Harassed for payment of someone else's debt

Peter606

My daughter has received two letters from Reston solicitors in last two weeks acting on behalf of Capquest Investment Ltd. The original creditor being Shop Direct and littlewoods.
they are threatening legal action. In both they state amongst other things that their clients may accept an offer of a small er payment. the original Debt apparently being £679.37

My daughter is at her wits end with worry. She has NEVER bought anything from these companies and NEVER shops on-line.

I am trying to help but not sure what to do. It appears someone mayve opened an account in her name but how could they do that?

There is a number to ring 01925 426100 with a reference number.

Should my daughter just ignore these letters? is it a scam?

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

National_Debtline

Hi Peter606,


Your daughter should not ignore this if her name is on the correspondence. If she has never used these companies and is concerned this is case of someone using her name fraudulently, or mistake identity she should write back to Reston's with the 'provit' letter. It states that she has no idea what they are talking about and that she wants them to prove this is hers before it goes any further.


From there she may need to report the matter to Action Fraud (the UK's National Fraud reporting centre) if it appears she has been the victim of identity theft.

Try not to panic. This is just a debt collector and not a bailiff, and they should put everything on hold whilst it is in dispute.


Laura
@natdebtline

ethranes

I had an issue like this, I phoned the company, told them it isn't my debt, and that was that, no more letters.

Stevie_Palimo

Action fraud about as useful as a paper coat in the rain.

Now sending a prove it letter is okay but be prepared for a battle with them as they will argue this is her until they are blue in the face so you need to be as heavy handed in your contact with them so that they realise you will not just roll over and pay up.

sourcrates

Just one thing to add to the above.

Under no circumstances ring this company, keep everything in writing.

On the phone they can (and do) threaten, and lie to you (oh yes they do) and generally say things they would never put in writing, so stay off the phone, keep it in writing only, no matter what they may say to you.

Do not expect them to be helpful, they have no interest in anything else but getting the money from you, they wont be interested in the fact its not her debt, so, as said above, be prepared for a battle.

Peter606

Thanks ever so much for those prompt replies.
I was wondering whether i should be a helpful parent and ring them direct.
One other thing- both the letters refer to different account numbers but bizarrely both
for the same amount.
In the second letter it wants my daughter to reply by 11th April or visit their website restons.co.uk and fill in an online financial statement. I am sure my daughter should NOT do that.
Just to add that the letter isnt signed or named but just with Restons as a signature that appears handwritten or stamped with Restons Solicitors Ltd typed underneath.
Does a ltter have to be signed by a person to be legal. I have no idea.

Sorry I did not mention all this before but i just wanted to get across initially what the problem was.

My daughter does not live at home either.She worls and lives in rented room in London.

Any firther advice most welcomed. Thank you

StopIt

As above, do not call them.


You might be calling in good faith, but these DCA's do not know the meaning of the term.


Use the Prove-It letter linked above, make sure that it has nothing to do with yourselves and dispute it that way.


No, a letter doesn't have to be signed by a person to be legal, if you read that or any other misleading advice like "DCAs can't take you to court because they bought your debt and aren't the creditor" it isn't correct!


They can, and will take you to court if you don't respond, but don't call them, that is their playground so don't give them the pleasure.

Silvertabby

The initial contact should be National Debtline's 'provit' letter.

Chances are Reston have used Experian Search (or similar) and your daughter is the nearest match they could find to the real debtor. They don't care if they've got the wrong person if they can scare them into paying up!

sourcrates

Peter606 wrote: »

Thanks ever so much for those prompt replies.
I was wondering whether i should be a helpful parent and ring them direct.
One other thing- both the letters refer to different account numbers but bizarrely both
for the same amount.
In the second letter it wants my daughter to reply by 11th April or visit their website restons.co.uk and fill in an online financial statement. I am sure my daughter should NOT do that.
Just to add that the letter isnt signed or named but just with Restons as a signature that appears handwritten or stamped with Restons Solicitors Ltd typed underneath.
Does a ltter have to be signed by a person to be legal. I have no idea.

Sorry I did not mention all this before but i just wanted to get across initially what the problem was.

My daughter does not live at home either.She worls and lives in rented room in London.

Any further advice most welcomed. Thank you

A signature is not required to "make it legal" no.

Send the provit letter, see what comes back from them.

Next step after that would be to report it to action fraud, if you/she thinks its fraudulent, they may be useless, but its the correct procedure to follow.

If Restons are still demanding payment, you then write back denying the debt is hers, inform them its a case of identity fraud, and you have informed action fraud.

You may want to do a little digging yourself as to the origins of this debt, catalogue accounts usually send things to different addresses, at some point the person perpetrating the fraud, has to pick up the goods, how did they get your daughters details ?

Usually its someone close to home that is the culprit.