DEBT letter from OPOS ?

cally4you

hi , hoping  for some spot on advice here , it all began  about 7 weeks ago i got a letter fro some sort of A  alleged debt from  a company called opos ( never heard of them ) in my name  to my address so i opened it up to read i can pay in full  pay in bits  and or pay up front  fee of £77 via a web site on this letter and by using a PIN on the letter  ,it said they were working on behalf of  capquest ? again never heard of them ,
 i showed my partner it  1st and  he said shred it itll be a scam letter  ..so i shredded it 5 days later i got the same letter, so  now i got worried as  ive never had a debt in my life always pay on time in fact super early i   pay bills  etc, and  i have   998% on my credit score /file  which i  later sent away  to view as ive never had to view it be fore till now ! ive looked on this credit file   everything on it is either ended  or in 0.00  mode nothing on there to go by ? any ways i rang this opos up ignoring the tel number on the letter  in stead got there tel number direct from there opos web site, rang them  scottish lady took my call and right away she asked my name address  and then wanted my  d/o/b ? i said hang on a minute   dont you just want and need the ref number from your letter   1st ? and im only calling you to check  you a legit company ? she  replied they are above board etc etc blah blah , and  again whats my D/O/B  so i said ive given you my name address and ref  no off a letter  you have sent to me you tell me what d/o/b you have on your records ? she said nope tot hat and as id refused to give her any more  of my info that was that  she hung up. 
so i decided as they said there a legit company     that id  again tell them i   dont  admitt to this  alleged debt as  said during my phone call to them etc   sent it off to them recorded delivery , had no reply , since this ive also sent the same letter to capquest in glasgow again no replies ? in the mean time i did a  little research to find  on this opos letter was shop direct as being whom this   alleged debt is owed to , so this lead me then to very group and /little woods theyve merged  so i sent a letter to very recorded asking them  if its them that have hired   or are using capquest and or opos to chase me for this alleged debt  i have no knowledge about ? they replied to me via email only after a few emails back n fro  they asked em for my d/ob  so i gave it them they got back saying my d/o/b doest match there records and cannot talk about  this any further ? now im even more baffled ,  end of 2024 and this year ive had to  change my  debit bank cards 3 times due to things  showing in my bank account  hence why i was wary of this  opos letter in the first place !  so   since this   very reply id contacted   action fraud they felt my id may have been used as it  didt look good     and agreed with me on me ringing them to log it  ive been given a ref number etc by them so thats that done ...i then replied back to very saying i wanted it looked at by 1 person and  an investigation made in to this   by a CEO    some 1  higher up ? and pointed out ive  never ever had even so much as a    red letter a reminder letter to me ever  implying a bill or any payment was over due  or late  and i asked why not ?!     a lady   got back to me   and said   she will do  an investigation and get back to me later on in this week   when shes done  i thanked her  & waited well 5 days have  past  yesterday 1/10/25 had her reply  heading  title saying final response letter from very    it read as above  blah blah blah and ended with she had spoken to her finance part in very  up stairs  and as opos are now dealing with this   theres no more she can do on it and im to  take it back to opos ? OPOS had told me to contact very/littlewoods / and or  CAPQUEST  ? so now am just going round and around in circles with the lot of them im still none the wiser on any of this or what its to do with ? as i say  first i knew anything about any of this was with opos,s  first letter to me which id shredded so... what now ? i have no idea what d/ob they have there end but apparently it doest match with what id given to them ?  im left BAFFLED....& worried now

Grumpelstiltskin

OK The biggest wrong thing you have done is speaking to these people.

Do not speak to them again under any circumstances.

Send them this letter by snail mail.

Letter when you know nothing about about the debt - AKA "Prove it" letter — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Then wait and see if you get any response.

Send it to OPOS, they will probably send the alleged debt further back down the line.

Brie

OK - first thing I would ask is that the next time you post something try to break it up into paragraphs - it will make it much easier for others to read and get you a better response.

Next - OPOS and Capquest are known debt companies.  So this is not a scam.

