Debt Collection Agency after me :( Im the victim though!!

DjSwift

Hi all, Not a big poster, but I like to read this forum regularly.

Sadly i have to post something negative in my life for once

NCO seem to be after me for $1800 and its to be paid within 7 days as their letter states.

The story is, I am from another forum which has many many members. However, a member who has been around since 2001 and is supposedly trusted amongst other members was looking for someone with a LLOYDS TSB bank account.

I said I could help him out, as he stated he needed some cash straight away for his sick kid or something.

He sent me paypal, whilst I sent a bank transfer to him via my lloyds online banking.

He received instantly since we both members of lloyds. I recevied his paypal payment and everything was happy and sweet

We were even chatting about some interesting stuff about computers on MSN, like we have done in the past! (this is supposedly a trusted member, where quite a few people have vouched for him!!)

Anyways, as the days went by, he proceeded to do 2 more transactions with 2 other of the forum members, since I was not online (PHEW!!)

Everything was nice and sweet until a month goes by.

Im actually preparing to do a presentation for University. Whilst checking my emails, a member emailed me saying that he received a chargeback to his account and surely its a mistake or something. QUICKLY, i logged into my paypal account and £1252.18!! had been reversed!!. I almost fainted!!. Being a student its not easy!!..

Anyways, i tried to calm down as the account was showing £-900 something. I had like £300 legit funds in there.. but it got wiped out in the chargeback

In the presentation for uni, I actually stood in front of many people while trying to present it. Instead I had a shocked face and couldnt speak. I gave an excuse that I cannot do it. I failed that subject and ruined my chances of a 1st class degree

Back to the fraud..

So, 3 of us got done by this guy who reported he never authorised sending any cash to us!. How does paypal NOT pick up a chargeback to 3 people. We provided evidence of out bank statements etc but still nothing as paypal are very difficult to deal with. They kept on going on about how the seller protection in not valid as it wasnt sent to a confirmed address. BUT the transaction page showed no address anyways!!. We never sold anything to this guy! We just did him a favour and he screwed us over..

Luckily we have a lawyer on the forum as well. She has been very good to us. She has sent in the complaint the financial Ombudsman etc. (they still not got back to us, despite it being almost 2 months now)

Sorry for a lengthy post, I do need help about this NCO thing though
Can i write to them and tell them that the complaint is still being investigated by the financial ombudsman ??

Also can I tell them I have no income as Im a student. I don't own anything either. My house and car are on my parents name etc.

One thing which worries me the most and if it makes a difference. Can they put a default on my credit file ? Can they affect my credit rating ?

I have an excellent credit file, and intend to keep it that way.

I am the victim (along with the 2 others that got caught out; all 3 of us lodged complaint together)

At what point can they default my file ? Do they have to tell me so ?

I heard if in dispute (which i am) they cannot do me anything until a full and final investigation has been done ?

Sorry for all these questions.

They have converted the amount in dollars!!! and have added a few extra charges like £100 on top. I cannot verify this now as my paypal account got locked. ALthough I do have all emails.

DjSwift

actually just realised it was my first post what a great way to start posting on this forum

Hopefully i can get some advice etc.

Thanks

p.s missed out one part. We tried to contact this guy several times and even caleld him etc. He is too far for me to go and pay a visit. He is in glasgow whilst im in London. I tried sending some people around there, but they said it was a bit of a crappy neighbourhood. I contacted police 3 times, but they said it was a civil matter in which they do not involve themselves. (It was fraud!!!, but they didnt get that!!)

Oh well..

THank for looking

robnye

sorry to hear about your predicament.

i am a little confused..... where does NCO come into the equation?

how did he manage to persuade you to do a bank transfer.... paypal may be a little slow, but normally appears within 7 days.

DjSwift

robnye wrote:

sorry to hear about your predicament.

i am a little confused..... where does NCO come into the equation?

how did he manage to persuade you to do a bank transfer.... paypal may be a little slow, but normally appears within 7 days.

Thats the thing, he couldnt wait seven days , as he said his child has leukemia (reading back on emails!). HE wanted to pay for a trip he found to Disneyland and needed the cash ASAP. Thats why we helped him.

We sent the money via bank transfer (it didnt occur to me he would chargeback!!)

My paypal went in reversal.. after a month. Got all the basic warnings etc, but told them ill get the financial ombudsman involved.

