Next Directory fraudulent account: get my MP/FSA involved?

QuietCorday

Oh, never mind.

If I known I would get jackals at my throat, I would never have posted.

chanz4

When you find the fraudster, ask them for compo

meer53

QuietCorday wrote: »

Oh, never mind.

If I known I would get jackals at my throat, I would never have posted.

Jackals at your throat :eek:

Take a moment out of your drama filled life to think about why no-one has rushed to agree with you.

izools

I agree with OP that Next shouldn't have opened the account.

First off OP, Next search Equifax, not Experian, hence why you can't see the search - you're looking at your Experian file.

Anyway, Next will have had proof from the results of their credit check that OP didn't live there:

1) No active accounts at the address given in the application
2) No active, only historical electoral role registration data at said address
3) Links to a new, alternative address at which there are active accounts

With this information to hand they have absolutely been negligent in opening an account at the address provided by the fraudster as each point by itself should cause doubt, the three together leave absolutely no doubt that OP no longer resides there.

As such you absolutely have grounds for a formal complaint and compensation to cover their negligence IMHO and if they don't cough up take it to the FOS.

rb10

QuietCorday wrote: »

We were in the process of buying a house; we had had an offer accepted and a mortgage in principle. Then my credit score is signficantly reduced by this Next fraudulent entry, and my mortgage advisor tells me to sort out it out before I make a full application as the entry might adversely affect the final decision in the current lending climate.

I don't think the advice you got here is necessarily the best. It might have been better to either

1. Go through with the application, and appeal if necessary, giving the information as part of the appeal; or

2. Add a Notice of Correction to your credit file. This would have allowed you to explain the situation so that the lender saw it before making a decision.

Ultimately it's too late for this now anyway.

I agree with Izools above that there should have been flags that would have identified to Next that it was a fraudulent application. I expect that it'll be a challenging battle to get admission from them.

lucy03

QuietCorday wrote: »

Oh, never mind.

If I known I would get jackals at my throat, I would never have posted.

Personally I think it is fair to expect Next to correct the situation in a reasonable time period, and someone there should be honest with you about their proposed time-scales. I'd have thought if you explain to them any costs you've incurred in calls, postage and so on, they might agree to a certain level of compensation, maybe 50 pounds or so.

Contacting your MP isn't actually a bad idea. They won't generally get involved in legal disputes, but sometimes just having a letter with the House of Commons envelope arriving gets something resolved quicker. Or the MP might forward on the letter to an agency which they feel can help.

I wouldn't personally advise legal action to claim emotional stress, it can be time-consuming and emotionally draining, and although you'd need to get a solicitor to ascertain your chances, I suspect it might be likely to fail or get small rewards.

QuietCorday

izools wrote: »

I agree with OP that Next shouldn't have opened the account.

First off OP, Next search Equifax, not Experian, hence why you can't see the search - you're looking at your Experian file.

Anyway, Next will have had proof from the results of their credit check that OP didn't live there:

1) No active accounts at the address given in the application
2) No active, only historical electoral role registration data at said address
3) Links to a new, alternative address at which there are active accounts

With this information to hand they have absolutely been negligent in opening an account at the address provided by the fraudster as each point by itself should cause doubt, the three together leave absolutely no doubt that OP no longer resides there.

As such you absolutely have grounds for a formal complaint and compensation to cover their negligence IMHO and if they don't cough up take it to the FOS.

Thank you.

I could not understand how on earth they could open the account from a legal perspective. It is obvious from my file that I have not lived at that address for years. I feel that maybe they just opened the account anyway, regardless, and that really angers me, considering the distress it has caused at such a time.

I found, and still do find, the whole situation rather frightening, particularly as it came at a very nerve-wracking time for us in trying to buy our first house. I was terrified that the default on my file might mean our formal application was rejected -- I know of a number of people who have got a mortgage in principle, then failed in a formal application recently -- it seems like lenders are using any excuse -- which then would have been a mountain of hassle to explain if we attempted to apply for another mortgage. My advisor suggested that we sort out the problem first, which I thought would be a matter of a few days. Alas ... no.

I am gutted over the situation as I took precautions when I left the address, and actually checked my credit file a year later to make sure I hadn't been a victim of fraud because I knew we wanted to save for a house and would need excellent credit in the following years. It never occurred to me someone might find a way to use those details seven years later -- such a thing seems absurd. I can only suspect some fraudsters are maybe trawling old electoral registers, but then how would they get my name in the first place?

It bothers me because it was so obviously a fraudulent application, yet Next/the debt agency are asking me to prove at my own cost that it is not me (even the birth date and the title is wrong, which has caused issues in trying to get them to discuss the situation over the phone).

