Frasers + have notified a bad debt on an account we didn't open.

nezrobiso

So my wife got a letter out of the blue a few months ago saying she was overdue a payment on her Fraser's Plus card, and if she didn't pay it they would notify a debt collection agency and notify her as a bad debtor. The thing is, she has never opened a Fraser's Plus account. Assuming it to be a straight forward error, she tried getting in touch with Fraser's to sort it out. However, they were massively unhelpful and just said as far as they were concerned she owed the money and that was that.  They have refused to give any details of purchases made, or any proof of the account being opened - it seems as far as they are concerned, it is up to my wife to prove that she didn't open the account. This is even though they actually had the incorrect telephone number, email and address for her on their system! We have tried getting in touch with Action Fraud and the Police, but neither are interested. My wife has never had any bad loans, the  credit card is always paid at the end of each month, we only have a very small amount left on our mortgage, and it is blatantly clear to anyone who cares to look that we are not bad debtors. We are now faced with the prospect of bailiffs on the doorstep and my wife's credit record being ruined for years. How come Fraser's can do this and potentially ruin someone's life with no comeback - where is our protection? It is only for a relatively small amount of money which we could afford - but there is a principle at stake here.

CliveOfIndia

My first question would be, are you sure it's a genuine letter and not just some scam attempt?

That aside ....

nezrobiso said:

it seems as far as they are concerned, it is up to my wife to prove that she didn't open the account.

No.  It's up to them to prove she does owe the debt.  Send them a "prove-it" letter as detailed on the Debt-Free Wannabe board: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6027800/debt-free-wannabe-sticky-provit-statute-barred-letters-defaults-help-and-guidance-all-here#latest

nezrobiso said:

We are now faced with the prospect of bailiffs on the doorstep and my wife's credit record being ruined for years.

That's not going to happen.  Quite apart from anything else, bailiffs are a last resort and can only be instructed by a court.

Please try not to panic - if the letter is genuine (albeit inaccurate) then a simple "prove-it" response should see the matter closed.

sourcrates

As above, send the prove-it letter and see what results you get, stay off the phone, call handlers with no knowledge of consumer credit law will just give you company policy, and their (unwanted) opinion.

Keep everything in writing only, and put any thoughts of bailiffs out of your mind.

It`s quite likely you will have to exhaust the companies complaints procedure, and possibly escalate to the FOS, but lets take one step at a time here, send the letter first.

JadedAngel88

Fraser's own quite a few different stores. Did she open any credit accounts with these?

    Cruise Fashion
    House of Fraser
    Flannels
    Sports Direct
    USC
    GAME
    Evans Cycles
    Jack Wills

Online only for the following brands:

    ISAWITFIRST
    Frasers.com
    Studio

To be honest, since being taken over by the guy that owns sports direct, they are a pita to deal with. 

I have myself just endured an 8 month fight with studio. Getting them to do anything is impossible.

Jumblebumble

nezrobiso said:

So my wife got a letter out of the blue a few months ago saying she was overdue a payment on her Fraser's Plus card, and if she didn't pay it they would notify a debt collection agency and notify her as a bad debtor. The thing is, she has never opened a Fraser's Plus account. Assuming it to be a straight forward error, she tried getting in touch with Fraser's to sort it out. However, they were massively unhelpful and just said as far as they were concerned she owed the money and that was that.  They have refused to give any details of purchases made, or any proof of the account being opened - it seems as far as they are concerned, it is up to my wife to prove that she didn't open the account. This is even though they actually had the incorrect telephone number, email and address for her on their system! We have tried getting in touch with Action Fraud and the Police, but neither are interested. My wife has never had any bad loans, the  credit card is always paid at the end of each month, we only have a very small amount left on our mortgage, and it is blatantly clear to anyone who cares to look that we are not bad debtors. We are now faced with the prospect of bailiffs on the doorstep and my wife's credit record being ruined for years. How come Fraser's can do this and potentially ruin someone's life with no comeback - where is our protection? It is only for a relatively small amount of money which we could afford - but there is a principle at stake here.

