Ingenious Legal (again?!)

HampshireLyn

Periodically I have Ingenious Legal chasing me for money. They popped up last year saying they had recovered a sum of money from a bank for PPI on my behalf and now demand payment. The strange thing was that I had never heard of Ingenious Legal and hadn’t used that bank in nearly 14 years nor ever had anything other than a current account and an unused ISA with them… not only that but I had sorted out all my PPI claims back in c2014-15 (with a very good third party) except for American Express which had to be done directly. 

When I called Ingenious they claimed I signed electronically via social media - I then vaguely recalled that I saw an add for claiming from American Express which I recall looking at then backing out of the links as something didn’t seem right.
After some disturbing letters asking for money and speaking to them to ask what on earth this was about as I couldn’t have claimed for PPi (having already had this thoroughly checked and sorted previously) - they send me a poorly scanned black and white copy of  a letter saying that several hundred pounds was to be paid to me by this bank. Ingenious we’re claiming that I would have been paid this money directly and therefore now owe them. Well I have had no direct correspondence from the bank to date, no payments (having excitedly scoured my bank statement history to see if I missed the small windfall! ) and when I called the number on the letter and looked up the ppi page for the bank etc  - I got either a dead tone or the bank says the ppi claims closed years ago and so has the department handling them.  I asked Ingenious for proof of me signing up to them and proof of what alleged product I was supposed to have had with said bank and evidence of payment, especially as there was no way I would ever have given my bank details over the internet or via social media. An Ingenious document turned up with an electronic signature but nothing at all to evidence the supposed bank related ppi refund. This was all last year. Periodically I still get letters or calls threatening court action, which is unpleasant. I can’t see what evidence they have to warrant me paying them for something I would not logically have ordered, with no evidence of a product to reclaim from the bank and no genuine evidence of any actual payout. 

Ingenious scam indeed?? 

Surely this organisation now warrants investigation. 

Advice to stop them pestering welcomed in the meantime. 

[Deleted User]

The simplest way would be to contact the bank in question to confirm if any payments were sent you, or applied to accounts you held with them.

[Deleted User]

Worth noting just for reference, there are no "good claims companies". All of them used the same free of charge complaints process you did and all the information they needed for the complaint was information you could have provided to the lender directly, at least AmEx had the sense to push back on using such a money leech. 

Ask Ingenious how they think you could have signed up for a PPI complaint last year when the deadline for complaints was already closed

brettcta

Deleted_User said:

Worth noting just for reference, there are no "good claims companies". All of them used the same free of charge complaints process you did and all the information they needed for the complaint was information you could have provided to the lender directly, at least AmEx had the sense to push back on using such a money leech. 

Ask Ingenious how they think you could have signed up for a PPI complaint last year when the deadline for complaints was already closed

On your last bit - it’ll doubtless be a Plevin complaint which are still fine to pursue through the courts.

sourcrates

The type of claims management company that advertises on social media, are at the more dubious end of the scale.

By clicking a link, they allege you somehow committed yourself to a contract with them, and when challenged, they produce some hard to read partially illegible electronic signature, purporting to be yours........its a common scam, lots of posters have made similar claims in the past, its easy money for them.

I wouldn`t bother playing letter tennis with these people, keep an eye on the post and your credit file, if anything resembling a letter before action, or an actual court claim, should appear, then take steps to defend the claim against you, it shouldn`t be too difficult to discredit there allegations.