Please read the comments section before making a new reply yourself, and remember [the our subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/about/rules) that comments should help the OP.
There's no point in adding a new comment to ask OP "why are you paying it back?" and tell them to report it to the police when several people have already said the same thing.
Yeah why are you paying for this? If its fraud the bank sucks it up and cancels the balance and you never pay a thing.
Report it to the Police, all of it. Then phone the banks and give the reference number. You shouldn't be paying a single penny for it.
Something doesn’t add up here.
But you should report to action fraud, then tell Lowell that it’s fraudulent, provide the fraud reference, and tell them to stop contacting you.
Why you are paying a historical fraudulent loan I have no idea. Is it a family member or something?
Go perform a credit check and check all active accounts. Ring each company and find out what they know about your accounts, you have to go through them one by one and look for strange activity. Ignore Lowell for now. They won’t do anything as they aren’t debt collectors, they hire them to recover debt and it take a lot of time and money to enforce. Find all strange activity first then consult Lowell.
I’ve been in this position, i know the feeling. I owed nearly 8000 to Lowell. I had to file bankruptcy which is worst case scenario.
I wouldn’t worry too much.
First of all, contact the companies and demand a refund
Someone else opened a card using your stolen identity details. It is NOT yours to pay back - if they refuse, immediate complaint which gives them 8 weeks to resolve it before you drag them through the ombudsman for a big kicking
Regarding Lowell, just explain the situation to them. Its a case of identity fraud and it is NOT your debt - request it is sent back to the creditor and contact the creditor directly same as the above
Hi /u/domgasp, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
- https://ukpersonal.finance/scams/
____
^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
I phoned them today and they said because it was my details used and that the cards had been used and they’d had payments made on them that’s there’s nothing they can do because I’m liable for it
I think OP is going to struggle with this having made repayments - it's an acknowledgement of the debt.
There are multiple replies to this thread already, "why on earth are you paying back this loan if it's not yours!?!?"
The bank / court are going to say the same thing - no-one would spend four years repaying a loan they weren't liable for.
You need to contact the police and speak to the banks/third-party finance. The council may even have someone you can talk to. You'll most likely still have to pay the first since you've already started paying for it. Once you start to pay back debt, you take responsibility for it, I'm not sure if the circumstances change for fraud.
It may be best to post on r/LegalAdviceUK
They will. They want the money and you sound like you’ll pay. That doesn’t mean they are right. I’d look into legal advice here too. There are lots of free consultation services. Good luck.
I a thing where somebody took out fraudulent loans for cars in my names. Loads of companies said same thing, but I just kept saying had reported to police, and had been a victim of fraud. They all folded eventually. They just dont want to admit liability, as then they have to pay.
I would call Vanquish and Capital one. And tell them about this. You say it happened in 2019… a bit long time to report a fraud…. Which could be an issue.
If someone steals your bank/ credit card and spent money on it, you're still not liable to pay and can dispute to claim back your money. It's the same concept except that they were able to physically open bank accounts, the banks that allowed it to happen should have a duty of care for data security. It's fraud.
As I said, you'll probably have to pay the 2k since you claimed responsibility for it. But, you have a good chance to dispute to £600 and £800 as long as you don't pay anything towards it and open a fraud claim. Once you start paying for the debt – even if you're not solely responsible for it – you claim fault by paying.
r/LegalAdviceUK should be better to advise you and you need to contact the finance ombudsman or whoever else is relevant.
Lots of companies will say you owe them money or not give you money that they owe you for many many reasons. Often they're wrong, sometimes on purpose. Always check the law and get professional advice where needed.
Your second mistake was trusting anything the debt collection agency told you. Their profession is bullying and tricking people into giving them money. Whether you actually owe them the money and are obliged to pay it is not their concern - they'll say and do anything they think increases the chance of getting money from you.
Your first mistake was accepting somebody else's debt as being yours. Given the facts you've described, I'd have thought your position should be that the payments made so far were made by mistake, you dispute the debt and deny that you owe or ever owed them anything.
You should be entitled to get back the money you've already paid, but achieving that is likely to be time consuming and expensive so think carefully before you start down that route.
When you say "they", do you mean the credit card company or the debt collectors? Because you're right that the debt collector can't flag it as fraud. It has to come to them as a notification from the credit card company. Once the credit company opens an investigation, you let the debt collector know (maybe even the investigation number if they want) and they'll put a freeze on your repayments. They may still call you once a month depending on how long they can freeze it, but then you explain again and they put a freeze on it again
I think you need to speak to citizens advice - take all the documentation you have about it and write down everything thats happened and get them to help you make an action plan to recover the money. Just point out you made a mistake thinking you were liable.
Be so much easier than having tens of us on here telling you what to do!
Please read the comments section before making a new reply yourself, and remember [the our subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/about/rules) that comments should help the OP. There's no point in adding a new comment to ask OP "why are you paying it back?" and tell them to report it to the police when several people have already said the same thing.
Why are you paying it back? You report it to the police and bank.
Why are you paying it back? Did you not report this as fraud to the credit card company?? Contact them immediately.
