URGENT ADVICE RE Tax Credits Fraud

Bossyboots

missk_ensington wrote:

Well the CPS deals with other types of theft why is this different? If you leave it to the civil service nothing will get done, stealing identity and stealing money by it is surely a police matter and needs police investigation??

Just take solace in the fact anything other than cash is traceable!

The CPS is the legal team and advisory body to the police in relation to whether or not to charge someone with an offence and then to conduct such prosecution. They are not a body with direct public access. It is to the police that you report crimes, not the CPS. They only deal with theft once the police have investigated, put the case forward for charging and, if they agree a person should be charged, they then produce the prosecution papers and conduct the case in court.

lucym

carolannjo wrote:

We do not have CPS in scotland as such and police say that as it is inland revenue who have been defrauded up to them to complain.

Your father needs to report it to the police as identity fraud. This is very important - the fraudster may be using his details to obtain money from other places…

Bossyboots

carolannjo wrote:

and police say that as it is inland revenue who have been defrauded up to them to complain.

Which is what I said.

Contains_Mild_Peril

If you leave it to the civil service nothing will get done,

CIS wrote:

The CPS are civil servants!!

Good point! (Though as has been mentioned, in Scotland it wouldn't be the CPS but the office of the Procurator Fiscal.)
However, since HMRC have such an abysmal track record of dealing with problems relating to tax credits, and it often seems the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing, I would report it to the police, since they ought to know, and I wouldn't count on HMRC to tell them.

someone had tried to claim tax credits using his national insurance number. How they got this I have no idea as he uses cash all the time, doesn't have any credit cards, loans or mortgage AND throws nothing out keeps it all in the house!!!

If he did have credit cards etc it would probably have made no difference, since the info needed for this fraud was his NI number, name and possibly address and/or date of birth (dob being something strangers would be unlikely to know under normal circumstances).
If he has not binned anything containing these data, I can think of two other main possibilities: one, mail with his name, address and NI number has been erroneously delivered to another address or otherwise "lost" in the post, from where it has fallen into the wrong hands; or two, the information has somehow been leaked from a Government department.
Given what we know of the efficiency of the tax credit system, I wouldn't even be surprised if the NI no. used to claim did not match other details, and they just didn't notice.

CIS

Reporting it to the Police wont do much good, they may hold it on record, and may be able to prosecute if evidence comes up to who it was with reagrd sto IB theft, but with regards to the benefits side, HMRC will follow up and prosecute if needed.

Looking at it so far, a claim has gone in for tax credits, and paid out to someone using the National Insurance Number - its not impossible for it to have been a genuine claim paid out using the wrong NI number, with the person who's name the claim is in being a legitimate claimant.

Fran

He can get the Citizens Advice Bureau to negotiate with them, which might help put his mind at rest about what exactly is happening.

lucym

Despite what has been said, it really is important that you report the identity fraud.

In 2003 someone started using my husbands NI number to claim tax credits (we found out quickly because their claim messed up our own tax credit payments). It took tax credits several months to actually stop paying money to the fraudster; they sent this man award notices with my husbands name, NINO and DOB – so if he didn’t actually have any documents previously he certainly does now…

There is some good advice here;

http://www.cifas.org.uk/identity_fraud_victim_advice.asp

http://www.identity-theft.org.uk/

fatblokexl

i d theft is the biggest form of fraud in the uk at the mo.
just because your FinL doesnt throw anything out does not mean he could not have been targeted.

if you are registered with ANYONE from electric - phone companies someone can get your details and make allsorts of enquiries to get enough information to claim fraudulently (not just tax credits)

the typical fraudster of tax credits will be claiming as follows:

single applicant stating they are disabled and receiving the highest rate of care.

they will be self employed at 30hrs pw or just over

they will have little or no income declared to TCO on the form

and have a online bank account, usually halifax.

they will initially apply with ALL your FinL personal details (nino, address, d.o.b) that is enough to satisfy the TCO that person exists, there will be NO missing info on the claim as they know if something is missed TCO will contact the applicant (by post usually) and once this happens the scam has attention drawn to it).

TCO process the claim and start payments into the account given on the form. they will then typically change the address of the applicant to ensure all TCO mail goes to them (usually and empty property) so the scam is still uncovered at that stage, they may even add stolen children i.d's to the claim and increase the money they are scamming.

when the fraud IS discovered the true person whos ID has been snatched may receive a standard letter saying all this money was paid under their name and TCO want it back.

people who are affected by this usually are not pursued by TCO once this has been sorted out, which can take time.


TCO are stuck between a rock and a hard place here...do they hold off processing a claim to double/triple check someone is claiming genuinely and deny that person money they may need or do they process a claim quickly to get that person money only to later find they have been scammed.

answers on a post card...

if there is anyone else caught in this type of situation when they call the helpline, if the fraud has been noted at that time, the helpline will not be able to deal with the call the way you may want it dealt with, after all, how do they know you are the real Mr Smith or the fraudster pretending to be him?

if any of the security details asked when you get through are not answered correctly the call will be ended.
you may end up just writing to the TCO office for details as the helpline are not in a position to help.


so dont be nasty to the staff either in this case...it is not their fault.

lucym

fatblokexl wrote:

they will be self employed at 30hrs pw or just over

they will have little or no income declared to TCO on the form

In our case the guy was working 30 hours pw and earning around 700 pounds a year.

ManAtHome

fatblokexl wrote:

TCO are stuck between a rock and a hard place here...do they hold off processing a claim to double/triple check someone is claiming genuinely and deny that person money they may need or do they process a claim quickly to get that person money only to later find they have been scammed.

answers on a post card...

Fair point - how about a confirmation letter at the start of the process (even if no missing details). Something like "we are processing your claim, please call 0800... to confirm" - shouldn't add a massive cost or delay things more than a few days.