I think I'm being conned by Allay (PPI)

Please forgive the lengthy post, hopefully someone has been in the same situation as I'm currently in who can advise me what to do next.

Back in January I saw an advert on Facebook for a CMC called Allay Claims who were offering free, no obligation searches for PPI's, and as I thought I might have a claim but wasn't sure, I thought I'd use this company to do some initial searches for me that I would then pursue myself directly with whichever banks I had cases with so to avoid paying any commission.

The form I used asked me to list all addresses I had lived at over the past 20 years, and select any banks/lenders that I have ever used and then they would do a free search for me to identify any valid claims I may have. I read the form before I signed it and nowhere did it say I was tied in to Allay for them to pursue the claim, and there was no mention of commission or anything legally binding before I e-signed the document giving them permission to carry out the searches, As this was an online form I probably (definitely!) should have taken a screenshot of the form as I wasn't sent any email confirmation to let me know what I'd signed up to as I have no physical evidence of the t&c's of the agreement, but I do know that there was no mention of me being contractually obliged to use Allay to actually make a claim.

About a month later I received two letters from Allay informing me that I had valid cases against Egg/Barclaycard (that I was kinda expecting) and Lloyds via my credit card (that I wasn't expecting so was a nice surprise!) with an enclosed 'Letter of Authority' in each that I was asked to sign and date and return. One of the letters stated that "in order for us to submit a formal complaint, we require you to sign and return these letters of authority" and the other said "we sent out a paper letter of authority in your claims pack which we require for the next stage of your claim however we have not yet received this back

As I was going to make the claim myself using the Resolver tool on this here website I did not sign, date or return the forms and still have them here right in front of me. As far as I was concerned Allay had served it's purpose and I had no further need for their services and from the letters it was clear that they didn't have the necessary authority or else why would they be asking me to sign more forms? I was called on the phone a few weeks later by a guy from Allay who told me I need to sign and return the forms to take my claim to the next stage, I said something along the lines of "yes I'll get that done today" merely to get him off the phone, however as stated above I had zero intention of actually doing so. Then over the next few months I received a veritable flood of text messages, pretty much on a daily basis asking me to click on a link and complete the forms to continue with my case. Obviously I ignored them all and just hoped they'd eventually get the message and leave me alone.

I pursued my case with Egg directly using the Resolver tool in April and in May received a letter and cheque for almost £6,500 - result! I was a bit tardy with my claim to Lloyds but eventually wrote to them at the start of August and ten days ago I received a letter informing me I was entitled to just over £2500 (I actually think it should be more as its a credit card I've had for 20 years with an average balance of over £3000 during that time, but that's another matter for another day) and that a cheque would be with me within 28 days, which I still await. Prior to receiving the good news from Lloyds I received a separate letter from them informing me that Allay had sent them a complaint letter, the letter went on to say "however they've not given us a relevant signed authority that allows them to act on your behalf. If you want Allay to represent you please confirm this in writing". Obviously I didn't do this, thought it cheeky of Allay to have put a claim in without my authority, but felt satisfied that Lloyds had kicked them into touch on my behalf.

On 6th September I received a letter from Allay telling me that Lloyds had written to them "advising that the letter of authority provided is invalid" and in the letter I received was yet another copy of a letter of authority that they needed me to sign. That one is sat here in front of me as well, in a pile,unsigned, undated and obviously un-returned so as far as I was concerned despite their obvious belligerence, they still had no authority to have anything to do with my claim as I'd pursued it myself.

Then last week (letter dated 11th September) a couple of days after I'd received the good news from Lloyds about my incoming £2,500 I received an invoice from Allay, demanding that I owed them almost £700 commission following my successful claim. I couldn't believe it!!!

I called the phone number Allay had provided twice on Friday, and on each occasion after listening to a lengthy automated messaged I started explaining my situation to the voice on the other end and both times the line went dead about 30 seconds after I'd started talking. "This isn't right" I thought to myself, "something dodgy is going on here". So over the weekend I sent a fairly lengthy email to Allay, explaining my situation pretty much as I have above, and on Monday morning I received a reply informing me that I'd signed letters of authority back in January when I first contacted Allay and asking them to carry out the free, non-obligation checks for me. The email actually had two attached .pdfs that showed my signature in the box I had been asked to sign in on the paper versions they had sent me a few times (that are still here, unsigned and un-returned). As I mentioned above I didn't screenshot the original e-form I signed permitting them to carry out the checks, but I am absolutely certain that whatever I did sign was not the same as the attached files that I had supposedly added my signature to. "Something DEFINITELY isn't right here" I thought and then over the past couple of days I have had a right old email conversation with someone at Allay who has given me information I suspect - and in some specific details I KNOW - is incorrect.

I told them that as I had submitted the claims myself, independently from Allay, that they weren't entitled to any commission as it was a result of my actions that I won my cases, but the line from them was that as I'd signed letters of authority (I hadn't and never will!) it doesn't matter that my success was down to my efforts, they still want their share of the pie.

Whoever I was mailing (never a name on emails, merely signs off as 'Allay') informed me that on September 3rd they had received correspondence from Lloyds saying that they were "happy with the letters of authority", which again doesn't sound right as Lloyds had written to me personally on 22nd August (as mentioned above) to inform me Allay had no authority over my case and that I needed to reply in writing to provide them with it, and on 6th September Allay themselves told me Lloyds had found the letter of authority they provided was invalid.
I asked whoever I was emailing to show me a copy of the letter from Lloyds dated 3rd September when they said they were "happy", and this is when the conversation dried up and I was informed that I was mailing the wrong inbox and I should be mailing complaints@allay.co.uk rather than cancellations@allay.co.uk as I had been doing.

I asked on three separate occasion today for a copy of 3rd September letter from Lloyds to Allay, which I didn't think too much to ask as I had been sent attachments showing my signature on forms I had supposedly signed in January. On the third occasion I suggested that the reason I'd not been sent it was because perhaps it never existed, and I then went further to suggest that the forms I supposedly signed had been doctored in some way as they were not the ones I had actually put my name to - the attached files with my electronic signature were clearly headed at the top "Letter of Authority" and I know (though can't physically evidence) that there is NO WAY that I would have ever signed that as the t's&c's (also attached) made it clear that I was bound to Allay for the duration of my claim at a rate of 24%, and as my intention was always to pursue the claim myself why would I sign up to such a thing? There was no denial or rebuttal of my suggestion that the forms had in some way been doctored and funny business was afoot, merely fobbing me off to a different mailbox and told I may have to wait a while for a response due to the current high volume of demand.

All very, very fishy indeed.

Has anyone else had any experience - or even ever heard of - online forms being doctored to make it look like you've signed something you haven't? I guess it's an easy thing to do in these days of technology, to simply crop and paste my signature onto a new document, or alter the wording on the original - obviously massively unscrupulous and illegal!! - and as the e-form vanishes as soon as completed unless screen-shotted (which I really, really wish I had done!) no physical evidence exists to prove this.

And now I'm worried that they are going to invoice me for their share of my £6,500 payout from Egg earlier this year, which would amount to almost £1,800, as during my email exchanges I was informed that Allay had submitted the claim to Egg (without my knowledge or say-so) at the start of September even though that case has been closed since May! They can't do that can they? I personally don't think they can do anything as I have never signed any of the letters of authority they have sent me, and think this is all very, very dodgy and they are attempting to con/scam me.

Why would they send me multiple letters of authority to sign, or literally dozens of text messages asking me to click on a link as sign if I had already given them authority during my first contact with then all the way back in January?

Has anyone had the same experience, or any ideas what I should do next?