Also - have you checked your credit history?  Have a look on there and see if there's anything you don't recognise or that is recent.  You may also notice that your DoB is on there so it's one of the ways that many companies check to see that they are dealing with the right person - it's a good way to distinguish between parent and child with the same name for instance.  Or if you have a very common name which is shared by someone who has actually run up this debt and lives in your area.  

So you have said that you don't know about this debt.  And so presumably you haven't been paying anything towards it in the last 6 years (assuming you are in England or Wales, 5 I think for Scotland).  That may mean that it is a very old debt, one that you've forgotten perhaps, that is now statute barred or about to be so.  And OPOS and the rest are trying to get some money before it is statute barred.  

In my opinion you have done the right thing by sending a letter to state you have no knowledge of this.  If they do not respond with any proof that it is your debt then they shouldn't be able to continue to pursue you for this.  If they do send them another letter stating that because they have provided no evidence they are now harrassing you and you will report them to the financial ombudsman if they continue.  Furthermore TELL them to remove all contact details for you from their system.  Give them a small amount of time to do so but if, say, in a month you then get another letter go directly to complaining to the ombudsman.

Continue to keep an eye on your credit history as you don't want them falsely reporting you having a debt that is not legit.

cally4you

Brie said:

OK - first thing I would ask is that the next time you post something try to break it up into paragraphs - it will make it much easier for others to read and get you a better response.

Next - OPOS and Capquest are known debt companies.  So this is not a scam.

Also - have you checked your credit history?  Have a look on there and see if there's anything you don't recognise or that is recent.  You may also notice that your DoB is on there so it's one of the ways that many companies check to see that they are dealing with the right person - it's a good way to distinguish between parent and child with the same name for instance.  Or if you have a very common name which is shared by someone who has actually run up this debt and lives in your area.  

So you have said that you don't know about this debt.  And so presumably you haven't been paying anything towards it in the last 6 years (assuming you are in England or Wales, 5 I think for Scotland).  That may mean that it is a very old debt, one that you've forgotten perhaps, that is now statute barred or about to be so.  And OPOS and the rest are trying to get some money before it is statute barred.  

In my opinion you have done the right thing by sending a letter to state you have no knowledge of this.  If they do not respond with any proof that it is your debt then they shouldn't be able to continue to pursue you for this.  If they do send them another letter stating that because they have provided no evidence they are now harrassing you and you will report them to the financial ombudsman if they continue.  Furthermore TELL them to remove all contact details for you from their system.  Give them a small amount of time to do so but if, say, in a month you then get another letter go directly to complaining to the ombudsman.

Continue to keep an eye on your credit history as you don't want them falsely reporting you having a debt that is not legit.

my credit  report /history is like 985%   theres nowt in it i need to  worry about but as ive said theyve hinted there date of birth on there records dont match with what id given to them ? but ive sent proove it letters recorded delivery to very, opos, and  capquest as they wont tell me what this debts for  im now thinking of a sars request  because if it   was my debt   ill gladly pay it  in full but   ive never for got a bill  or to pay in the past and ive lived at same house/address for 31 yrs never ever had a debt letter be fore in my life , some 1 else said might be an old debt well again ive never  not on purpose not paid for anything so im still baffled by it all but thanks for the help..

RAS

Your credit score is an irrelevant fiction in the UK.

And paragraphs will get you more support.

sourcrates

This is what`s known as a "fishing trip".

Debt buyers buy debts in bulk, when they come to sorting through them, they may come across an account with scant information as to the debtor`s identity, so they do a letter bomb campaign on likely suspects within a postcode area, targeting a number of addresses with similar details to those they hold on file, then wait for the somewhat confused individuals to contact them.

From this exercise they hope to score a "hit", so this debt may not even be yours, they rely on folks inquisitive nature to fill in the gaps for them, so don`t freak out here.

Your best bet was to ignore them, but as you have sent prove-it letters, they are deemed in law to be from the debtor, so should get you the more detailed information you seek, its a case of wait and see what happens, but don`t fret too much, its all a silly game really.