Catalogue Fraud - Catalogue demanding repayment

camuk81

Morning all,

Bit of help needed for a friend at the school gate.

She has just been speaking about one of her daughter for the purpose of the thread we will call her Daughter H.

H has just come back into the family, She has had a very troubled past and the family has been through more then enough. Thing were going fine even with the other daughter K.

They have had to kick H back out of the family home but in the meantime she has opened catalogues in K name. As she was living at the property she had the items delivered to the family home paying extra for an am delivery as she knew no one would be at home.

Now that H has bunked they have discovered daughter K is being chased by Very for £500.

I have asked and there is a crime reference number however Very are demanding that the amount be repaid even though its fraud. The H daughter already has over £400 worth of debt so Very are willing to transfer it to her name if the H daughter speaks to them, the operative phrase is "pigs will fly"

Any hints and tips guys.

wants.to.be.debt.free

so sorry to hear that,

Sorry i can't offer any advise, but good luck in getting the debt tranferred.

Could daughter k ring up and pretend to be daughter h?

camuk81

I don't think so.

Plus with the police involved on several other matters I think it would cause more problems.

bargainbetty

Two options - pay the debt and learn the lesson to not trust H, or report H for fraud to the police, give the crime reference to Very and let H learn a harsh lesson when she gets caught.

Pretending to be H is a bad idea - drags it down to her level and removes any credibility K might have in the eyes of the creditor.

Good luck x

the_cat

Well if they already have a crime number then the police are already involved. They should be able to advise as to what the correct thing to do is

VERY seem to be trying it on tbh. A debt taken out fraudulently is not enforceable (except against the perpetrator) and they would be laughed out of court if they tried. What they are effectively hoping to do is 'pass the debt' onto a family member in the hope of getting off scott free!As I understand it, no one but daughter H is liable to pay it back

Just ignore them and they'll go away. If they are stupid enough not to, then allow them to take it to court, incur their fees and then get told to take a running jump by the judge!

camuk81

Thats what I thought Cat, is there any legislation she can throw back in their face. I can see both sides of it but still its fraud and she shouldn't have to pay it

simon_mdp

Beware. It's very common for people to open up their catalogues/cards/accounts to others (family, friends, relatives) and then shout 'fraud' when the family/friend/relative takes advantage. The companies and Courts are wise to this and the onus of proof is usually on the account holder to show that they didn't willingly partake.

You should try and preserve any proof you can get that everything was done without the knowledge of the named account holder - this can be very difficult in families where siblings generally know each others birth dates, have the same mother's maiden name etc. but if it was a brand new account only opened after the 'offender' moved in that's probably a good start.

Best Regards

VitaK

Do keep an eye on your credit file, just incase.

camuk81

Thats the exact scenario, there is a lot behind the scenes and because its so personal I have to very cryptic due to this being a public forum,

Had another chat at school and they would rather pay the money then let it go to court due to other stress that is ongoing

DVardysShadow

camuk81 wrote: »

... Had another chat at school and they would rather pay the money then let it go to court due to other stress that is ongoing

But this will leave late payments, defaults and the rest of it against K's name. And she will have to live with this for 6 more years.

edgex

camuk81 wrote: »

Thats the exact scenario, there is a lot behind the scenes and because its so personal I have to very cryptic due to this being a public forum,

Had another chat at school and they would rather pay the money then let it go to court due to other stress that is ongoing

presumably K is over 18?

therefore its not up to the family what to do, its her name, her credit file
its therefore her decision


does she know the consequences that will affect her if they dont deal with the fraud?