MCO Capital loan

millau

I got my second, slightly more professional looking letter from balanceloan(this time) last week. I managed to get through to Action Fraud on Thursday..... the reason for the hold up is they are taking very detailed information and statements and I was speaking to an officer for some 40 minutes.
I was advised to write to a Bressingdon Place in London address but with the latest info on the AF website im not so sure as my previous letter went ignored and emails received by other forum members cancelling the ficticious debt meant nothing as second letters were subsequently received.
I am relieved at having such forums available as at least we do not feel isolated and have the 'comfort', if comfort is the right word, that we are not going through the hassle of this alone.
I am a strong individual with a busy managerial job and like to think that I am pretty streetwise.
My heart goes out to the isolated individuals, perhaps with no internet access, sitting at home feeling that they have been singled out and not knowing where to turn.
My final thought/critisism goes out to Experian who I feel may have let a lot of people down by accepting an order to provide checks by a company that it appears was not even meant to be trading.
Companies/Businesses,including my own, pay the like of Experian good money to avoid dealing with just such companies and is totally unacceptable. When I tried to complain I was totally fobbed off with its not our problem.

grahamqat

It may be the problem communicating with MCO just gives them more information for ID fraud? If you look at the Helploan web-site it appears to be set up for ID fraud. They ask for: Name, Address, Date of Birth, Bank details. What esle do they need to hack your account? A letter at best could give a signature at worse may confirm you are at that address. If you didn't use a self adhesive envelope they also have your DNA!

colinho

grahamqat wrote: »

It may be the problem communicating with MCO just gives them more information for ID fraud? If you look at the Helploan web-site it appears to be set up for ID fraud. They ask for: Name, Address, Date of Birth, Bank details. What esle do they need to hack your account? A letter at best could give a signature at worse may confirm you are at that address. If you didn't use a self adhesive envelope they also have your DNA!

The problem is that the Internet is a wonderful tool for disseminating information, it's also a gold mine for crooks. In my own case, if I just search my name, without any hacking skill involved, I can fond out all sorts of things, including address, and dob. It just takes one crooked individual in a government IT office, to hand out your NHI number. How many call centres (uk and abroad) now have access to your bank, credit card, debit card, utility, and other records? Not so long ago there was a major credit card scam going on with numbers easily available from such a source.
Join Ancestry, and you can get the entire family history, including birth records ( birth certificates as well) for anybody you like.
That's why the biggest lesson this has taught me, is that if I leave my protection to the existing system, sooner or later, it's going to cost me a lot of money. Hence my earlier post about applying the notice of correction to ALL the credit reference agencies, requiring my thumbprints as evidence. Any other enquiry should be treated as fraud.

geomacl

Good point Millau "My heart goes out to the isolated individuals, perhaps with no internet access, sitting at home feeling that they have been singled out and not knowing where to turn."
Although a computer with internet access is required to get a Helploan ot Balanceloan, we've all just found that we didn't even have to visit any of these sites to get caught up in this fraud!!!
Colinho
Yes, the internet is great - or rather was great before the sharks got up to speed, Nowadays it seems to be a constant battle to improve security and try to keep one step ahead of the scammers and phishers!! I have so many antimalware, anti virus, anti every damned thing that it slows my computer down very noticeably when all the stuff is loading. Damn them all!!!

grahamqat

I agree with you Colin, just wondering though if setting this up requires you to send your thumb prints to an agency for verificatiton? I just don't know who to trust these days.

colinho

grahamqat wrote: »

I agree with you Colin, just wondering though if setting this up requires you to send your thumb prints to an agency for verificatiton? I just don't know who to trust these days.

No, the beauty of this is that you don't actually have to send your thumbprint ( unless at some point, you do need a loan, or credit agreement, then as discussed earlier, you'd have a real hassle proving you were indeed yourself). Once the notice of correction is lodged (see http://www.freeidprotection.co.uk/ ), even if somebody (a) knows a thumbprint is required and (b) is daft enough to send their own, in an attempt to defraud using your ID, it STILL isn't you, so you have nil liability. Any potential lender, even a crooked one, will take one look and be aware that you have deliberately blocked your own credit line. It will be a hassle to then obtain credit, but I suspect it will be a lot easier than proving you didn't borrow anything from MCO. I've already got the notice in for all my family.

grahamqat

Sounds good Colin. I'll look into that. The other thought that occurs is that I dont need any loans so may be better off with a bad credit rating? That way I shouldn't get scammed by fraudsters who will think I dont have any money to pay back with.

colinho

grahamqat wrote: »

Sounds good Colin. I'll look into that. The other thought that occurs is that I dont need any loans so may be better off with a bad credit rating? That way I shouldn't get scammed by fraudsters who will think I dont have any money to pay back with.

There's too many people looking at those records, and making character judgements, to allow your own to be ruined through no fault of your own (future employer?). Check out the thumb;-)

grahamqat

Point taken but I run my own company, have paid off the mortgage, wont need any loans etc - what other bad stuff could happen if I had a bad credit rating?

colinho

grahamqat wrote: »

Point taken but I run my own company, have paid off the mortgage, wont need any loans etc - what other bad stuff could happen if I had a bad credit rating?

Perhaps some shyster running a scam with high-interest loans would see that as precisely the sort of person to target? One of our best defences is that we (on this forum) seem to typically be the sort of person who wouldn't use such creeps. You never know what the future brings, except possibly a projection that this kind of fraud will be more prevalent. Clearly, mco didn't actually check the records they searched, as there were factual inaccuracies on so many (dob, time at address), the record itself was therefore no protection, whereas the thumbprint would have been, as it would have made any subsequent claim clearly fraudulent. It's not about having a good record really, it's about locking your ID. IMHO ;-)