cold calling

kstandsteve

Not sure if i am in the right place for this question, but my widowed mother is in her mid seventies and is almost half way through repaying a 7 year loan she has with the halifax building society. She borrowed around 20k three years ago for necessary home improvements.
A couple of weeks ago a company cold called her telling her that she may be entitled to write off some if not all of the loan due to miss selling. They said that they required a debit card payment of £195.00 which she would get refunded if it was found that they could not help her in any way.
My mother who listened to their patter decided that it was awin win situation and gave them her details over the phone and paid them their £195.00 (refundable) fee.
When my mother told me what she had done a couple of days later i immediately suspected the worst and voiced my concerns to her, however she seems convinced that this a genuine company and that there is absolutely nothing to worry about.
I was wondering if anybody else has had experience of this kind of thing and what was the outcome for them.
My mother lives on her state pension only and i dont like to think of anybody taking advantage of her trusting nature. Any comments gratefully received.

4743hudsonj

kstandsteve wrote: »

Not sure if i am in the right place for this question, but my widowed mother is in her mid seventies and is almost half way through repaying a 7 year loan she has with the halifax building society. She borrowed around 20k three years ago for necessary home improvements.
A couple of weeks ago a company cold called her telling her that she may be entitled to write off some if not all of the loan due to miss selling. They said that they required a debit card payment of £195.00 which she would get refunded if it was found that they could not help her in any way.
My mother who listened to their patter decided that it was awin win situation and gave them her details over the phone and paid them their £195.00 (refundable) fee.
When my mother told me what she had done a couple of days later i immediately suspected the worst and voiced my concerns to her, however she seems convinced that this a genuine company and that there is absolutely nothing to worry about.
I was wondering if anybody else has had experience of this kind of thing and what was the outcome for them.
My mother lives on her state pension only and i dont like to think of anybody taking advantage of her trusting nature. Any comments gratefully received.

well their claims have truth to them but you are right to be concerned


i certainly dont recommend listening or contemplate buying from cold calling

doesnt shout professionalism does it?

anyways

what is the name of the company?

would help to find out if it was genuine or may have been a mistake.

negg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8086282.stm