Steps to take if you have been ripped-off by a copy-cat government website

hpuse

If anyone ended up getting a court letter, please note the following points:

All those letters saying "legal action" / pre-action etc from a copycat companies are most likely simple scare tactics.

If you've ended up with court claims proceeding letterfrom HM Courts & Tribunals, then please read and take actions as suggested below:

- Firstly, DO NOT make or attempt to make a payment
- Call the county court issuing the letter by looking up their number from directory by clicking this link
- Request them to confirm a court letter with the claims reference number. They will ask your details and their details (i.e Copycat claimant companies) to verify with the claims reference number on their system.

- Note: After verifying, fill in the details requested and send the claims form back to the court issuing the letter as required, do not send them to copycat's office address. Include as much details as possible as requested in the claims forum.

- Wait for your hearing letter to arrive (normally within 28 days)

-If the claimant (i.e the Copycat company) has submitted details to support the claim, the court will decide to proceed with the claims/hearings. Otherwise the case will be put on hold and removed from the system within 28 days. You will not be required to pay.

Again, please note - what they want and desperate for is your money - not court proceedings.
It takes only £25 and a phone call to start processing a small claim (MCOL).
They have probably issued a MCOL to few customers and sending the same letter to scare others.

Since these criminals have your address, they know that if they send 100 letters out - there is a chance at least 20 will pay. So please DO NOT PAY, stick to the MCOL claims process.

Once again, remember this:

The guys who are running these websites and issuing threat letters are sailing very close to all the boundaries of legal trading activities.
Before they disappear completely, they are desperate for your money. That is what they are trying to get from you. They are neither going to appear in a legal establishment like HM Court nor going to continue trading as copycats. They know for a fact that that last nail is coming on their coffin, so they just want to get as much money as they can before they go on exile and start another nasty online trade like copycatting.

Mar2505

Thank you for this hpuse

fermi

Another "alleged" court claim form.

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?58752-UK-Services-amp-Support-Ltd-Passport-Scam&p=510445#post510445

Got a Claim Form through recently so they are now following up on their threats. Not going to go into detail here as I know the low lifes from this business read this forum and probably post here too. I'm glad it has got to this as I see this as an opportunity to really stress test their business model in a court of law. No aspect of their business will be left unchallenged believe me. If I lose no sweat but this has really got under my skin now and I doubt they've come up against anyone with as deep pockets and access to resources to deal with this that I possess.

hpuse

fermi wrote: »

Another "alleged" court claim form.

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?58752-UK-Services-amp-Support-Ltd-Passport-Scam&p=510445#post510445

The problem is, these copycat scumbags has learned how to 'mass engineer' sentiments using online forums and social media.

Last year, it was the legality of these sites - this year, it is small claims!..

That is one of the reason why this thread has 100+ pages.

HM Courts & Tribunals is probably going to take 6 months to study these cases....:rotfl:

keyser666

hpuse wrote: »

If anyone ended up getting a court letter, please note the following points:

All those letters saying "legal action" / pre-action etc from a copycat companies are most likely simple scare tactics.

If you've ended up with court claims proceeding letterfrom HM Courts & Tribunals, then please read and take actions as suggested below:

- Firstly, DO NOT make or attempt to make a payment
- Call the county court issuing the letter by looking up their number from directory by clicking this link
- Request them to confirm a court letter with the claims reference number. They will ask your details and their details (i.e Copycat claimant companies) to verify with the claims reference number on their system.

- Note: After verifying, fill in the details requested and send the claims form back to the court issuing the letter as required, do not send them to copycat's office address. Include as much details as possible as requested in the claims forum.

- Wait for your hearing letter to arrive (normally within 28 days)

-If the claimant (i.e the Copycat company) has submitted details to support the claim, the court will decide to proceed with the claims/hearings. Otherwise the case will be put on hold and removed from the system within 28 days. You will not be required to pay.

Again, please note - what they want and desperate for is your money - not court proceedings.
It takes only £25 and a phone call to start processing a small claim (MCOL).
They have probably issued a MCOL to few customers and sending the same letter to scare others.

Since these criminals have your address, they know that if they send 100 letters out - there is a chance at least 20 will pay. So please DO NOT PAY, stick to the MCOL claims process.

