Would Halifax Ever Chase This Debt?

money-4-nothing

About 4 years ago my brother who was 16 years old at the time got sucked into a eBay scam. He was selling a guitar amp and the winning bidder sent him a cheque for £1000 more then it should of been, it turns out the winning bidder had been in contact with him several times (without telling us). He wanted him to send the rest minus a £100 fee for himself to a mate of his abroad.

You can see where I'm going with this can't you. Your typical money laundering scam.

I told him not to deposit the cheque and to send it back but he was a stupid 16 year old kid and thought he could put it in his bank and keep all the cash.

Well anyway, my brother only had a basic bank account with no overdraft and no way of him going overdrawn (being only 16 at the time). He put the cheque in his bank account and it cleared a week later and the money showed as available. That very morning he when on a online spending spree spending nearly £500 before his bank account got LOCKED a few hours later.

He got a letter saying his bank had been LOCKED and he needed to go in with ID and a letter and some id from the person who sent him the cheque. He never bothered contacting them or going down and his next bank statement gave his balance as -£490.

Now they have never contacted him since or asked about the money.

Is it that they have just written off the debt because he was under age at the time.

RAS

He needs to do his credit checks with all three agencies, see the link at the top of the page. If the debt is held against him, it should show up.

They can chase him any time up to 6 years after the incident.

I do not know if they would hold any internal records that might flag up if he tried to open another account with a linked company, and I am not sure that doing a Subject Access Request to find out would help him.

tallyhoh

Isnt there something about not being able to make a contract with someone under 18 or at least not being able to enforce it.

Its been a long time but I remember the test case was something to do with an embroidered waistcoat (no- i have not been sniffing anything) whether the fancy stitching was necessary??

BWZN93

By not contacting the bank your brother may well have been implicated in fraud, and reported so that if he tries to open another bank account, it would show up as prior fraudulent use and would be rejected everywhere.

Your brother should have reported it to the police too.

P.S You have to be at least 18 to register with ebay - does he have his own account ot use yours?

money-4-nothing

jw1096 wrote: »

By not contacting the bank your brother may well have been implicated in fraud, and reported so that if he tries to open another bank account, it would show up as prior fraudulent use and would be rejected everywhere.

Your brother should have reported it to the police too.

P.S You have to be at least 18 to register with ebay - does he have his own account ot use yours?

He opened a bank account with Barclays a few years after no questions asked.

Years ago you could signup to ebay with a solo card which he had, not sure if he used a fake DOB or not.... he must of thinking about it.

msmicawber

tallyhoh wrote: »

Its been a long time but I remember the test case was something to do with an embroidered waistcoat

Nope, you're not losing it - I remember that too from basic contract. Some toff ended up not having to pay his tailor's bill because he'd been under 18 at the time. It still holds true.