Zoom Telecom advice please

Crater · 3 September 2016 at 8:07PM

A company called Zoom Telecom has started taking money from the bank account of my very elderly mother in law. We believe this was a company that called her about 6 weeks ago, but of course although she knew she had been called, she could remember nothing about the conversation.

She is on the TPS, the call came from a blocked number (the first thing I and my brother in law told her to try), there has been no direct debit mandate paperwork, no contact, no receipt, nothing. (One thing she is good at is not throwing away paperwork, and we have been round several times since the call.) And the phone numbers given on the firm's website both cut off shortly after a message about being recorded.

Can anyone tell me anything about this firm or advise what we can do to get these payments stopped? She already has a good phone/internet contract with the company that the rest of the family uses, which facilitates calls between us. Unfortunately we cannot get hold of them either at this time on a Saturday.

Thanks for any advice.

buglawton · 3 September 2016 at 8:19PM

If you don't already have a Lasting Power of Attorney you may need it. You could then call the bank and ask proof of the (direct debit?) having been authorised. Never mind who the company is, concentrate on getting payments reversed/blocked.

Crater · 4 September 2016 at 3:51PM

Thanks. It was worth pointing out, as they can do something about the problem. BUT first, guess what, the Nationwide agent said we didn't have power of attorney (it's been in place since 2014), then she asked the supervisor and reported that "we only had power of attorney linked to some accounts" (she only has an account linked to her current account) and THEN put us through security, we gave all the right answers, and she said we had failed security. As far as I can make out, that was because she was looking at the present balance and MY MUM ONLY HAD THE LAST BANK STATEMENT they sent, so how could she know her balance today?

Now I understand why this company regularly gets the Daily Mail Wooden Spoon. And they are supposed to be improving their service to relatives acting for disabled people.

Now I will have to go into a branch tomorrow and find out what is happening. Eventually by calling again we found someone on the "Helpline" who appeared to know what they were talking about, and helped to forward the enquiry, but we don't need this kind of stress (and I am sure the agents don't, either.)

I now also know from her telecomms supplier that the company that "signed her up" IS trying to move her account, and gives a completely different name to the one on the direct debit. Apparently they use lots of different names. The agent at the phone company had heard about them.

buglawton · 4 September 2016 at 7:09PM

If you have proper LPA documents it's the most routine of matters to get any & all accounts authorised for you to manage, this fact should apply to all brands of bank. If they require a certified copy you can get that copy certified at a larger post office for £7 or so, or free at a Jobcentre. I've found that walking into a bank branch to get to the point is the most effective.

Crater · 5 September 2016 at 4:08PM

buglawton wrote: »

If you have proper LPA documents it's the most routine of matters to get any & all accounts authorised for you to manage, this fact should apply to all brands of bank. If they require a certified copy you can get that copy certified at a larger post office for £7 or so, or free at a Jobcentre. I've found that walking into a bank branch to get to the point is the most effective.

They nearly always do require a certified copy - thanks for the tip about post offices, I must check if that is still available, as although we have some certified copies, our adviser did not do a very good job of it and had to do some more which actually met the criteria ...

Hmm. The other catch is that the Adviser holds the originals in another town - and also the PO information seems to cover identity documents, but no mention of POA docs. I will go in next time I pass and ask them.

We certainly found it routine to get our bank to accept us as Attorneys, but since then we have had various problems with their "records" apparently being incomprehensible to the agent on the phone, or just erroneous.

Angela165 · 7 October 2016 at 6:12PM

Hi, I'm very interested on how you have got on with this. I've got POA for an older gentleman who has dementia. His accounts appear on my online banking app with Santander so makes it easy to keep an eye on things. Any how I found a direct debit for 19.99 zoom telecom on his account. This was dated in June and no other debit since. An attempt to withdraw 190 odds online transaction happened more recently and the bank contacted him as previous fraudulent transactions had happened last year. He's got a call blocker from local trading standards so no idea how anyone got him on phone. Went into branch they cancelled the direct debit and arranged refund. They already refunded the 190. I asked for copy of direct debit mandate. Letter from bank today saying it was all electronic so no signature was required. There is no paperwork in his house for zoom telecom. To me looks like professional fraud targeting very elderly people in the hope they don't notice but I don't know how they get their details? Very concerning!

Mala · 21 January 2017 at 1:45AM

Zoom Telecom are still conning elderly people. £19.99 has been taken out of my 81 year old mothers account only this month. She has memory problems and has no recollection of anyone contacting her from this or any other company. Zoom had contacted TalkTalk to say that she was closing their account and transferring to them and I only found this out because I pay her telephone bill and it is my email that TalkTalk writes and sends the bills too. Does anyone have any more information how they are doing this?

trishagail · 13 April 2017 at 12:19PM

I have LPA on my elderly mother's accounts and found a direct debit for these people had appeared to-day. The bank, Santander were very good about reversing it and gave me a contact number for zoom telecom. As with the earlier contributor, my mother remembers the telephone call but says she told them she wasn't interested. They said they had the phone call recorded but I just stuck to my guns and told them they were not getting the money and in the end they backed off and agreed not to contact her again. Will be keeping a close eye on her account as we still don't know how they got her numbers to set up the direct debit.

Geraldinel · 24 April 2017 at 7:13PM

We also have recently had issues with Zoom telecomms,they have taken £21.21 out by direct debit from my 92 year old mother who suffers from dementia.
We have been in touch with the bank as my mother has never signed for the direct debit and the bank will stop the DD and return the money to the account and have agreed to investigate how this has been set up.

We have also contacted zoom and this is a one off payment for blocking unwanted callls, a service which may have been free. It is interesting to see a previous post that my mother has just cancelled talk talk. We are not sure how zoom have managed to get the account number.
Very disappointed with the bank allowing this to go through without checking as we have LPA.

Will try and keep you all advised

macman · 25 April 2017 at 11:36PM

Having an LPA registered with her bank does not mean that the bank do any more checks on transactions. It simply means that you can operate her account as if you were a joint account holder. It doesn't prevent her from operating the account either, if she is physically able to do so.

tomthered · 27 April 2017 at 12:00PM

Perhaps Trading Standards need top be brought in as this appears to be a very big scamming operation byt Zoom Telecom

Zoom Telecom advice please

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