PRA Group Letter Help needed

rania2020

Hello 
i have received a letter from PRA grop company claiming that i owe money to HFC Back limited which i never ever had a credit card or an account with, i've checked my score report on two different sites to check if there is a debt that i never settled but i found nothing, one of those sites is Equifax, which i pay them monthly to keep monitoring my status, non of any of the debts i had was with HFC bank, i genuinely have no clue about it at all.
there letter that i've received was:
Dear .......
we havent spoken for some time and have recently been given this address for you. Please get in touch to discuss your account with a member of our team.
contact us using any of the details in the "get in touch" section at the top right of this letter.
if you do not think this letter is intended for you, please let us know. Your sincerely
Carissa Turner
thats it, they only have my name and surname and my address on the letter and on the side of the letter "what you owe to us £242.02, who you owed HFC Bank Limited.
so i wrote them back this letter this morning

Dear Madam

Account No: ...............

You have contacted me regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself.

I would point out that I have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to HFC BANK Limited/ 000016624106

I am familiar with the Consumer Credit sourcebook of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which states the following rules.

"A firm must not ignore or disregard a customer's claim that a debt has been settled or is disputed and must not continue to make demands for payment without providing clear justification and/or evidence as to why the customer's claim is not valid." 7.5.3

"A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds." 7.14.1

"Where a customer disputes a debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds, the firm must investigate the dispute and provide details of the debt to the customer in a timely manner." 7.14.3

"Where there is a dispute as to the identity of the borrower or hirer or as to the amount of the debt, it is for the firm (and not the customer) to establish, as the case may be, that the customer is the correct person in relation to the debt or that the amount is the correct amount owed under the agreement." 7.14.4

"A firm must provide a customer with information on the outcome of its investigations into a debt which the customer disputed on valid grounds." 7.14.5

"Where a customer disputes a debt and the firm seeking to recover the debt is not the lender or the owner, the firm must:

• (1) pass the information provided by the customer to the lender or the owner; or
• (2) if the firm has authority from the lender or owner to investigate a dispute, it must notify the lender or owner of the outcome of the investigation." 7.14.6

In not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt you are using deceptive/and or unfair methods.

Furthermore, ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment amounts to physical/psychological harassment.

I would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above accounts unless you can provide evidence as to my liability for the debt in question.

so the notice of assignment and the initial agreement with my signature on and when the debt was taken, what address and date.

I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the FCA of your actions.

If appropriate I will also take this matter forward as a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and Information Commissioner's Office.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

 discussing with a friend he told me that i shouldn't contacted them and i should've ignored them, but i've did my research and read a lot of cases here with the same debt collecting company, and all advised to write such a letter, two question
1. was i wrong to ask clarification about the claimed debt
2. what is the next step, as i prefer to be prepared to whats could be coming
 sorry for the long post, one i hear back from them i'll keep you all posted so others can benefit as well.
thank you 
Rania

Willing2Learn

Hi Rania and welcome to the forum

Wait for PRA to respond to your 'Proveit' letter. Since you do not recognise the account, you did the right thing by writing to them, requesting evidence of the account and proof of liability.

rania2020

Willing2Learn said:

Hi Rania and welcome to the forum

Wait for PRA to respond to your 'Proveit' letter. Since you do not recognise the account, you did the right thing by writing to them, requesting evidence of the account and proof of liability.

hello
Thank you for the kind reply, strangely i did receive a respond the same day
here is the email i got from them this evening

"Hi 

Thank you for getting in touch!

So we can help you, and just to make sure we are speaking with the correct person, could you please give us the following details:

• Your date of birth
• Your current address and post code
• Can you please confirm if you ave every lived in Surrey (including the post code)

When you have replied with this information, we will get in touch as soon as possible.

Questions? 

We’re happy to help, contact us by:

• responding to this email;
• visiting our website where you can find answers to commonly asked questions; or
• calling us on 0800 877 2772.

Yours sincerely

Ria Shergill

Customer Solutions Team Agent

PRA Group (UK) Limited"

-------

they are asking me to provide them personal information's which am not happy to provide, we never lived in Surrey!!

if they do have any evidence they should provide as i requested in my previous email, i dont believe that i have to provide any private information's.

am not sure what to do, or to reply at this point, any advice please.

regards

fatbelly

The prove-it was the correct thing to do.

If they recommence demanding money without proof, there is a follow-up letter.

