Looking for advice...

Tiggy10

Hi all,

Hope this is the right place.

I recently found out a credit card had been taken out in my name that defaulted 5 years ago. Of which i had no idea!

I sent one of the 'prove it' letters from this forum and they sent me the statement from 5 years ago- which basically shows it got taken out, all the cash withdrawn and never paid.

They have also sent me a follow up asking for payment, any advice on what to do next? I dont really want to pay as i know it wasnt me.

jonesMUFCforever

First of all tell them it was not you.
Secondly do you have any idea who did it? Family member, friend or work colleague??
Then report it to the police.

Out of curiosity how did you find out about the application?

chattychappy

How horrible.

Others might have better advice based on experience/knowledge of the processes involved.

I would write back saying that the debt is not yours. I have an address which is often used by fraudsters. In my experience, most of these debt chasing letters never get followed up. But my experience might not be a good guide because of the type of debts involved/the address itself. In this case it might be somebody with the same name who disappeared and they've simply searched records and have found your address. I have heard of this happening even when the DoBs don't match.

I would also get reports from the CRAs and see if this and/or any other spurious debts have been recorded against you.

Tiggy10

Thanks for the replies,

Its only come to light since i moved out. No idea tried to report it to the police but they werent interested - referred me to the cra.

I seem to be going round in circles tbh. But it got sold on to debt collectors recently and im being hounded on a twice weekly basis.

Is there another letter template i can send? Im awful at writing letters.

DCFC79

I'd write to the fos or even call them.

Thrugelmir

Tiggy10 wrote: »

Is there another letter template i can send? Im awful at writing letters.

You'll need to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that it wasn't you that made the application. Your word alone won't suffice.

leeroy2009

Thrugelmir wrote: »

You'll need to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that it wasn't you that made the application. Your word alone won't suffice.

shouldn't it be them trying to prove beyond all doubt that the op did in fact make the application?

boo_star

leeroy2009 wrote: »

shouldn't it be them trying to prove beyond all doubt that the op did in fact make the application?

Correct. The OP can hardly prove they didn't apply.

Report it to http://www.actionfraud.police.uk

They will at least pay some attention.

chattychappy

Thrugelmir wrote: »

You'll need to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that it wasn't you that made the application. Your word alone won't suffice.

Nonsense. At the moment no debt is proven. If the debt collectors want to enforce the debt, they will have to get a judgment and the normal rules will apply. The lender (or those the debt was sold to) will have to prove the debt on the balance of probabilities.

Unless they go to court, debt collectors can't do very much except be a nuisance (though that is clearly causing the OP problems). A separate issue is what the CRAs might have recorded against the OP.

leeroy2009

debt collectors (not court ones) have as much power as the avon lady.

boo_star

leeroy2009 wrote: »

debt collectors (not court ones) have as much power as the avon lady.

The power to be a complete nuisance.