Wescot Debt Collectors

Loubyloux

Hi All,

I am hoping someone may be able to advise me on this as I am unsure what to do:

I am getting constant phone calls from Wescot which I googled to find are debt collectors, they call when I am at work so have only had voicemails saying to call them quoting a reference.

The concern is that I don't know what they are calling about as I have no outstanding debts (I have debts but all current and being paid on time), they are leaving messages for me in my previous name that I haven't used for 15 years so I am concerned that this isn't my debt but I don't want to call them and give them my current details as I am scared they will just add all that to their file and say it is my debt regardless.

I am assuming they don't have my address as I have not had any letters and I have lived here for several years and all my accounts are transferred to my new name so I can only assume they are either looking for another person with that name or someone has fraudulently used my old details. I am leaning towards a fraud issue as the name is from a previous marriage and so I changed my name and every single account, passport, credit cards etc as soon as I was divorced as I didn't want to use the name and that was almost 15 years ago so if I had missed anything you would have thought they would have found me in the almost 7 years I continued to live at the address where I had used both names.

I have checked my credit file which is all in order and only shows everything I know about which is all up to date.

Sorry that wasn't very succinct!

Exodi

I would personally send a prove-it letter (https://debtcamel.co.uk/prove-it/) to their office with the reference they've given you over the phone.

In reply to some of your comments, you mention you do have outstanding debts but are paying them on time. It may be the case that one of these debts has been sold to Wescot who will be acting as the new owner. They will be bound by the old terms of the agreement so you'd just pay the same amount as you were - just a possibility.

I did get stung by a DCA last year, essentially they'd pulled up my details through a tracing agency and sent it to my house regardless of the middle name, date of birth and 'account address' being different so based on this and countless other threads on the forums, they do send out mass letters to people with the same name hoping someone will bite. Was quite an odd conversation as they were unwilling to discuss the matter with me as I couldn't answer their security questions hahaha!

Willing2Learn

If it were me, I would block their number, so you don't get any more nuisance calls.

The only correspondence that you would need to act upon would be a letter arriving in the post. Phone-calls, texts and emails can all safely be ignored.

sourcrates

Hi,

Just as a heads up again, Wescot don’t buy debts, they just manage them.
There is a lot of false information on the web regarding this, but a quick visit to there website confirms it.

So it’s more likely to be a current debt you have with a creditor, than an old one, prove it letter is the way to find out.

System

2nd that, wescot only manage. A lot easier to deal with than most. Is one of your debts with a bank, natwest?

Exodi

sourcrates wrote: »

Just as a heads up again, Wescot don’t buy debts, they just manage them.

michael32 wrote: »

2nd that, wescot only manage. A lot easier to deal with than most. Is one of your debts with a bank, natwest?

Oh wow, you're both right. I've seen a lot of places indicating they buy debt but their own site says they don't? Thanks for the information.

Loubyloux

Thanks guys for your help, I followed the original advice and blocked the number... I received a letter in the post today.

It is in my previous married name and states it is on behalf of Paypal.

I did previously have missed calls from PayPal which I didn't answer due to being in work and they didn't leave a message so I only know it was them through googling the number.

Thing is that I have a PayPal account and it is the same one I had when I used that name years ago and I have just updated the name on the account over time and I use it frequently, it is not in debt. I don't even know how you get into debt with PayPal?

I will send the prove it letter and see what comes back.

System

Go through your paypal statements and search back as far as possible. I had a similar issue along time ago. I used paypal a lot and normally they would collect money from my bank and forward it to whoever i was paying. I changed my bank details but did not update my paypal account. So when i payed for something, PayPal could not collect the money. So paypal paid out of there pockets. But i was none the wiser because i did not think about updating my paypal account with my new bank card details. Roughly a year later paypal sent a bill for what i owed. At the time paypal only carried out transactions and did not offer credit. So naturally i thought it was a fake letter. I stayed off paypal for sometime and only checked it once a letter came through from a debt collector. So after logging on to paypal i eventually found one transaction that shows paypal paying for my goods. The account balance showed £0.00. Was a simple mistake but it happened to a lot of regular customers.

Might be worth asking paypal to send you statements and ask about what your being told you owe.