For now, you sit and wait.

Are you aware that Equifax have a free service, called Clearscore?

rania2020

fatbelly said:

The prove-it was the correct thing to do.

If they recommence demanding money without proof, there is a follow-up letter.

For now, you sit and wait.

Are you aware that Equifax have a free service, called Clearscore?

hi
Thank you for replying, they are asking me now to provide them with personal information's in their reply email.
which is this 

"Hi 

Thank you for getting in touch!

So we can help you, and just to make sure we are speaking with the correct person, could you please give us the following details:

• Your date of birth
• Your current address and post code
• Can you please confirm if you ave every lived in Surrey (including the post code)

When you have replied with this information, we will get in touch as soon as possible.

Questions? 

We’re happy to help, contact us by:

• responding to this email;
• visiting our website where you can find answers to commonly asked questions; or
• calling us on 0800 877 2772.

Yours sincerely

Ria Shergill

Customer Solutions Team Agent

PRA Group (UK) Limited"

i dont have to provide them with anything what do you think?

Galloglass

Can you please confirm if you ave every lived in Surrey (including the post code)

You are not reading this correctly. They clearly do not know IF you are the person who owes money. So you can supply the information or complain to the Information Commissioner for phishing for information. They either have the right to your personal information or not. Why not give them the chance to read the "prove it" letter and if they do not reply, then send a complaint

rania2020

SO after searching on the net to find what to do after i read somewhere that i should raise a complaint to them, and this is what i sent them.
Dear PRA GROUP,

COMPLAINT

On 12/02/2020 I asked you to provide proof that I owed the alleged debt to HFC BANK Limited.

The FCA rules are clear that ” Where there is a dispute as to the identity of the borrower or hirer or as to the amount of the debt, it is for the firm (and not the customer) to establish, as the case may be, that the customer is the correct person in relation to the debt or that the amount is the correct amount owed under the agreement.”

I do not owe this money. You have failed to produce any evidence that I do.

I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the FCA of your actions.
the subject of the email was complaint with the case number that they stated on the letter, now i will set and wait their reply. 

sourcrates

You have done the right thing.
Old debts can get sold on, multiple times, with very little information as to who the actual debtor is.
That is why they send out such vague letters, in the hope of getting hit.
If they don`t think your the debtor, they should not be writing to you, if no proof is forthcoming, the debt is dead in the water.

rania2020

hi

i am getting quick replays on my emails from the company, i just got this email from them.

Good Morning,

Thanks for your reply, I am sorry you feel like you feel we have ignored your request for information, however, this is not the case and we will be able to get this sorted out for you.

I appreciate you being hesitant to give us your personal details, the reason we ask is so that we can protect your information by making sure we are in contact with the correct person before giving out any personal data. We do have this information on our system and just need to check that what you send matches; we would be happy to help you if you could respond with the requested information.

If you would feel more comfortable communicating using a different method, you can choose one of the following: visit our website (-------); where you can make a payment, set up a payment plan, find answers to commonly asked questions and complete a budget form; or call us on 0800 877 2772.

Regards

David Grant
Complaints Handler

Phone: 0800 8772150

Email: david.grant@pragroup.co.uk

basically they are ignoring my right to not share my personal information and ask to pay money that we dont even owe them!

i am tempted to give FCA a call to ask for advice as they keep sending emails asking to give my information and to pay without providing me the evidence i asked for, and ignoring the laws that i also mentioned them in my emails.

i'll keep you posted with any updates.

regards

sourcrates

FCA don`t accept individual complaints, its the FOS who handle complaints, but they won`t help you yet, as you must let the business try to put things right first, in all honesty, I am no fan of debt collectors, but, giving them your details will either prove you are not the debtor, or prove that you are, in which case you then ask them to provide the evidence of your liability, until then its a stalemate, as they cannot breach data protection laws, if you don`t owe the money, then that`s fine, they must prove that you do, if you want the matter concluding, you know what to do.

Galloglass

Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the FCA of your actions

The chances of Trading Standards doing something is close to zero. FCA/FOS similarly. The new kid on the block with the big stick is the Information Commissioner. So send the complaint there and reference the FCA guidance and the issue of "phishing"

In order to "phish" using you personal data, they need your express or implied permission. They do not. The alternative is a "legitimate interest" which again they do not and this is what you need to be clear to PRA about prior to your ICO complaint.