Chasing for debts I have not had with incorrect details

nodnud16

I receive a letter from a debt collector to ask for payment of 4 supposed debts. Firstly the name ( supposedly mine) is misspelled and secondly I do not know anything about these. There is no proof of what they are but just 4 different debts and amounts: Freemans catalogue,  Vanquis, Capital One and EE. I have not had any of these. However,  I had my data stolen through a burglary and also my letters from benefits were stolen . This was 8 years ago.  What can I do?

onlyfoolsandparking

Ask them for 'proof' the debt belongs to you in the way of signed agreements etc, they are legally required to do this before they can take it any further. Could also just be a debt crawler letter chancing their luck that YOU might be one of the people who don't check things and foolishly just pay what their demanding, are you?

eskbanker

Four separate and unrelated debts lumped in together on one letter sounds highly suspicious to me - have you checked you credit files to see what's there?

PaulW922

What a difficult thing to happen at a time like this.

If your identity has been stolen then you *may* need to convince the creditors that you re not the debtor. Some people here and on other forums will tell you to ignore letters, send them back etc as the debts are not yours. This may well be true but you probably just want the matter resolved and so I would suggest you need to advise the debt collector the debts are not yours, you believe they relate to your data being stolen xxx years ago. After all, every other case they have probably involves someone saying that the debt is not theirs. Just don't give them your phone number! But do check your credit file first - this may be as onlyfools says, just someone trolling for people with similar names and if it is ID theft there may be other debts.

Who is the debt collector?