Problem is NCO is a debt collection to paypal. They are after me now to recover their costs that I owe them when my paypal went into reversal

Just this minute literally, I received a call on my home phone. I picked up, no one answered. Another second goes by, my mobile starts ringing. I pick up, the person hangs up.

I do a 1471 and the numbers match on my mobile. (i.e same person calling)

SO from another mobile, i withheld my number and call the number.. Who doi get..

"Welcome to NCO..."

I cut it..

What shall i do this has ruined my niceday supposedly.

Is this classed as intimidation. They are to stingy to pay for a call and want me to call them!!..

I shal call them and tell them a letter is on the way

But it will put me in a distressing mode

Thanks for reading.

DjSwift

Ok i called them

wow they seemed ok people and understanding, not from what i read. (i do not trust them one bit though, as i know they wil start the threats soon..)

They asking me to get my lawyer to write letter to them.. so they can put it on hold.

Im on that straight away

black-saturn

OMG what a mess. I think you've been scammed though. I think the forum member that everyone trusted has been 'grooming' you all for a while in preparation for this. I hope you manage to get it all sorted out.

P.s. What forum are you talking about? So I can keep away.

the*dark*one

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

Looks like you are in this for the long haul I’m afraid. You need to get the other 2 people who were conned and go to the police collectively and file a fraud complaint. You have a far better chance if you can prove that it happened to more than one person. I would then start court proceedings with the small claims court, if the police co-operate then they should investigate and hopefully arrest this person. There is no guarantee that you will ever see a penny of your money (or the other people who were conned monies) ever again unfortunately. Even if you win in court, again, there are no guarantees. You will need to negotiate with NCO, but note, they are ruthless and yes if you don’t pay it will be defaulted on your credit file and stay on there for 6 years, knowing Paypal they won’t let it lie there and there is a strong possibility they will get the baillifs involved and you might end up with a CCJ because it’s not for a small amount so it’s in their interests to get you to pay the money back. Regardless of you not having a job etc they don’t care about any of this but the fact of the matter is, you need to pay back NCO and come to an agreement with them, say perhaps paying back a small amount each month and then hope that the police/court action comes through for you.

Read this:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=118681

I wish you luck and really sorry to hear that you messed up your chances of obtaining a first.

DjSwift

We cant go to the police though.

I went myself and they said it was a civil matter in which they do not involve themselves..

each time i went (3 times) they told me the same thing..

This person we have an address, but last time a person off our forum drove by, he told me the house looked unoccupied with boarded up windows.

I did a quick search on UK info, seems to be registered to his mum.

But i have another address where it seems fine, but No one wants to go knock his door since its a crappy neighbourhood.

OK another question is. Will NCO issue me with a warning that they will put it on my file ? If so, will they give me some time to pay up ? then maybe i can negotiate a deal ?

If i manage to negotiate a deal, do they still put bad stuff on my file..

Im really sorry for all these questions.. IM more of a computer programmer/mobile phone repairer than knowing all the legal stuff.

I must say ive learnt a HELL lot since all this happened to me..
I know MUCH More about the system know..

ANy advice appreciated

Thanks again

elona

DJSwift

When you went to the police you were "one person" - if you get the other people together then you are a group of three people who have been subjected to "fraud".

Contact the police in writing as a group mentioning that another copy of the letter is going to "watchdog" local paper tv etc saying that the police are not interested in stopping fraud!

the*dark*one

DJswift, that is precidely why I said all 3 of you need to go to the police together. Individually they are not bothered but once they can see it was an intentional organised fraud they are more likely to act. Unfortunately you fell foul of a common scam and from all my years on eBay and seeing people getting scammed, the more people there were involved, the more the police took notice. What do you intend to do with his address? If you think his mother lives there why don’t all three of you pay her a visit, maybe she would be so ashamed and get her son to make amends, you never know. As for the other address at the rundown part of town, if no-one is willing to knock on the door, what exactly do you intend to use it for? Are you going to go down there with baseball bats or something? The way I see it, if this person scammed you, more than likely they would have given you a false address. I’m not sure about when your file becomes defaulted, perhaps if you obtained a copy of your credit report to see if it is on there. Since it’s been passed to the debt collection agency my guess is your account has already been defaulted. The only way to find out for certain is to call NCO and talk this through. On the link that I posted, did you read that eBay thread?

xela_17

I thought you couldn't do a chargeback through paypal if there were insufficient funds in the account. You say you had £300 in there so that is all they should have been able to chargeback. I'm sure payapl accounts can't go into negative.