Retiree claims HSBC failed in duty to prevent him from being a victim of scams

KUALA LUMPUR (June 30 ): Retiree Lee Cheong Chee, 55, is suing HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd for negligence, saying the bank did not advise him against going ahead with transactions that “it could have deduced to be fraudulent”, the Malay Mail reported today.

“The bank in this claim is negligent because it failed to impose safeguards to detect the financial scam and prevent Lee from becoming a victim of financial scams,” Lee said in the lawsuit.

Lee revealed that he lost RM1.06 million and US$255,000 (RM1.09 million) in numerous transactions that took place between late 2019 and September 2017.

The lawsuit stated that Lee was “tricked into investing in four separate entities” via phone calls.

The four separate entities are Bank de Binary, Stoxmarket, Speartrader, and HBC Broker, reported the news portal.

Some of the transactions were made with Lee’s credit cards while others were wired online with his debit account.

Malay Mail reported Lee claiming that HSBC Malaysia “failed to inform him of possible fraud risks in his deposits, neglected to verify the repeated transactions with him, and failed to suspend any of the transactions pending such verifications”.

He added that the bank “also did not warn him that the pattern of transactions could indicate fraud”.

The retiree said “the bank had an obligation to verify that the accounts used were registered to fully-licensed financial companies in good standing”, and that it also “did not cross check the recipients against any advisory list maintained by BNM or the Securities Commission”.

Lee now wants “a full reimbursement from the bank for his lost funds, with additional pre and post judgment interests of 5% per annum from sums claimed, costs, and a declaration that the bank had indeed breached BNM directives”, said the report.

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