Universal Tax Credits Scam

JohnAllan

She didn't give out her NI number. She also didn't verify through gov.uk, just through the post office website.

Comms69

JohnAllan wrote: »

She didn't give out her NI number. She also didn't verify through gov.uk, just through the post office website.

It's irrelevant, she supplied sufficient details for the fraud to happen

[Deleted User]

JohnAllan wrote: »

My partner is one of many scam victims and it can happen to anyone if they're mislead. She wasnt aware of what was being done on her behalf and was betrayed by an old friend. The scammers set up the account themselves on gov.uk and didn't actually explain what they are doing. Yes, she's learned a lesson regarding personal information, but that's been done now and the process of recovering the debt has began.

Update:

7. We have rang Universal Tax Credits again, pushing for options. They provided us with a telephone number for the 'Benefit Fraud Hotline' part of UC. Perfect. Rang those guys, very helpful. Took all the information about the scam and submitted it to UC with a reference number. We now just have to wait for the benefit fraud team to contact us back, and in the meantime we have to call UC again and give them the ref nunber, which will then put the repayment on hold.

For anyone in the same situation call the Benefit Fraud Hotline on 0800 854 4400

She wasnt aware of what was being done on her behalf and was betrayed by an old friend.

Really? It was originally a "'friend of a friend" who now is "an old friend".

On the 12th September 2019 my partner was scammed by a ‘friend’ of a friend and I am seeking some help for her.

Just out of interest what exactly did she think was happening?

JohnAllan

It was a friend of a friend who did the scam. The friend betrayed her as he seemed to know about it too as it's came to the surface.

She thought she was getting some free money.

JohnAllan

Not here to be judged on her vunerability. Just seeking some advice on how to resolve it. Thousands of people get scammed. Cant dwell on that. Trying to sort it out...

Blackpool_Saver

Sorry but, after reading more I think this post is a hoax

calcotti

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Sorry but, after reading more I think this post is a hoax

Sadly, it may not be. A huge amount of such fraud has taken place. https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-10-23/4279

BoGoF

JohnAllan wrote: »

Not here to be judged on her vunerability. Just seeking some advice on how to resolve it. Thousands of people get scammed. Cant dwell on that. Trying to sort it out...

Not sure what you want to hear. Your partner was a willing party in the whole process. Pleading ignorance is a poor defence when you financially gained.

sportsarb

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

How is it easy? She gave them all her personal details, and even confirmed her identity online. Doesnt sound that easy! I could apply for a loan with those details, open a bank account...

Also forgive my ignorance but don't DWP payments show as being from the DWP? I know older payments used to have JSA/ESA/DWP in the reference? yet they still transferred a good chunk to some randomer?

How is it easy?

It really doesn't take that much information to be able to get a decent amount of money. You've got to remember this is a system where people have entered the name of children as 'This' 'Is' 'A' 'Scam' with each of those words being the name of a child.

My most recent payment of ESA shows up with my national insurance number and Eesa beside it, I've no idea what UC shows, I have never had a payment of that.

Also, your initial post, I'm not assuming anything about the OP's situation with this, but not everyone is compos mentis. It's easy to be judgemental about people and their actions but I chose not to instantly !!!! on someone.

Having worked in ESA, JSA, IS and with the public dealing with claimants of all those benefits I feel like I have a decent grasp of where issues are in the system. Also briefly worked in UC, initially tried to claim it when I was no longer employed, and through inputting some fairly basic info I could have claimed £374 or so that would have been paid to me instantly.

UC is a !!!! system until its up and running, and even after it is up and running, its not that great either. Too easy to get advances and too long to assess initial payments.

sportsarb

calcotti wrote: »

Sadly, it may not be. A huge amount of such fraud has taken place. https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-10-23/4279

Further to this, a separate question and answer was provided that stated this:

On the 18th September 2019 we brought in changes to the application process for Universal Credit advances to protect innocent people from these scams.

In order to determine whether an individual is liable to repay an advance, we look at the strength of evidence provided. Our investigations play an important part in establishing whether a claimant has had any involvement. In some cases, we will be able to establish that a claimant was entirely innocent and did not benefit from the payment, in which case we would not seek to recover the money from them.

As each case is different and is judged solely on its merits, and as our investigations are still ongoing, it is not possible to accurately estimate the amount individuals could be asked to repay.

This shows that the DWP are aware of an issue and rather than being proactive and trying to solve it, they simply accept that some people have been duped and got no benefit, they don't make those people pay the advance back.

Lets be real, it probably costs them less to write this off than it does to enforce a more robust system, they're balancing risk/reward in such a way that scammers can profit from the system.