Help with credit card fraud

petelondon

Seeking a bit advice , again on behalf of a friend going through a tough time.
Brief summary:
Her ex husband took out credit cards against her name , without her knowing around 2001/2 and maxed them out for about £20,000 . She was then chased by the card company and in recent years by a debt collection agency,  He now lives in France and 'vanished'  Needless to say this has caused a lot of stress, worry etc
The debt collection agency are aware of the situation and she is on a sensitive care hotline for them but they just want the money back. It is being repaid at £30 per month

However , on talking about this with her, I noticed the cards were taken out in her ' known as' name, not the legal name so i am thinking that the bank is at fault for not verifying details , and the debt collection agency are chasing money from someone who doesnt legally exist.

For example ( not actual names used ) 
Birth certificate name : Amanda Smith
Married Name : Amanda Jones 
Name on mortgage on the address linked to card : Amanda Jones
Name on credit card used fraudulently : Mandy Smith 

So i think she has grounds to say to the bank there is no legal person called Mandy Smith , and therefore she shouldnt be chased for this.
I did find online that you can have a card in your preferred name but you need to provide documentation for this , which of course was never done

Is it worth contacting a solicitor on this, or a no win no fee type of thing? Even just to stop the repayments , if not to get all her money back

thanks in advance

MattMattMattUK

petelondon said:

Seeking a bit advice , again on behalf of a friend going through a tough time.
Brief summary:
Her ex husband took out credit cards against her name , without her knowing around 2001/2 and maxed them out for about £20,000 . She was then chased by the card company and in recent years by a debt collection agency,  He now lives in France and 'vanished'  Needless to say this has caused a lot of stress, worry etc
The debt collection agency are aware of the situation and she is on a sensitive care hotline for them but they just want the money back. It is being repaid at £30 per month

However , on talking about this with her, I noticed the cards were taken out in her ' known as' name, not the legal name so i am thinking that the bank is at fault for not verifying details , and the debt collection agency are chasing money from someone who doesnt legally exist.

For example ( not actual names used ) 
Birth certificate name : Amanda Smith
Married Name : Amanda Jones 
Name on mortgage on the address linked to card : Amanda Jones
Name on credit card used fraudulently : Mandy Smith 

So i think she has grounds to say to the bank there is no legal person called Mandy Smith , and therefore she shouldnt be chased for this.
I did find online that you can have a card in your preferred name but you need to provide documentation for this , which of course was never done

Is it worth contacting a solicitor on this, or a no win no fee type of thing? Even just to stop the repayments , if not to get all her money back

thanks in advance

Did she report the fraud when she first became aware of it?

Scorpio33

I am confused. If her ex took out a card in her name without her knowing, there should be no way of doing this without a fraud being comitted.

If that is the case, the fraud should of been reported to the Police when she was first made aware. The credit card company should of also been made aware of the fraud. It seems that the company is aware, if they know it is fraud, they should not be chasing her for the debt.

Where have the statements been sent to? If it was her address, how did she not see them? If it was not her address, then how have the card company opened an account in an address not linked to her? 


something just makes me think there is more to this than you are aware of.

petelondon

MattMattMattUK said:

petelondon said:

Seeking a bit advice , again on behalf of a friend going through a tough time.

Did she report the fraud when she first became aware of it?

Am not sure to the police as it was a real problem time for her - abusive ex husband. I would need to check that out.
Not that it makes any difference in terms of the law i i know. 
But when she got the letters from the Debt collection company ,she did explain all of this to them that it wasnt her.

So by your question it seems that as it wasnt ( or may not have been ) reported at the time then she may have problems proving it.  Unless it can be proven by the transactions made?

Scorpio33

petelondon said:

MattMattMattUK said:

petelondon said:

Seeking a bit advice , again on behalf of a friend going through a tough time.

Did she report the fraud when she first became aware of it?

Am not sure to the police as it was a real problem time for her - abusive ex husband. I would need to check that out.
Not that it makes any difference in terms of the law i i know. 
But when she got the letters from the Debt collection company ,she did explain all of this to them that it wasnt her.

