Is this a SCAM?

PeterBracegirdle

Today I received a telephone call from Christine at Oracle Legal telling me that I have a successful PPI claim to the value of £3300, she gave me various reference numbers to the claim. She went on to say that David Watkins, an agent from the County Court of London, was in the area and could call at our house to give me the payout of £3300, and I would have to pay him their commission of 10% - £330 there and then. She asked how I would like the money and at first I said by cheque, I then got the impression that I would have to give him a cheque for their commission. I pointed out that I would not be happy to do this until their cheque had cleared, we then agreed for the money to be paid in cash, and I said I could then hand back £330 to him in cash or write a cheque. She informed me that the only method of payment acceptable was by Paysafe, a method I personally have never heard of. She said it is a prepaid card which you get at a Supermarket. I pointed out that at present I have no means of visiting a Supermarket due to being in (Covid19) quarantine for two weeks. She said to contact her when I was able to go and I suggested that she call be back next Tuesday, she told me that before I go I should ring her number which she gave as  0161 8188215 ext 103, as she would then give me information to avoid costs on purchasing the card. Needless to say I have not called the number she gave.
We do have a PPI claim in process with another company, and are awaiting the outcome.
It sounds "iffy" and my husband and I have looked at information on line and people are warning others not to call or deal with this company or phone number. Is it a scam and can you give us any advice please? She also went to great lengths to tell me not to share this information with anyone else.
Many thanks,
Pauline and Peter

Browntoa

It's a scam.......

[Deleted User]

Sounds totally legit.  

All the top solicitors insist on payment being made by prepaid cards from supermarkets.

dunstonh

Its called advance fee fraud.   If you ever watched an episode of Hustle, you would know the format.   Play to someone's greed by offering them something they really want or value highly (usually a big amount of money).  Then tell them it will take a smaller amount to get it.

she gave me various reference numbers to the claim. 

And here are four more reference numbers
123456789
Ab122345D
DFG5632145D
Fasdf5655322
See how easy that was?

She went on to say that David Watkins, an agent from the County Court of London, was in the area and could call at our house to give me the payout of £3300, and I would have to pay him their commission of 10% - £330 there and then. 

a)  that isn't how it works
b) if they have the money, then why are they not deducting the £330 from it and paying you the net (which is how compensation claims via the courts usually work)
c) if there was a court case, how are you not aware of it? - you would be a witness as the discussion would be how it was sold to you.  At a minimum, there would be a witness statement from you.
d) Where is the VAT? - it is subject to VAT if it was a genuine claim.
e) Oracle Legal are not solicitors (note comments at bottom about cloning scams)

She informed me that the only method of payment acceptable was by Paysafe, a method I personally have never heard of. 

Another hallmark of a scam.       Prepaid cards etc have no audit trail to trace the scammer.

 0161 8188215

That number comes up on a number of websites warning of scams

for example:  https://who-called.co.uk/Number/01618188215

It is probable, that the genuine company is being clone scammed.  i.e. the scammers are using the name of a genuine company to pretend they are from them and that the genuine company has nothing to do with this.   They are victims of the scammer as well.

The solicitors regulation authority have a similar warning on their website:

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/scam-alerts/2020/mar/oracle-legal-limited/

sourcrates

I find it quite strange that you have to ask, "is this a scam" .

It screams out "SCAM" to me, have watched it done on Hustle myself, ignore them, don`t engage with them again.

brettcta

You’re forgetting that people obviously fall for this sort of thing all the time, so some people will have to ask to assuage any potential greed or just plain old naivety