Orange asking for debt that I do not owe

delvey

A few years back (possibly around 3), I received a call from orange, asking for my name and address (like a fool, I gave it them). A few days later I received a letter from them saying I owed £200 roughly.
I told them that I had never had an Orange contract, and there is no way I was going to pay. A few arguments later, they told me to go to police and report it as fraud. My reply, was along the lines of "It is you has been the victim of fraud, not me, so I think you should be contacting the police or your own fraud department"
So now, today I receive a letter from Orange attached to another from a debt collection agency saying it has been transferred to them.
I can guarantee that I have never had a contract with them.
What options are available to me? Should I write to Orange or the debt collecting agency? And what should I tell them?

HappyMJ

It's your credit rating being affected so I would ask for the original copy of the contract and any other details regarding payments made so far and bills issued. It could have been someone with the same name as you and they simply found your mobile number somewhere and just rang you. You gave them your address now now they are chasing you.

You can go to the police and report a fraud and you can use that report to make sure your credit file is not affected.

iritchie

As it stands, you'll have a default on your credit record against this, so I would also contact the reference agencies to have this removed.
Ultimately, it will be down to Orange to prove that YOU were the one who took out the contract and in a case of fraud this will be impossible for them.
It's frustrating that you have to waste your time resolving something that has nothing to do with you, but it's in your own interests to get this sorted out once and for all.

McKneff

The credit reference agencies won't remove a default just because you ask them.

The whole case has to be proved that it is indeed not your debt, only then would they remove it.

grumbler

McKneff wrote: »

The whole case has to be proved that it is indeed not your debt, ...

I don't think that it is possible to prove this.

My understanding is that one has to contact the company first and demand the default to be removed.
If to no avail, one complains to CRA that deals with the company in question. And it is the company that has to prove their case, not the customer.

iritchie

McKneff wrote: »

The credit reference agencies won't remove a default just because you ask them.

The whole case has to be proved that it is indeed not your debt, only then would they remove it.

The ones I have dealt with in the past have options for disassociating yourself against an entry and fraud-reporting options.
Obviously you will still have to take things further elsewhere, but Orange have been told specifically that the person in question did not take out a mobile contract with them.
Where was the handset delivered to or the SIM? It should be fairly straightforward for them to work out that this is a genuine mixup or a genuine case of fraud, and if they only got the OP's address by cold-calling and making an association based on nothing else, then they are clearly at fault.

Mixups happen, but you should contact them to see where they got your phone number from and what evidence they had used to associate you to an unpaid contract.

grumbler

iritchie wrote: »

The ones I have dealt with in the past have options for disassociating yourself against an entry

Disassociating is for other persons in the file, not for defaults.

and fraud-reporting options.

Default is not a fraud.
You can add a notice of correction, but it will be ignored by computers and by most humans.

delvey

Thanks for the advice. I will write a letter to them explaining the situation and wait for a response from them. Should I do this for both the debt collectors and orange?

Herongull

It sounds to me (but I'm only a lawperson) as if Orange are acting unlawfully here.

If they have adversely affected your credit rating then this is potentially defamatory.

The onus is on them to prove you owe them money not on you to prove you do not.

Companies are not allowed to harass, bully or threaten innocent people in this way. Otherwise everyone could demand money from everyone else and threaten to ruin their credit rating if they don't pay!

I would make that very clear to them that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable and unlawful.

Herongull

Here is some information from BBC Watchdog about this sort of situation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/01/credit_checks.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/01/the_chase_for_debts_not_always.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/02/ruthbridge_chasing_debts_1.html