Victim of fraud

wonderwoman29

Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place, really hoping someone can help with this really stressful situation.
My husband got a letter in the post from PayPal Credit saying he was getting a late payment fee because his credit account wasn't paid on time. We don't have a Paypal credit account so assumed it was a scam and threw it. A few days later we got another 2 letters, which I thought was odd so I googled it and found a few posts describing exactly what we had and saying it was a scam, other posts saying Paypal don't community via post only email etc. My husband sent a few messages to Paypal who said it would be a while until they got back to us due to Covid-19. A few days later they hadn't gotten back to us so we sent more messages but still, nothing back. Next letter arrives in the post with a default notice. We rang the fraud department of Paypal who said they had concluded there was no fraud!!! They said they couldn't help further and to contact the credit department. Finally got through to someone there who was most unhelpful and said there was a Paypal account in my husband's name but it wasn't attached to his Paypal account. He needed the email address used on the account to access account details which obviously we couldn't give because we don't know what it is! We gave them my husbands email and an older email of his and they could find nothing and basically said we are liable to pay this money. Can someone please tell me what we do next, the amount is almost £1000 and it's money we simply don't have and even if we did, I don't want to pay because it isn't our debt. 
Thanks in advance for any advice.

eskbanker

He needs to complain to them formally, declaring that it's nothing to do with him, but he also needs to establish what else may be going on, as this may not be an isolated incident.  He should check all three of his credit reports to see if there are any other unfamiliar accounts opened in his name, and should also consider buying a CIFAS protective registration to prevent it happening again.

born_again

How did you get the phone number for PayPal? Not from any of the letters we hope.
As the account appears to be set up in your husbands name, what physical address were they using? 
Anything strange been delivered, or odd people sat around outside house?
Seeing as paypal are sending out chaser letters on this, they should be able to tell you the details.

wonderwoman29

born_again said:

How did you get the phone number for PayPal? Not from any of the letters we hope.
As the account appears to be set up in your husbands name, what physical address were they using? 
Anything strange been delivered, or odd people sat around outside house?
Seeing as paypal are sending out chaser letters on this, they should be able to tell you the details.

We rang paypal fraud department (got the number from the official website) and they then gave us the credit department phone number (which was one digit different from the number on the letter). The address is our address, but because they need the email to access the account (which we don't know) they couldn't help us further due to data protection. Nothing unexpected been delivered and haven't noticed anyone hanging around outside, if there was we would certainly notice as we live in a very open area.
They have now directed us to clearscore and action fraud. We opened a free clearscore account and there it was on my husband's credit report! Couldn't believe what we were seeing.
My main concern is having to pay the money, just wondering if anyone in our situation has had to pay the money or if it's easily resolved? 
They said that once we contact clearscore and inform them, they can send Paypal the account information and then we can move forward with the case. I'm just hoping once Paypal give them the information they need and they access the account they'll be able to see that it's obviously fraud, I'm assuming they've seen it plenty of times before? I mean if they're buying stuff and having it delivered then there must be another address attached to the account?

Petriix

Don't worry. You've not been defrauded, PayPal have. Unless a judge orders you to, you won't have to pay anything. The only way that would happen is if PayPal decide to sue you and can persuade a judge that you either agreed to enter a contract with them or were negligent to the extent that you would be complicit in the fraud. I'd be writing to PayPal to explain that you don't accept liability for the debt and to demand that they remove the default from your credit records. Maybe make a subject access request to find out exactly what information they hold about you.

wonderwoman29

Petriix said:

Don't worry. You've not been defrauded, PayPal have. Unless a judge orders you to, you won't have to pay anything. The only way that would happen is if PayPal decide to sue you and can persuade a judge that you either agreed to enter a contract with them or were negligent to the extent that you would be complicit in the fraud. I'd be writing to PayPal to explain that you don't accept liability for the debt and to demand that they remove the default from your credit records. Maybe make a subject access request to find out exactly what information they hold about you.

Ok that makes me feel a bit better about the situation! Thanks we've worked so hard for so long to build our credit rating and it was so upsetting to see that they were putting a default notice. I'll certainly look into the subject access request, what is this? They've point blank refused to talk about the account as we can't provide the email address. 

eskbanker

wonderwoman29 said:
The address is our address, but because they need the email to access the account (which we don't know) they couldn't help us further due to data protection.

[...]

They said that once we contact clearscore and inform them, they can send Paypal the account information and then we can move forward with the case.

wonderwoman29 said:
They've point blank refused to talk about the account as we can't provide the email address. 

The approach they're adopting is untenable as far as I'm concerned - they have issued correspondence to your husband, identifying him by name and address (and any account number or other unique reference info on the letter) and it's unreasonable for them to deny further dialogue without something that he plainly doesn't know.

Data protection works both ways - they clearly can identify his account from his name, address, etc, and so IMHO they're in breach of the Data Protection Act if they're effectively refusing to allow access to, and correction of, his personal data.  This is worth flagging initially to their Data Protection Officer (https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full#14) and ultimately to the ICO if they're uncooperative....