Lcs

BrokeStudent91

Hi guys, I'm after some advice:

I have received a letter from LCS debt, saying that I owe Anglian Water £450 for supply at an address I have never even heard of let alone lived in. I do not owe Anglian Water a penny, and the address I currently live in the water bill is not even in my name.

Normally I would not be at all bothered as it is clearly a scam, but this company appears to somehow have my full name and address which is a bit worrying.

I've read some advice not to contact them in any way, should I ignore this, contact them to prove that I have not lived there, or should I bypass them and get in contact with Anglian Water?

Kind Regards,
Dave.

StopIt

Probably a case of mistaken identity. Someone with your name may have lived there and a debt collector has found the nearest Joe Bloggs with that name to try to pay up.


It's called a fishing trip, you and 5 other Joe Bloggs probably got that same letter. It's not a scam though, someone likely with your name but isn't you owes that money to Anglian Water.


Contact Anglian Water, explain where you've lived etc, and get LCS to chase someone else.

BrokeStudent91

Ignore the above - phoned Anglian Water direct. The letter was genuine, they had mixed me up with someone who apparently has the same name as me and are going to sort it out with the debt collectors.

Unbelievable that a company this size can make such a fundamental mistake. I wonder how many John Smiths and others with common names have had this issue...

StopIt

BrokeStudent91 wrote: »

Ignore the above - phoned Anglian Water direct. The letter was genuine, they had mixed me up with someone who apparently has the same name as me and are going to sort it out with the debt collectors.

Unbelievable that a company this size can make such a fundamental mistake. I wonder how many John Smiths and others with common names have had this issue...

It's remarkably common.


These debt collectors have the power of Google, the electoral roll, CRA data, other social media tools but not a lot else. So when they try to match a debt and a name to an actual person living somewhere, they'll fire off letters to anyone matching this.


Yes, if you have a common name, hope that your namesakes don't forget to pay their bills!