And what they request as evidence, in itself, I find rather alarming from a personal data point of view. I actually have very little to send them as almost everything is done online now and my OH's name is on most of our bills. I have ended up having to redact and copy very private financial certificates to prove my address, and I am unhappy with a debt agency processing sensitive financial documents with my name, address and details of products and banks on them, along with their system having other details about me on file -- but it was either that or sending them the probate letters about my grandfather's will, which I simply was not prepared to do.

I feel, in a sense, that this all consitutes a violation of my privacy and personal data (the agency demanded to know where I worked, my work number, my mobile number etc before they would even tell me it was about a debt), and has caused undue stress and upset (they have still telephoned and text messaged me, despite there being some sort of halt on the account).

Initially, the debt agency wouldn't even tell me why they were calling until I provided more personal details (I stupidly thought they were a property company at first). They even phoned my parents before anything came from them through the post -- so the whole thing came completely out of the blue.

The thing is if this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone that hasn't set up alerts, passwords etc on their credit file, and who does not monitor it regularly -- and this is what I find so inexcusable. I would have understood it had it been a year or two after I moved from the address, but after so much time?

Had my parents forgotten about the call, or not realised, would these guys have started legal proceedings? Sent a baliff round to my parents? Started giving them funny phone calls?

redpete

I'm surprised your mortgage advisor told you to delay the application. The lender would not see your score go from "excellent" to "fair", they would see the information in the record, including the fraudulent account. I would expect the advisor to be able to explain this to the lender and to point to the measures you have taken to get your record corrected.

It's also a bit confusing that you are complaining about the evidence that you are being asked to provide to get the record corrected whilst at the same time complaining about information going onto your record without proper checks.

QuietCorday

lucy03 wrote: »

Personally I think it is fair to expect Next to correct the situation in a reasonable time period, and someone there should be honest with you about their proposed time-scales. I'd have thought if you explain to them any costs you've incurred in calls, postage and so on, they might agree to a certain level of compensation, maybe 50 pounds or so.

Contacting your MP isn't actually a bad idea. They won't generally get involved in legal disputes, but sometimes just having a letter with the House of Commons envelope arriving gets something resolved quicker. Or the MP might forward on the letter to an agency which they feel can help.

I wouldn't personally advise legal action to claim emotional stress, it can be time-consuming and emotionally draining, and although you'd need to get a solicitor to ascertain your chances, I suspect it might be likely to fail or get small rewards.

I wasn't thinking of starting legal action, but more writing to the CEO and asking the company to reimburse my costs, and say that I would like compensation for the way their negligence has impacted on my life at this time.

The reason why I felt like contacting my MP is that I cannot believe it is legal to open credit accounts in such circumstances, nor can I believe the burden of proof is on the innocent party in the first instance. Can you imagine the impact of something like this on a pensioner? Or a student that could not prove residency of another address?

The thing that surprised me was that a family member was a victim of identity fraud, and the bank looked into it and refunded the amount taken within a day. No questions asked. Yet I have to prove my innocence when it is blatantly clear it is not me.

QuietCorday

redpete wrote: »

I'm surprised your mortgage advisor told you to delay the application. The lender would not see your score go from "excellent" to "fair", they would see the information in the record, including the fraudulent account. I would expect the advisor to be able to explain this to the lender and to point to the measures you have taken to get your record corrected.

It's also a bit confusing that you are complaining about the evidence that you are being asked to provide to get the record corrected whilst at the same time complaining about information going onto your record without proper checks.

I think it was the presence of the default entry on my account. It was a bit of a tense time as the vendor and his agent were being a little touchy about the fact we had gone with HSBC (they were a bit funny about Countrywide; apparently they can take a long time) and he wanted to sell the place quickly (he had reduced signficantly: the reason why we could afford it ).

I thought the process would be simple and strightforward (I have been planning for it to be so for years) and the HSBC/Countrywide thing threw a spanner in the works a bit. Then the Next Directory thing pops up. The experian people said it would take seven days for a notice to appear on the account, I didn't want to apply formally before that went on (my advisor agreed), and the vendor just said no and flogged it to a cash buyer.

I think my complaint about evidence is that I am having to pay in time and money for their neglience (in a strange way, they have passed partial costs onto me), and I am having to supply rather private documents to a unfamiliar agency that couldn't even be bothered to do a simple check on an application address (again, I am doing the work they should have done in the beginning, and giving away far more personal data than would have otherwise been requested).

Again, there are issues in that I did not approach them; I have no valid agreement, contract or relationship with them; I did not request their goods or services; yet they have put false information on my credit file (I actually thought you needed a credit agreement with a signature on it to do this) and they demand I send them personal documents.

To me, this seems very wrong, and strangely akin to some forms of exortion (indeed, it could be considered exortion if you consider my personal data and information as my *property*). I do wonder whether there is a reason why this kind of thing has happened -- is there a bonus culture for new credit accounts? Are they insured for fraud losses in a way that makes it viable to pass the costs of fraud checks back onto the victim of identity fraud?