"Guaranteed Telecom" / "Zoom" - ongoing scam???

mike160304

This company phoned me about a "nuisance call barring" service and somehow got enough information out of me (I know, I know!!!) to send me a letter saying that they were setting up a Direct Debit on my bank account. Per the phonecall, to take one payment only of £21.99.
The letter is from "Guaranteed Telecom" but the envelope had on it all the details of a company called "Eazycollect" - "debit debit & payment managing services".
After getting the letter, I checked my bank account and there was no Direct Debit. I discussed this at length with Lloyds on the phone and they could only tell me to watch out for any Direct Debit and cancel it.
Why could they not block it in advance?
I submitted a report to Action Fraud Police online.
Today I looked again and the Direct Debit was there, with a reference code starting "ZOOM-MT" and a number. No money had been taken and I cancelled the Direct Debit.
I phoned my bank and told them what had happened. They said that the Direct Debit could not be set up again, but what if these people come back under a different name?
I phoned all 3 of the "Guaranteed Telecom" phone numbers mentioned on the letter and none of them worked.
Then, many hours later, a person phoned me to find out why I had called and I told him. To cut a long story short, he said that I cannot cancel this "service" (nuisance call barring?) unless I pay a "cancellation fee".
At this point I told him that I shall discuss this with my bank and he rang off - not in a rude way, he certainly had a convincing way of telling a story.
I need to do something to stop them getting at my bank account again - any suggestions, please?
Mike

mac.d

You've contacted your bank, cancelled the direct debit and reported it to Action Fraud, so not much else you can do but continue to keep an eye on your account.

There's already a thread on this dodgy outfit:

Zoom Telecom advice please

mike160304

mac.d wrote: »

You've contacted your bank, cancelled the direct debit and reported it to Action Fraud, so not much else you can do but continue to keep an eye on your account.

There's already a thread on this dodgy outfit:

Zoom Telecom advice please

Thank you,
I am meeting a bank manager this morning for an "internal switch" of the bank account so that it dies and is reborn with different details.
Mike

mike160304

PS - Yes, I had already read the other thread, but "Guaranteed Telecom" was not mentioned. I got the "Zoom" bit from the reference number of the Direct Debit they had set up.
Mike

mac.d

If you take another look at that linked thread, from post #23 onwards (starting in 2018) they've clearly started using the Guaranteed Telecom name instead of Zoom, and there's a post by Colin_Maybe that confirms they and Zoom are the same company.

Bill_Gensheet

They are al the same company, Guaranteed Telecom, Zoom Telecom and Met Technologies.  Met is the parent, the others are brands.

Been slammed twice now, once by GT for a 'call barring service' where they tried to activate a direct debit using details stolen from the BT customer database and more recently for the phone line.

I had to get OFCOM involved over the phone line to find out which bit I needed to complain about, as an invoice came in from Zoom, not Met.  OFCOM then had to get Openreach to supply the exchange records to get the ultimate supplier which was Met.

The phone line has come back from CEDR/CISAS adjudication as nil to pay for the time they were holding the line and £40 compensation.

It may be of interest to other victims that OFCOM have now opened an investigation into Met etc, so feel free to add your 'experiences'.  As I'm new and cannot post links, just search OFCOM for case   'cw_01250'

Bill