Credit card debt that isn't corrrect

carlih1

Hi

Wondered if anyonwe can help me. I have some friends who have been contacted by a debt enforcement agency asking them for £6000.00 ish for a credit card they have never taken out. It is in their old address but g0oes back before they even moved in there.

They have never had a statement from this company and the debt enforcement agency aren't listening to a word they say. They have looked at the credit report and it is on there but also a couple of other bits that have been applied for but rejected that aren't theirs either. Their credit history is very good and this is obviously affecting it.

Anyone got any advice on what to do, it's obviously fraud but how do they go about proving it.

Carli

The_Boss

Is it in their name? I guess the place they start is proving that they moved there after the debt was being run up. Then speak to the lender of this £6000 (not the debt collectors) and find some more info out about the supposed debt.

BWZN93

Hi

This is not strictly relevant, however I posted HERE a while back about debt collection agencies.

Firstly, they need to send a recorded delivery letter to the debt collectors telling them to provide proof of the alleged debt, (such as signed credit agreements, statements, etc) and to write in the letter that 'This letter does not acknowledge ownership of the alleged debt' (this is very important). They should also state that failiure to provide the information within 28 days means you will regard the matter as closed and any further contact regarding it will be construed as harrassment and reported to the relevant authorities, and that all further correspondence on the matter will be by mail only. If they call by phone, tell them to contact by mail and put the phone down, DO NOT get involved in a conversation with them! More often than not, they will go away - they like to threaten bailiffs and courts and CCJ's etc to make it scary as most people pay up under this pressure (even when its not them would you believe!) but fight your corner and they dont have a leg to stand on (they probably dont even have anything, just a list of names and debts they bought for a few pence - see my post on the thread I mentioned).

Secondly, they need to get their credit reports ASAP to check if that credit card debt is listed against them. If it is, then your friends need to put in a notice of dispute with the credit ref agency and provide information so that they can take it up with the information provider to check its accuracy. They usually come back to you within 28days and let you know what the information provider has said, i.e, its correct and staying, or incorrect and removed.

If it is the former (i.e correct) then your friends need to go to the source of the information, the credit card provider, and request access to all infomation held about them and ever held about them (I believe it is called subject access under the data protection act or something) - which the company may charge for. Financial service companies should keep all of this information for 6 years. They can then check what ID was handed over, signatures on application forms, copy statements etc.

Once they have that, they need to go back to the CC company saying this actually cant be me - look at this evidence (wrong signatures, fake Id's - whatever you can find really!) - remove the information from my credit report immediately! It may well be a case of someone with a similar name living nearby, and two and two put together. This is usually uncovered quickly by middle names and date of birth etc. If it actually is their information and likely to be fraud, its worth making a report to the police and checking to see that they still own thier passports etc!

Hopefully, this should all work out with perseverance. However (and im not judging or doubting you or them) if it is their actual debt then morally, it needs to be paid. You will see from my other thread though, I dont recommend paying these kind of debt collectors when the debt is really old as I find them exceptionally distasteful and I really feel that they should not be allowed to operate - but thats another story.

Good luck, and if you want to ask any questions them feel free to pm me.

HTH

Jo xx

Edited to add: Ive since noticed they have their credit reports and it is there, file a notice of dispute ASAP and it may well be worth reporting to the police as ID theft if other searches are on there that shouldnt be - but make doubly sure they arent legitimate as some insurance companies etc credit check you and it is suprising to see it on there! Also, there is some ID fraud prevention thing to do with credit (forgot what is called though) where you have a passcode so that credit cannot be obtained without you knowing about it and authorising it - especially if the searches are recent.

Finally, did they leave any mail going to thier old address? Any old bank accounts? Insurance? These can be used to get credit as a form of ID, might be worth wracking the brains and making sure all the addresses were changed. (or maybe a royal mail divert on the old address under their names to catch anything left over!). This is possibly how their information was used in the first place.

Jo xx

James

Sorry to learn of your friends demise. This is a typical example of ID theft and advice given by JW1096 is sound.

A simple way to prevent this happening in future is to cosider putting the following in place:

http://www.techworld.com/security/features/index.cfm?featureid=1954

You may find this helpful too:

http://www.cifas.org.uk/Identity_Fraud_Leaflet.pdf

Ditto send me a pm if you've any further questions.