Advance Fee Fraud - Mr Abeysinghe Sumindra

This notice is issued by the Financial Supervision Commission (“the Commission”) in accordance with the powers conferred upon it under Section 22 of the FinancialSupervision Act 1988.

The Commission has recently become aware of e-mail correspondence which purportedly has been sent by a Mr Abeysinghe Sumindra. Mr Sumindra claims to be “Director Foreign Operations. HSBC BANK PLC, Ridge-way street, Im99 1BU, Douglas, Isle of Man , British Isle.” (sic)

In the correspondence seen by the Commission it states “This is our proceedure here, if you want to conclude the transaction with us, programming the funds through a certified bank draft and sending it to anywhere of your choice is not a problem, its our job but before we proceed, we must receive the non deductible bank tax of 625£ here in our bank.”(sic)

The Commission wishes to draw attention to the following observations regarding the aforementioned e-mails:

The genuine HSBC Bank Plc is the holder of a Banking Licence with the Commission. A list of all institutions licensed by the Commission is available on our website at www.fsc.gov.im.

Enquiries by the Commission have established that the genuine HSBC Bank Plc does not, now or formerly, have any employee by the name of Mr Abeysinghe Sumindra.

The genuine HSBC Bank Plc is not connected in any way to these fraudulent e-mails.

Under the circumstances the Financial Supervision Commission feels that these e-mails are being issued to tempt the recipient into becoming the victim of an Advance Fee Fraud – see explanatory notice issued by the Commission at:

http://www.iomfsa.im/ViewNews.gov?page=lib/news/iomfsa/westafricanfraud.xml

OR

Are an attempt at gaining personal data from the recipient in order to steal their identity – see explanatory notice issued by the Commission at:

http://www.iomfsa.im/ViewNews.gov?page=lib/news/iomfsa/identitytheft.xml

Also see information issued by the Isle of Man Office of the Data Protection Supervisor at:

http://www.gov.im/lib/news/odps/yourinformationy.xml

Under the circumstances, the Commission would strongly urge that persons in receipt of correspondence similar to the above description, purporting to have been sent by the above individual, exercise the greatest possible caution before proceeding, bearing in mind the contents of this public notice.

Any persons who are already involved in any dealings resulting from correspondence matching the above description and who have concerns should contact the Enforcement Division on +44 1624 689314 or by email to fsc@gov.im.

Any persons who have paid funds to, or disclosed personal financial details in relation to correspondence matching the above description should consider contacting their local Police Fraud Unit without delay.

For complete avoidance of doubt this Public Warning does NOT relate to the genuine HSBC Bank Plc.

Any persons who may have any concerns as to whether or not they are dealing with the genuine HSBC Bank Plc may wish to satisfy themselves by contacting them. Contact details for these entities are available on the genuine HSBC Bank website at www.hsbc.co.uk

FSC Reference: CD/16/2008