Once again, remember this:

The guys who are running these websites and issuing threat letters are sailing very close to all the boundaries of legal trading activities.
Before they disappear completely, they are desperate for your money. That is what they are trying to get from you. They are neither going to appear in a legal establishment like HM Court nor going to continue trading as copycats. They know for a fact that that last nail is coming on their coffin, so they just want to get as much money as they can before they go on exile and start another nasty online trade like copycatting.

Infacutual as usual. Quoted for posterity.

The court wont put the claim on hold and then remove it within 28 days.

No mention of a request to local court, so you suggest that maybe some defendants pay and travel from 100s of miles away eh?

I'll let you confer with your friends at google before you edit your post as you usually do. Your post is a load of !!!!!!!! and poor advice, cant be arsed to pick through the rest of it

hpuse

keyser666 wrote: »

Infacutual as usual. Quoted for posterity.

The court wont put the claim on hold and then remove it within 28 days.

No mention of a request to local court, so you suggest that maybe some defendants pay and travel from 100s of miles away eh?

I'll let you confer with your friends at google before you edit your post as you usually do. Your post is a load of !!!!!!!! and poor advice, cant be arsed to pick through the rest of it

You may want to understand how MCOL works...
There is no requirement as such for a defendant to travel to a county court for hearing. However, the claimant (i.e the copycat company in this case) must ensure that the claim is progressing - so he or she may be required to travel. Thanks for your feedback though, Keyser666

hpuse

Also Keyser666, for your reference

esmerellda

Just to amend a couple bits on hpuse's post for those concerned. Hope that is okay with Hpuse just want to make sure it is absolutely the right info.

---

If anyone ended up getting a court claim, please note the following points:

All those letters saying "legal action" / pre-action etc from a copycat companies are most likely simple scare tactics.

If you've ended up with AN ACTUAL court claim form (N1) from HM Courts & Tribunals, then please read and take actions as suggested below:

- Firstly, DO NOT make or attempt to make a payment or contact the claimant at this stage.
- Call the county court issuing the N1 by finding their telephone number if it isn't given on the documents you receive (google or HMCS site) eg https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/courts/
- Give them the CLAIM NUMBER from the top right of the form and ask them to check it is genuine and was issued by them.

If it is genuine, then complete the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SERVICE form by ticking 'I intend to defend in full ' and returning it to THE COURT. If the claim is from the Northampton County Court Business Centre you will be able to acknowledge the claim online at https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome ( and don't worry if it got to a hearing it would be transferred to a court local to you - that comes later AFTER you have entered a defence - ALSO if you tick intend to defend then later decide to admit and offer/negotiate then that's fine, it doesn't hold you to defending)

This extends the time you have to sort out a defence from 14 days from the day you got the form, to 28 days. This means they can't get a default judgment against you and you have time to request information and build a defence, or decide to negotiate payment.

Make a new thread on here or on LB (or take this info to see a CAB adviser ) with

1) a scan of the claim form with your personal details redacted - or type out the section called 'PARTICULARS OF CLAIM'.
2) The Date of Issue
3) The Amount claimed
4) A description of how you came to get a claim - what you did on the website, whether you actually had any service from them, whether you felt you had been mislead, etc. If you have letters/emails cancelling the service/disputing the invoices etc redact and post those. Basically as much info as possible to help form a defence. You need to show you didn't enter into a contract to pay the sum claimed, or that you were mislead into entering into the contract.
5) A Little bit about your personal circs, ie if a CCJ would be a life destroying issue or if you couldn't care one way or other you just want to fight the !!!!!!s.

Then others can help you through asking for evidence, documentation etc from the Claimants and forming your defence and dealing with court from there.


I hope that helps, it's impossible to say do X, then do Y, then Z will happen as every case is different and depends massively on exact individual circumstances.

hpuse

Thanks esmerellda/Amethyst.
You post is the best definition for a creative contribution.

Please feel free to copy/modify the info on LegalBeagles if more posters come for help from copycat legal threats.

I am really sad to say - very few people like your goodself with a helping mindset exists in these forums.
Most of them are implanted with an 'attitude-chip' on their shoulders.

bod1467

So how many different people have you helped in this forum, hpuse? How many different threads have you posted on to help people? Have any of them responded to thank you? (And I don't mean clicking the Thanks button).

You show yourself for what you are by highlighting ONE of my posts in THIS thread only.