So by your question it seems that as it wasnt ( or may not have been ) reported at the time then she may have problems proving it.  Unless it can be proven by the transactions made?

It should be up to the company to prove that she opened the account. She needs to ensure the company know that she has been a victim of identity theft and that the account (and associated transactions) are nothing to do with her. 

MattMattMattUK

petelondon said:

MattMattMattUK said:

petelondon said:

Seeking a bit advice , again on behalf of a friend going through a tough time.

Did she report the fraud when she first became aware of it?

Am not sure to the police as it was a real problem time for her - abusive ex husband. I would need to check that out.
Not that it makes any difference in terms of the law i i know. 
But when she got the letters from the Debt collection company ,she did explain all of this to them that it wasnt her.

So by your question it seems that as it wasnt ( or may not have been ) reported at the time then she may have problems proving it.  Unless it can be proven by the transactions made?

Her difficulty will be that she has been paying this debt for some time, but is then going to claim "it wasn't me", the lender will not just take that at face value. Explaining it to a debt collector does not really matter either, she is going to have to be a bit more proactive. 

I would recommend that she gets all the paperwork she has, together with a timeline of when she thinks the accounts were opened, when she became aware of them and when she started paying them and books an appointment with Citizen's Advice. Whilst ultimately she should be able to get to a position where she does not need to pay the debt, there are going to be some hoops to jump through as she never reported the fraud and has been paying the debt for a period of time. 

Brie

I'd lodge a complaint with the bank that issued the card to signal that it's fraud and that she's being treated unfairly.

I'd also suggest she do a subject access request (SAR) with the bank which means that they will have to supply her with anything to do with the card - including details on the application.  Hopefully there is actually paperwork scanned in their system which will show a signature that is not hers and there will be other things that will show that her ex "took over" managing the account.  I manage my OH's accounts but with his full agreement of which they have knowledge.  If her ex set up the card 20+ years back, was obviously managing it and then 10 years later she found out about the account then she has not given him permission to do anything on her behalf.  

I'd also suggest telling the debt agency that she has lodged a complaint and disputes it's her debt with the bank and that until that is resolved she won't be paying anything.  She could in fact ask the bank to recall the debt from the agency until such time as things are resolved satisfactorily (aka written off).

Spendless

I don't think it would make any difference . I check agreements with my work (not financial services) that names on the written copy match what they say on the computer, just in case Mr Andrew Smith owing my workplace thousands decides there's no such person as Andy Smith  and it's defiantly not him, though everything else matches. It's more to save time and thousands in legal costs rather than Mr Smith is likely to be successful.

There'll have been a correct procedure to go down for credit card fraud at the time it was discovered. Was this done? I don't know if you can go down this route years later. I think there might be a credit card forum on here that may be able to advise you more of the legalities of this. 

TBagpuss

The fact that the cards are in a name that's a contraction of hr name won't make any difference. 
If she reported the debt / cards as fraud then that might make a difference but there is an issue in that she's clearly been aware of the situation for a long time, and has acknowledged th debt by paying towards it.
Even now, she might be able to report it as fraud and get a crime refence number.
If she was a victim of domestic abuse and didn't initially report it out of fear then that might make a difference , but a lot is likely to depend on the timeline, and what she's done in terms of letting the card company know the cards were taken out fraudulently. 

barbiedoll

How much is the debt now? If this debt was accrued years ago, I assume that any defaults have long since disappeared from her credit file?

She should start the "prove it" process (see the "Debt Free Wannabe" board for details), the debt collection company have to put any collection activity on hold whilst they search for the original paperwork (unlikely that they'll have this after 20+ years) and even if they threaten court proceedings, it's doubtful that they'll follow through for such an old debt which they no doubt purchased for a few quid. They know that your friend is vulnerable, they'll try to put the screws on, but I don't think that they'll want to push this too far, a DV and fraud victim, who didn't even take out the original agreement over 20 years ago? I can't see a judge enforcing payment for that.

RAS

Actually, head over to the Debt free forum and ask about statute barred debt and about requesting right offs. Not convinced they'd get immediate cooperation as this bunch seem to have nil compassion, but worth checking up and trying, if appropriate.