HSBC Credit Cards — With HSBC Collections Department Around: Your Family's Safety is Under Severe Threat!!

This complaint is regarding the HSBC collections department, Basavanagudi, Bangalore(At least, that is what they claim to be!).

I hold a Credit Card with the HSBC bank and I was unable to pay the dues for around 1.5 months as my nature of job involves extensive travelling, mostly to remote schools in the country. The incident happened yesterday while I'm still away at work at a place in Kerala, where there are no HSBC banks around. My job trip would end in 3 weeks and I would be back at Bangalore in the 2nd Week of August '09.

It all started with Mr.SANTOSH KUMAR, claiming to be the Manager of the HSBC Collections Department, Basavanagudi, Bangalore calling me up yesterday afternoon. He stated that "as it is the month end and they have to meet their target, I have no other choice but to make the payment for this month without fail".
As I was helpless, I told him that I would be able to make the payment once I'm back at Bangalore to which he said that I need to make some other alternative to make the payment. However, I could not arrange for any other alternative mode.

When I gave Mr. Santosh an option to send a person to collect the amount at Kerala, he collected the address details of the place where I was staying. And, I assumed that they would send someone. After this conversation, the calls kept coming in constantly from 4 different numbers(2 official numbers & 2 mobile numbers), one after the other till night, each of the other persons trying to persuade me to make the payment as they had changed their mind about sending a person to collect the money.

To my surprise, I received smses from their Mobile number stating " WE HAVE RECEIVED THE CONTACT DETAILS OF YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS FROM OUR SKIP TEAM. IN CASE YOU DO NOT ARRANGE FOR THE FUNDS, WE WOULD CALL YOUR FAMILY". [Is this Justified? How can a Bank get in touch with your family members? Isn't it against the RBI Directive?]

However, to my surprise, I received calls today from my parents who live in a different city & my spouse currently working in an other city stating they had received calls from people claiming to be associated with HSBC bank and that they were pressurizing them to make the payment on my behalf.


1. How did the Bank get their contact numbers? Their phone numbers are fairly new & the numbers were never mentioned in any of the bank documents? [I strongly sense my service provider leaking my recent call records to the Bank]
2. Can the Banks call the family members when you are still in touch with them?
3. How can the Banks intimidate, harass your family members?

Please suggest what should I do? I never mentioned that I would not make the payment.