CAPQUEST - Cold call

yellowduke

I had a message on my voicemail earlier this week from Capquest saying they wanted to speak to me. I had to Google them to find out that they are a debt recovery company. This concerned me as I have a job where you need to be financially clean so I went online and got a copy of my credit report from Experian. As I expected my credit report is clean with a score of 969 which makes me wonder why on earth they would be trying to contact me. Has anyone had a similarly unwarranted approach from these people?

Tixy

Could be a wrong number
Could well be a person with the same name or similar name to you.
You might want to check your other credit reports as well (equifax and callcredit/noddle) just to see if they've searched your file.

Ignore the messages, don't call them. If its you they want or think they want they'll write to you.

Gordon_Hose

Judging by the amount of posts about crappyquest, they've probably recently bought a portfolio of debts!

yellowduke

Just done Equifax and again no bad debts. I did see a search by a law firm in May 2011 that I don't understand though. Are they obliged to tell me why they searched my credit record if I ask?

fermi

What is the name of the firm? Some are either connected to, or are just trading names of debt collectors.

fatbelly

yellowduke wrote: »

Just done Equifax and again no bad debts. I did see a search by a law firm in May 2011 that I don't understand though. Are they obliged to tell me why they searched my credit record if I ask?

From Experian:

An unrecorded enquiry is a search that was not made for lending purposes. This includes searches made to check your identity. It cannot affect your credit rating or score when you apply for credit. It is not seen by lenders other than the one that carried out the search. It is included on your credit report so you know the search was made. When a lender carries out a search to check your identity they do not get details of your personal credit history, they simply sees a score.

I wouldn't worry about it. Let sleeping dogs lie.

yellowduke

Just done Call Credit as well and again my record is good. I guess the wrong number suggestion is probably right.

The law firm that searched on me was Berrymans, Lace & Mawer who apparently are largely involved with the insurance industry. I don't think I took out any insurances around that time but I could be wrong.

fermi

Who knows.

List their areas of expertise as:

Abuse claims
Adjudication
Arbitration
ASBOs/ASBIs
Catastrophic injury
Claimant services
Claims management
Clinical negligence
Commercial contracts
Commercial litigation
Construction
Coroners' inquests
Costs
Criminal healthcare defence
Data protection
Debt recovery
Defamation
Education
Electoral law
Employers' liability
Employment law
Environment
Fraud
Freedom of information
Healthcare disputes
Housing litigation Insurance & re-insurance
Intellectual property
Judicial review
Legal risk services
Leisure
Local authorities
London Market
Mediation
Motor
Occupational disease
Police/Emergency services
Policy development
Privacy
Product liability
Product management
Professional discipline
Professional negligence
Property insurance and recovery
Public inquiries
Public law
Public liability
Retail RTA prosecutions
Safety, health & environment
Stress, bullying and harassment
Transport

Would be quicker if they just listed what they don't deal with. :rotfl:

basharun

I'm a former "Crapquest" employee (I was a tracer). If you received a call that said it was specifically from Capquest (rather than DVSL, or previously Telogram), then it means that the purpose of the call was to try to collect from you, or to set up an arrangement for you to pay.

Crapquest essentially have 2 departments: trace, and collections. Accounts that are in trace are ones where they need to locate/trace a person's residential address and contact number so that they can collect from that person. When they contact you, your family, or neighbours, it will be as DVSL (Data Verification Services Limited). They've actually registered this as a company, and specifically chose this name because it can be confused with the DVLA. Previously, this company was named Telogram, a name chosen because people confuse it with the obsolete telegram service. So, in short, if you get any communication from DVSL, then it is Crapquest trying to trace someone.
Once an account is traced, it passes to their collections department who will communicate with the "debtor" as Capquest. So, if you absolutely do not have any outstanding debt, then there's only 2 possible reasons why Crapquest would call you. They've traced it incorrectly and have the wrong person (maybe someone with the same name and date of birth), or they've traced a person but somehow got the wrong phone number (ie. your number).

So what do you do?
You can call them to say that you're the wrong person. The problem with that, though, is you don't know what information they have about their "debtor". Before they will tell you anything, they will ask you to confirm information for Data Protection purposes: ie. your name, date of birth, current address, and a previous address. Now, if your previous address matches the original address they have on file for that account (ie. the address the "debtor" gave when he/she opened the account), then you will now have confirmed to them that you ARE the correct person they are looking for. So, if you do call them, do not confirm anything. This means, though, that they won't give you any information either.

The best thing to do is to wait for them to send you a letter (they will inevitably send letters). That letter will contain the original address of their "debtor". Once you have that information you can call them (or write to them so you have a record) and say that 1) you've never lived at that address, 2) they have the wrong person, and 3) they should remove your address from their files. What happens then is the account is classed as an incorrect trace and is taken out of their collections department and goes back to their trace department.
I hope that helps.

I also hope to be able to help anyone else (when I have time) who has problems with Crapquest, and answer any questions, specifically about how they trace people, and how to avoid being traced.

Mismanagement

I have had two letters from DVSL asking me confirm I am the person they are looking for. I was made BR last year so cannot have any outstanding debts to pay and am tempted to contact them to tell them that but am worried that if I contact them in any way I will open the floodgates of harassment as even though I am BR these type of companies have a habit of continued harrassment. Should I contact them and tell them or just ignore

basharun

Sorry, for the late reply.

If it's from from DVSL then that means they haven't yet traced the person and aren't sure you're the one they're looking for. Simply, return the letters and mark them as "person doesn't live here" or something like that. You might have to put up with them trying to trace it again, which means phone calls to you and neighbours etc. but just keep confirming they have the wrong address and don't give any other info.

If they do trace your address they'll start contacting you as Capquest and want to collect money. If they phone you tell them they have the wrong address, you don't know the person, and you've never lived at whatever original address they mention (tell everyone else in your household to do the same). Also request that they remove your address and demand that they don't call again. That collections agent will then refer that account back to their trace department. Their trace department, in turn, will then find it much harder to trace back to you because they'll need much stronger confirmation before they can do that. And even if they do trace back to you, just do the same thing again. Each time it goes back to their trace department it gets harder and harder for their tracers to trace it back to an address they've already traced before. And, while the account is stuck in their trace department, they're not able to collect from you.