You are clearly dealing with an imbecile as anyone with the slightest wit would understand that it is impossible to prove you didnt open an account
I would write to their Data Handler and do a subject access request
This usually ends up with a competent Compliance officer dealing with it as the ICO is very interested in what a companies policies are in regard to data handling

boldlyoptimistically

nezrobiso said:

So my wife got a letter out of the blue a few months ago saying she was overdue a payment on her Fraser's Plus card, and if she didn't pay it they would notify a debt collection agency and notify her as a bad debtor. The thing is, she has never opened a Fraser's Plus account. Assuming it to be a straight forward error, she tried getting in touch with Fraser's to sort it out. However, they were massively unhelpful and just said as far as they were concerned she owed the money and that was that.  They have refused to give any details of purchases made, or any proof of the account being opened - it seems as far as they are concerned, it is up to my wife to prove that she didn't open the account. This is even though they actually had the incorrect telephone number, email and address for her on their system! We have tried getting in touch with Action Fraud and the Police, but neither are interested. My wife has never had any bad loans, the  credit card is always paid at the end of each month, we only have a very small amount left on our mortgage, and it is blatantly clear to anyone who cares to look that we are not bad debtors. We are now faced with the prospect of bailiffs on the doorstep and my wife's credit record being ruined for years. How come Fraser's can do this and potentially ruin someone's life with no comeback - where is our protection? It is only for a relatively small amount of money which we could afford - but there is a principle at stake here.

What was the eventual outcome of your dispute?

I find myself in the same position, having never taken out any credit I was sent a Notice of Sums in Arrears and have followed up with a Prove-it letter/message (following the template in this thread) to their custom support team but am yet to receive a response.

Nasqueron

boldlyoptimistically said:

nezrobiso said:

So my wife got a letter out of the blue a few months ago saying she was overdue a payment on her Fraser's Plus card, and if she didn't pay it they would notify a debt collection agency and notify her as a bad debtor. The thing is, she has never opened a Fraser's Plus account. Assuming it to be a straight forward error, she tried getting in touch with Fraser's to sort it out. However, they were massively unhelpful and just said as far as they were concerned she owed the money and that was that.  They have refused to give any details of purchases made, or any proof of the account being opened - it seems as far as they are concerned, it is up to my wife to prove that she didn't open the account. This is even though they actually had the incorrect telephone number, email and address for her on their system! We have tried getting in touch with Action Fraud and the Police, but neither are interested. My wife has never had any bad loans, the  credit card is always paid at the end of each month, we only have a very small amount left on our mortgage, and it is blatantly clear to anyone who cares to look that we are not bad debtors. We are now faced with the prospect of bailiffs on the doorstep and my wife's credit record being ruined for years. How come Fraser's can do this and potentially ruin someone's life with no comeback - where is our protection? It is only for a relatively small amount of money which we could afford - but there is a principle at stake here.

What was the eventual outcome of your dispute?

I find myself in the same position, having never taken out any credit I was sent a Notice of Sums in Arrears and have followed up with a Prove-it letter/message (following the template in this thread) to their custom support team but am yet to receive a response.

Report to Action Fraud, give the details to them and start a formal complaint as well 

boldlyoptimistically

Posting an update in case this might be useful to anyone else. I managed to get this resolved by submitting a support ticket via Frasers Plus Zendesk ticketing system.

I sent them the Prove-it letter/message with a photo of the letter they sent claiming a sum in arrears. It took 6 days to get a response and that was just to request an additional 7 days to investigate the matter, and naturally after waiting a further 14 days I chased them and was told the account had been closed and marked as fraud and to expect a letter within the next 7 days.

The letter highlights actions they have taken/will take but it's worth pushing them for specific dates so you know things are actually happening. This includes removing the fraudulent activity from your credit report and filing a report with CIFAS to flag the fraudulent activity to other organisations.

I've also since filed a report with Action Fraud which doesn't do much but at least highlights these organisations that are lax with their credit checks. Requested all of my statutory credit reports from the three main credit agencies Experian, Equifax and TransUnion (via Credit Karma) and asked each to add a password to my report.

There's definitely more you can do to protect yourself and if you're interested there's a very in-depth post on Reddit titled "What to do if you've been a Victim of Identity Theft & Fraud - Complete Guide" that's worth checking out.

ChirpyChicken

I wish more people gave updates makes this forum more worthwhile