Anyone heard of a claim management company called ifonic?

Humdinger33

I was fooled? by these 4 days ago, but felt to investigate them today - very glad I did. they had already charged my credit card, so I will be on to the bank first thing in the morning, and have written a letter of cancellation to send recorded post tomorrow morning. Since I am within the 14 days cooling off period the contract i signed states I am entitled to this validation fee being fully refunded. I was not at any point in the phone call told I would be charged in advance of the claim being successful.

I do feel a bit stupid having being tricked into giving my credit card details I guess we live and learn. Nothings ever that easy eh.

I will send the letter to the Ministry of Justice also, try to stop it happening to other people.

Has anyone on here had their money back yet?? I have stated in my letter I expect it to be refunded within 14 days of the date of my letter, otherwise I will take further action.

thanks

magpiecottage

Go to your credit card provider and tell them that it was an unauthorised payment. (Which it was).

Also, report it as an advanced fee fraud to ActionFraud.

dunstonh

I do feel a bit stupid having being tricked into giving my credit card details I guess we live and learn. Nothings ever that easy eh.

There are so many cold calling scams going on at the moment. I get called by a couple a week. A rule of thumb is to assume that all cold calls are scams unless proven otherwise. If you dont act on a cold call you wont get scammed via phone methods.

Froggitt

Indeed. Like the call from Microsoft (obvious scam) alerting me my computer was about to stop working. Told them I had covered my body in melted butter and could she start talking dirty now.

Humdinger33

Cancelled credit card. Check
Called Ifonic and cancelled agreement.Check
Reported to Action Fraud. Check

Ifonic - hmm not overly helpful at my request to cancel, and not impressed with my reason - I told them I felt I had been mislead, and that at no point had I agreed to or understood a fee would be taken in advance. They insisted they had made this clear. Not so. Promised a refund within 30 days. Advisor tried to say that I might be charged for any work already carried out, but I quoted to him from the contract I signed with them that agreements cancelled within 14 days are entitled to full refund of any fees charged. HA!

I can't post the link to the Ministry of Justice's page (since I am a new user) but there is a page stating "Cerys-Angharad Ltd is being investigated by the Claims Management Regulator under regulation 35 of The Compensation (Claims Management Services) Regulations 2006."

For me.. lesson learnt.. never going to do that again!

Lilcamper

Just had a call from these chancers, I refused to give my card details and went on google and found this thread, needless to say I was pretty quick in ending the call. Thanks.

Bobbylanka

I received a cold call from a company called Ifonic Claims 166/167 St Helens Road, Swansea, SA1 4DQ.
During the call the representative said that I would be able to submit 9 claims against various lenders and credit card companies I have had dealings with in the past.
They also said I could submit a claim against my current bankers for bank charges and excess interest rates on my overdraft facility.
During the call I was passed from an "assessor" to a "senior advisor" Nathan Donovan and then to a claims manager. During the call with Nathan he asked for my debit card details ie the long number, expiry date and security number saying they were the access codes for the claim. I was assured that no charges would be made against the account, however when I was passed to the claim manager he was aware that I I did not have £890.00 in my account and said they would try to reduce the fee for me.
I became very suspicious and terminated the call, having made it clear they were to take nothing from my account and that I did not wish to proceed with the claim.
I feel this company must be fully investigated for their misleading practices.

dunstonh

They also said I could submit a claim against my current bankers for bank charges and excess interest rates on my overdraft facility.

Thats a new scam reason. They really like coming up with new ways to get their advance fee up.

however when I was passed to the claim manager he was aware that I I did not have £890.00 in my account and said they would try to reduce the fee for me.

your bank balance is not in the public domain (like most of your details). So, how did he know that?

I feel this company must be fully investigated for their misleading practices.

Yes. It is becoming clear through multiple posts made by different people that they are being scammed.

jamesd

Immediately phone your bank and tell them that you have not authorised that company to charge your card and under the Payment Services Regulations want your bank to block any attempts by them to charge you.

Also tell them that you are concerned that fraudulent transactions may be attempted by other firms as a result of the card details being known and ask your bank to block your card and issue you with a replacement.

The only way they could know that you do not have that much money in your account without guessing is by trying to charge you and having the charge refused. Since you've given them the card details they can try again whenever they feel like it unless you do something now to prevent that.

Froggitt

If they are not taking the payment while you are on the phone, then they must be storing the card details somehow.....either writing down, or putting in an email or Word document, or onto a system.

Those forms of storing card details are against Payment Card industry standards, unless they have the required controls in place for storing card data. If they don't, they can be fined upto $100,000 per month.