Debt Recovery Company trolling/fishing at my address.

kazam401

Apologies if this has already been covered but its all new to me.

I arrived home yesterday to find a letter seemingly addressed to me at correct home address. On opening this letter I found it was from a debt collection agency (based in Glasgow) acting on behalf of O2.
The letter was quite agressive in demanding the sum of £905.94 with threats about bailiffs court action etc.

All this came as a huge shock, I am a O2 customer but have never failed to settle any bill at any time...........then I realised the letter was actually addressing someone with my surname & the same initial, but different forename.

I telephoned the 0870 number this morning from work (worrying it may be some kind of scam). The lady I spoke to asked for the account number & after I had explained she wanted to know how long I had lived at my address (over 10 years) & how long I had had this telephone number (work telephone number) she then said my address would be taken off there records & that I would not hear anything more regarding this other person. I demanded to know (more than once) where they had got my address from & at this point she got very defensive quoting something about data protection before putting the phone down on me.

Pretty worried about this at the moment, where have they got my address from ? I need to know if this is correct company policy for agency's such as this?

If i had just binned the letter would bailiffs have been round at my address trying to remove goods due to some others debt? This could have happened while my son was at home on his own & he wouldn't have had a clue what to do.

My partner is pretty stressed about this, as was I last night while I was being accused of running up £1000 of debt (obviously wrongly & I did get a full apology when we read it again & realised)

This all seems pretty fishy to me, it doesn't look like genuine company policy, but if it is what a terrible way to go about it.

dinkylou

This must be very frustrating for you, but at least it is clear now.

The data protection is in your favour, not theirs so what she said was rubbish.

I would phone up O2 and demand to know what data they hold on you and your account. Then if any of the info is incorrect, it is their responsibility to correct it.

Also, I would ask for some form of compensation for the personal distress and anguish their mistake has put you through.

MrsTinks

hear hear about the compensation!

Often I think they will claw at any straw to recover their debts and someone might have just thought that you WERE that person but to be honest they should have check their records properly and they would have seen that your names are different. If they have linked your address with the other persons name then I would demand a written appology, compensation for the severe distress and personal anguish they cause you and your family.

Maybe next time they will check their records properly!

consultant31

I sincerely hope it IS the last you hear from them, but don't be surprised if it isn't.
The same thing happened to my elderly parents, when they received a demand from a company for an outstanding debt for music cds and videos (something they would never buy) for someone with the same surname as them.
They were panic-stricken, as older people often are by the thought of debts.
I rang up for them and was told it would be removed from the list, but they got at least two more demands after that. I was furious and in the end threatened them with informing the police of their harrassment.
That was when they stopped, but it was very unpleasant at the time for my Mum & Dad :mad:

sportbeth

Unfortunately this is a classic tact of some of the Debt collectors.

They buy a debt as part of a "porfolio" and for each debt they pay 25p in the £1 for them.

The first letter they send to Mr Jones comes back as "not known at this address" as he's moved on with no change of address (funny that)

They then access the register of electors which councils sell for a profit with all your nicely "data protection" info on.

They then junk mail 25 "mr Jones's" in a 50 mile radius of the original one they are looking for telling each one that they owe the debt.

With any luck some poor old man or some lonely widow will pay the debt in fear.

Some others will phone back and argue

With any luck they will find the Mr Jones they are looking for.

But for a £1,000 debt they have the following result:-

Paid £250 for it.

Mailed 50 people at a grand sum of £13 ish

Two poor sods come back and pay (the one who owed it and the one who was too scared to open his front door to strangers)

Money recieved, £2000

Profit £1737

Nice people eh?

dinkylou

Oh my god, I didn t know it was as bad as that!

Thats disgusting!

lightatendoftunnel?

You say Glasgow was it AIC? As i have had dealings with them and they are very agressive.

bargainbetty

Hey Kazam,

Call them back and demand a letter be sent to you confirming that 'the account is not yours and that you, and anyone else currently residing at your address, are not now, nor will ever be expected to settle that account at any time.'

The data protection act actually entitles you to see a copy of anything stored on file about you anywhere, so saying she can't tell you was indeed large piles of pants.

BTW, the language used there was given to me by a lawyer (my ex boss) - he advised me when I had a problem. Nice man, got me a letter of apology, confirmation and a small but welcome gift voucher.

Have a good one!

Tootsie_Roll

sportbeth wrote:

Unfortunately this is a classic tact of some of the Debt collectors.

They buy a debt as part of a "porfolio" and for each debt they pay 25p in the £1 for them.

The first letter they send to Mr Jones comes back as "not known at this address" as he's moved on with no change of address (funny that)

They then access the register of electors which councils sell for a profit with all your nicely "data protection" info on.

They then junk mail 25 "mr Jones's" in a 50 mile radius of the original one they are looking for telling each one that they owe the debt.

With any luck some poor old man or some lonely widow will pay the debt in fear.

Some others will phone back and argue

With any luck they will find the Mr Jones they are looking for.

But for a £1,000 debt they have the following result:-

Paid £250 for it.

Mailed 50 people at a grand sum of £13 ish

Two poor sods come back and pay (the one who owed it and the one who was too scared to open his front door to strangers)

Money recieved, £2000

Profit £1737

Nice people eh?

What complete rubbish ! You have a very basic understanding of how this works and you are adding complete lies to make it sound even worse - I will be reporting this post. It's no wonder people are scared of the letters from debt collectors as you say when this sort of lie is perpetuated.

Tootsie_Roll

bargainbetty wrote:

Hey Kazam,

Call them back and demand a letter be sent to you confirming that 'the account is not yours and that you, and anyone else currently residing at your address, are not now, nor will ever be expected to settle that account at any time.'

The data protection act actually entitles you to see a copy of anything stored on file about you anywhere, so saying she can't tell you was indeed large piles of pants.

BTW, the language used there was given to me by a lawyer (my ex boss) - he advised me when I had a problem. Nice man, got me a letter of apology, confirmation and a small but welcome gift voucher.

Have a good one!

This is much better advice - not sure if the DPA allows them to see information in this case though as clearly they are not the person whom the DCA holds the information on.

sportbeth

Tootsie_Roll wrote:

What complete rubbish ! You have a very basic understanding of how this works and you are adding complete lies to make it sound even worse - I will be reporting this post. It's no wonder people are scared of the letters from debt collectors as you say when this sort of lie is perpetuated.

True story - happened to me. Was haranged for months by a DC who was looking for someone at my address who didn't live there and had a different christian name to the one who had formerly lived there. Told me how his company made these "mistakes"