PippA - HFO chasing unknown debt

PippaA

I received a letter from HFO services yeaterday. It was marked reminder and then started "As you have been informed". I have never heard from them before. The letter went on to say that they have been sold a debt by Monument in my name which amounts to £7843.57., and to ring immediately so that they can make arrangements for payment.
I have never heard of Monument before. I looked it up on the internet and it is a Credit Card Company. I do not have a credit card! I left a message on their answerphone and asked them to call me back ASAPand telling them I did not know this company. I then rang the Action Fraud line thinking I had been the subject of identity theft. I have also told the police.
As I am a disabled pensioner I am finding this very distressing.
To date no-one from this company has rang me back.
Do you think this will go further? Am I likely to be harrassed?
I live on my own and am now scared stiff having read this forum.

fermi

I think Monument were the sub-prime division of Barclaycard a long while back? Did you ever have a debt to something like that?

If you should need to dispute the debt by sending a letter, then there is an example one in this link.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=11570893&postcount=2

If you don't owe this debt, and/or HFO continue to harass you, then please report these people to the Office Of fair Trading.

The OFT are investigating them, and may be about to revoke their licence to operate. So it's important to report every bit of their misbehaviour to the OFT.

PippaA

Thank you. No I have never had a Barclaycard. The only credit cards I have had in my life I have transferred all balances across to the next one I took out (nought interest transfers etc) and finally paid all debt off a couple of years ago. I now do not possess a credit card at all. I am too old to be racking up debt my children may be liable for. I have nothing to else to leave them so do not want to leave them my debts! I will send them a copy of your letter and hope that settles the matter. The lady at the police office I spoke to said that if they try to harrass or threaten me I was to get back in touch with her as that is a different game al together!

fermi

OK.

Obviously, you can adapt that letter a little bit to say that you have spoken to the police and have been given a crime number.

Hopefully that will be the last you hear from them.

If it's not, then as said, please report them to the OFT in addition to the police.

PippaA

I looked on the OFT website and it seems this company had their license revoked at the end of last month. So what they are doing sending letters asking for repayment of a fictious debt to me!
I have sent a copy of the letter I received to OFT by email in case it could be of help.

fermi

Where does it say it was revoked?

As far I can see it's still at the Minded To Refuse stage?

Which basically means...

http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/credit/enforcement-action/

Minded to refuse/revoke a licence

Where there are substantiated doubts about a trader's fitness, the OFT issues a 'Minded to Refuse' or 'Minded to Revoke' Notice (MTR). This is a formal notice advising the applicant or licensee that the OFT is minded to refuse to grant them a licence or is minded to revoke their existing licence and inviting them to make representations to an independent OFT adjudicator who will make a decision on the case (see below). The trader retains their licence until the adjudication process and any subsequent appeal is concluded.

fermi

PippaA wrote: »

I have sent a copy of the letter I received to OFT by email in case it could be of help.

Good.

If nails in their coffin are still needed, then every one helps.

PippaA

I went to the official Office of fair trading dot gov dot uk website. Put HFO Services into the search box at the top,(clicking all the types of file) and this produced one result. I clicked on to this and amongst everything else there was an excel-type chart . On the second page of this chart was HFO Services with revoked against their name. I think it was dated May 21st but I can't be certain.:j

fermi

That would be this.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consumer-credit/enforcement-activity/CEA-MTR.pdf

Which is a list of license holders they are MINDED to revoke,

That means that they haven't revoked the license yet, but have decided that they think they want to.

The license holder then has a chance to argue their case for keeping their license.

In other words, it's not a done deal yet, so every extra bit of evidence regarding their misbehaviour may help sway the OFTs final decision.

PippaA

I sent a letter as re your template.I sent it registered mail and sent a copy to both addresses on HFO's letter. I thought that would be the end of it but today I received another letter from them. This time they again say "I have attempted to contact you several times". This is only the second letter I have received. There have been no answers to my original phone call and no messages left on my answer machine. They tell me they can minimize the additional costs and interest charges and costs I am occurring through non-payment. and assure me they want to help!
Then comes the crunch. They are reviewing my account and preparing an in depth information dossier on my current financial situation and if I fail to get in touch it will be forwarded to their solicitors with instructions to sue in order to recover the debt! They then state that I have made payments in the past and it is unlikely that I will be able to raise a creditable defence to legal action. Then the really nasty bit, they say that once they have obtained judgement they will send the bailiffs in and cease my assets! Or they will instruct solicitors to apply for an Order to Obtain Information against me which means the court shall ask me to produce a record of my financial activity for a period as far back as 3 years! And make a full declaration on oath of all my declared and undeclared income!
I'm sure the pension office will be glad to tell them I am on a state pension and pension credit!
So, apart from ringing the police again and sending copies of this letter to the Trading standards Office and OFT, what else can I do?
PippaA

fermi

That is a just standard HFO template. I've seen that before many times.

I doubt they are doing any off that, and they can't just send in bailiffs as they choose or sieze your accounts.

Utter dribble from a bunch of shysters.

In the end, if you've never owed anything to monument, then they can't possibly succeed in court.

It's highly unlikely that they would even try.

Scary letters are their method of choice rather than actually taking court action. They get money out of people who are intimidated by them, and letters cost them very little.

Court action on a dodgy debt will cost them much more to go through with, and even more if their case or the debt has no merit.

They may be scum, but they aren't idiots, so won't often go to court despite what they may threaten.

Please forward that letter with a complaint to the OFT though. One more nail in the coffin.