Interview under caution

zunerarizvi

Hi
I have recieved a caution letter from DWP to come for the interview on the 21 Feb. This is regarding a universal credit advance payment which , a person from Facebook conned me as took all my details and said it's a government scheme which they pay people who dont claim benefits and I being very naive about all this .I accepted her offer and gave my details to her and she set up the account and told me that her friend works for DWP and will accept the details.but she wanted commission and I thought as he works in the department that's alright. I dont know how he did it , but I got 1525.44 pounds in my account in 2 hrs .than she said that now transfer 1000 back to her account which I did as her commission .
I didnt know that this was illegitimate or illegal .
But now I have this letter that wrong information has been put to claim these funds which I didnt put in the first place. This was all done by that fraud person.
I have all the chat details and the account details which I have transferred the money to .
Please can you help me as I'm quite stressed out as I didnt do anything , I was conned and misguided . 

calcotti

All you can do is attend the interview and take the information you have.

What has happened is that someone has taken your identity details from you, claimed UC as you and then claimed an advance payment. That advance payment is a loan which is now a debt owed by you to DWP. There have been numerous instances of such fraud. I assume that this happened a while ago because I thought DWP had tightened up procedures to make it more difficult for people to carry out such fraud.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/09/universal-credit-scam-leaves-claimants-pounds-hundreds-out-of-pocket
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/scam-alert-watch-out-for-universal-credit-scammers
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/scam-alert-watch-out-for-universal-credit-scammers
https://revenuebenefits.org.uk/blog/universal-credit-fraudulent-claims-and-advances
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-10-23/4279

Caz3121

scam has been running for some time
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/scam-alert-watch-out-for-universal-credit-scammers
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/police-warning-over-universal-credit-16318494
you may be allowed a payment plan to repay the debt