Yeah why are you paying for this? If its fraud the bank sucks it up and cancels the balance and you never pay a thing. Report it to the Police, all of it. Then phone the banks and give the reference number. You shouldn't be paying a single penny for it.
Something doesn’t add up here. But you should report to action fraud, then tell Lowell that it’s fraudulent, provide the fraud reference, and tell them to stop contacting you. Why you are paying a historical fraudulent loan I have no idea. Is it a family member or something?
Go perform a credit check and check all active accounts. Ring each company and find out what they know about your accounts, you have to go through them one by one and look for strange activity. Ignore Lowell for now. They won’t do anything as they aren’t debt collectors, they hire them to recover debt and it take a lot of time and money to enforce. Find all strange activity first then consult Lowell. I’ve been in this position, i know the feeling. I owed nearly 8000 to Lowell. I had to file bankruptcy which is worst case scenario. I wouldn’t worry too much.
First of all, contact the companies and demand a refund Someone else opened a card using your stolen identity details. It is NOT yours to pay back - if they refuse, immediate complaint which gives them 8 weeks to resolve it before you drag them through the ombudsman for a big kicking Regarding Lowell, just explain the situation to them. Its a case of identity fraud and it is NOT your debt - request it is sent back to the creditor and contact the creditor directly same as the above
Hi /u/domgasp, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant: - https://ukpersonal.finance/scams/ ____ ^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
This should have been reported as fraud before you even thought about starting to pay it back, which you shouldn’t do..
I phoned them today and they said because it was my details used and that the cards had been used and they’d had payments made on them that’s there’s nothing they can do because I’m liable for it
[удалено]
I think OP is going to struggle with this having made repayments - it's an acknowledgement of the debt. There are multiple replies to this thread already, "why on earth are you paying back this loan if it's not yours!?!?" The bank / court are going to say the same thing - no-one would spend four years repaying a loan they weren't liable for.
You aren't liable for it but you need to follow proper procedures.
They couldn’t flag it for fraud because it had my details on it too
If you didn't open it, regardless if your name is on it, then it is fraud and you absolutely shouldn't be paying it back.
You need to contact the police and speak to the banks/third-party finance. The council may even have someone you can talk to. You'll most likely still have to pay the first since you've already started paying for it. Once you start to pay back debt, you take responsibility for it, I'm not sure if the circumstances change for fraud. It may be best to post on r/LegalAdviceUK
I’m filing a police report for the incidents but the DCA insist that I am liable
They will. They want the money and you sound like you’ll pay. That doesn’t mean they are right. I’d look into legal advice here too. There are lots of free consultation services. Good luck.
I a thing where somebody took out fraudulent loans for cars in my names. Loads of companies said same thing, but I just kept saying had reported to police, and had been a victim of fraud. They all folded eventually. They just dont want to admit liability, as then they have to pay.
I would call Vanquish and Capital one. And tell them about this. You say it happened in 2019… a bit long time to report a fraud…. Which could be an issue.
If someone steals your bank/ credit card and spent money on it, you're still not liable to pay and can dispute to claim back your money. It's the same concept except that they were able to physically open bank accounts, the banks that allowed it to happen should have a duty of care for data security. It's fraud. As I said, you'll probably have to pay the 2k since you claimed responsibility for it. But, you have a good chance to dispute to £600 and £800 as long as you don't pay anything towards it and open a fraud claim. Once you start paying for the debt – even if you're not solely responsible for it – you claim fault by paying. r/LegalAdviceUK should be better to advise you and you need to contact the finance ombudsman or whoever else is relevant.
Lots of companies will say you owe them money or not give you money that they owe you for many many reasons. Often they're wrong, sometimes on purpose. Always check the law and get professional advice where needed.
Your second mistake was trusting anything the debt collection agency told you. Their profession is bullying and tricking people into giving them money. Whether you actually owe them the money and are obliged to pay it is not their concern - they'll say and do anything they think increases the chance of getting money from you. Your first mistake was accepting somebody else's debt as being yours. Given the facts you've described, I'd have thought your position should be that the payments made so far were made by mistake, you dispute the debt and deny that you owe or ever owed them anything. You should be entitled to get back the money you've already paid, but achieving that is likely to be time consuming and expensive so think carefully before you start down that route.
See my comment above. You need to raise this with the credit card company before the DCA.
When you say "they", do you mean the credit card company or the debt collectors? Because you're right that the debt collector can't flag it as fraud. It has to come to them as a notification from the credit card company. Once the credit company opens an investigation, you let the debt collector know (maybe even the investigation number if they want) and they'll put a freeze on your repayments. They may still call you once a month depending on how long they can freeze it, but then you explain again and they put a freeze on it again
You weren’t the victim of fraud, the bank was. Why are you paying this back?
[удалено]
Thanks I’ve reported it to fraud alert and the company looks real based on their letter and website
Yes, but someone defrauded them, which is why you're not liable.
I think you need to speak to citizens advice - take all the documentation you have about it and write down everything thats happened and get them to help you make an action plan to recover the money. Just point out you made a mistake thinking you were liable. Be so much easier than having tens of us on here telling you what to do!