Urgent help needed please

skylined_gtr

Hi to all

I hope you can help I am going out of my mind with worry about this one. I believe I have been the victim of Identity Fraud (if such a thing actually exists?!).

I have lived at the same address for about 11 years now, renting up to about 2 and a half years ago when my mum and I decided to buy the house on a joint mortgage. Unfortunately we fell out, I moved out to live with my girlfriend but I continued to pay the mortgage and so didn't move any of my accounts. I would collect my post every now and again from my mums house (locked postbox outside) and as I have a very severe problem with junk mail, I return to sender everything except for the bank statements, credit card statements and mortgage letters.

About 5 days ago I got in touch with my mum after resolving our conflict. She told me that in February 2009 a charging order had been placed on the house for the sum of £1800 due to an unpaid, unsecured debt in my name. Alarm bells start ringing as I have one credit card, one bank account and a mortgage and all are maintained perfectly. She told me there was another letter from Northampton County Court so I opened it. Found another claim form in there stating I owed £10,000!!!!!!

I contacted the National Debt Advice line who advised me to contact Cabot Financial (the pursuers of the latter claim) and explain the situation to them (that I hadn't lived there for the past few years etc). Cabot were quite good about it in that they recommended I acknowledge the court paperwork and then build my defence. I am writing a letter to them tonight asking them for a legible CCA showing my signature and the statement of accounts.

I have ordered my credit report and am alarmed at the amount of associated addresses and names (13 in total!) and unknown accounts. One of the credit accounts dates back to 2002!

Help!!! What do I do? I have a CCJ on my house that's nothing to do with me and another on the way. Anyone had this before or know how to deal with this? I am happy to post any information to support so please let me know if I have missed anything.

Sincerely appreciate any assistance.

di3004

Bumping this up for you.:D

Good luck.;)

nuttytart26

Hi Skylined,
I'm not really 100% sure but at the top of your credit report it should have contact names and numbers for all the accounts, I would suggest contacting them all and explaining in full whats been going on. Also post this on the CCCS site and someone will be able to help you. Good luck.

GeorgeUK

Can't help, but think it would be an idea to post on the consumeractiongroup forum as well. They are quite clued up on the legal aspects of legislation and accounts. No harm in getting as many people on board as possible.

One thing i would say is don't rely on Cabot for advice. They are only interested in getting their money - not necesserily helping you.

Make sure that all communication is in writing only as you may need to refer to it later and also prove what ahs been said.

Something else you may want to look at is a subject access request. Do not include your signature on one of these as you don't want someone to transfer your signature to a form - you can pick up the documents from the bank if they aren't happy about sending it out to you.

The SAR, under the Data Protection Act, will allow you to see all documents and transactions that the banks hold that relate to you or your accounts. A SAR costs £10 but may be worth doing if you don't get any joy from a CCA.

You should definately contact the organisations that gave out the accounts. Their fraud department may be able to assist. Not sure if you will need to report it to the police first, but i'd call all the 'false creditors' to make them aware that the accounts are not yours.

Edit: Might also be worth doing a search for CIFAS. I have seen this mentioned when identity theft has been talked about before.

RAS

Hi

You need all three credit checks. Please read this http://www.cifas.org.uk/default.asp?edit_id=561-56 and contact CIFAS. As a minimum, you might want to join the CIFAS Protective Register.

It will take a lot of time to sort this out but the details on your credit records will enable you to report the fraud to all the account holders and eventually get the records removed including the CCJ.

skylined_gtr

Thanks so very much for the advice so far. Have registered with CIFAS as you've mentioned and paid the fee for it.

When I'm making the subject access request, who do I request it from? The debt collection agency?

Also, I need to send the letter asking for the CCA and the statement of accounts, which letter template do I use as these credit accounts were prior to April 2007, does that make a difference to the law/act I quote?

Thanks again to all of you for your help.

Horace

I would also check the deeds of the house with the land registry - it might sound strange but there was something on our local news a couple of weeks' ago about how a couple who had lived in their house for 30 odd years suddenly found themselves with all sorts of problems - it appears that some criminal had written to the land registry to say that the house was his and they just transferred the deeds over. I am not saying that this is what has happened.

Check your bank acccount too and let them know that you think you have been subject to Identity Fraud.

Not sure whom you would make the subject access request too in this instance.

I wouldnt be acknowledging the debt though.

Good luck.

Happytogetdebtfree

gosh I'm sorry to hhear about your ordeal wishing you all the best x

GeorgeUK

For the CCA letter, it makes no difference when they were opened.

Each SAR will cost £10 but you should be able to ask for ALL information that they hold on you. You are not required to limit this to one account. Ask for copies of all correspondence, transactions and documentation.

The SAR should be sent to the original creditor as they should hold the agreements etc and have details of the transaction history (for at least 6 years). Don't bother sending a SAR to a DCA - they probably wouldn't know what it was anywaay.

skylined_gtr

Thanks for the good wish - I need it!

Thanks for all the advice, I did see a template somewhere for a CCA and a SAR, anyone know where they are now? If they are somewhere simple and I've missed them please forgive me I am all over the place with all this going on!

Thanks

skylined_gtr

Thank you for that - do I also need to mention something on there about me not owing the amount or that I am contesting it? Also, do I just add that I need the statement of account?