card account is used by others for unauthorized transactions, and the cardholder has not committed any act of fraud or gross negligence, they are not liable for the unauthorized transaction.
Liang Xi of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong criticized the relevant departments for not defining the criteria. Banks have the absolute right to interpret cardholders’ “serious negligence” and urged the HKMA to issue guidelines on the definition of “serious negligence”. responsibility. He also pointed out that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority should issue guidelines to specify what level of protection/security measures should be taken for certain amounts of consumption, including requiring SMS notifications, one-time passwords for exceeding a certain amount, and phone verification for transactions exceeding consumption habits. , multiple frequent transactions online in a very short period of time/requiring a one-time password for interception, etc.
A spokesman for HSBC responded that the bank understands the anxiety of affected customers and has been following up with them and relevant credit card institutions to seek feasible solutions. The bank also reminds the public from time to time to keep personal information such as credit cards and one-time passwords safe.
