I’ve had a letter from Fredrickson international stating that I owe £25.22 and they are collection on behalf of Virgin Mobile.

First up
I’ve never knowingly had a virgin mobile account (I’ve had Virgin Media but at an old house from 2 years ago)

Second,
I’ve moved house twice since then, rented for 15 months then bought again 4 months ago.

The letter arrived to my CURRENT address and I am not even registered on the electoral roll at this address yet so how the hell have they managed to get my address.

Third,
I’ve replied to them by email asking them to provide

What services the outstanding amount is to cover
When the original outstanding bill was issued
The address the bill was sent to.

The email reply I received said that because I had not contacted them by email before I need to confirm my full name and address, Date of birth and the reference from the letter they sent (already quoted in the email I sent them)

All smells a bit dodgy to me.
I’ve googled them and there are mixed reports out there, some poeple genuinely owing money on a debt that they are collecting on behalf of someone and others saying that they do not know anything about the supposed debt.

Any thoughts or experiences?

I’m really concerned as to how they managed to get my new address though….

Cheers Col

Contact Virgin Media/Mobile?

Expect a visit from….

Scam. The amount is so small they are counting on a few people being frightened enough to pay without question. Your biggest mistake was in acknowledging the letter. Ignore all further correspondence or mail it to Virgin Media with a note demanding a proper explanation.

Read these:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/jan/23/debt-collecting-phone-call

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=636295

Contact virgin media in order to cover yourself. Some tyke might have got hold of your details so this needs to be taken care of.

More than likely that someone with a similar name is responsible, and that they have posted it to you after your name popped up in the credit reference searches for your new place

Ignore it and file in the round cabinet in the corner.

I sure as hell wouldn’t be writing to them or giving them any information.

I’d be wary.

If Fredrickson are a legitimate company can you contact them direct using a number not on the e-mail? [Edit: contact them may be bad advice if Frederickson themselves are scammers].

I’d be concerned it’s someone posing as Frederikson, possibly trying to pin a debt from a previous occupant or some dodgy trick.

We had a warning in my last company about a Halifax Debt Collector who were asking for £1 to see records of the “debt you owed” which was then taken as part payment and admission of the whole debt. I think they were caught by Trading Standards eventually.

I’ve had similar – 2 emails (not letters) in both cases with alarming specifics of my personal details (address, email, DOB) and for companies which I’d never have any reason to deal with – a trade supplier of gym equipment and a military memorabilia dealer.
Due to the specificity of the emails, like you I was concerned that someone had been racking up debt in my name, but I contacted both companies who assured me that they’d never heard of me and had no cause to be sending a debt collector around.
Probably worth checking with Virgin first, and if all is ok, then just ignore it as spam.

Go check your credit report on experian, it should be on there. If not, there is a fraud procedure, I forget its name, where you can report the company.

Oh, I know all about this lot.

Fred’s are legitimate in so far as it’s not technically a scam; however their business practices are very ‘scare tactic.’ They buy bad / written off debts from companies and chase them. Quite often these debts are statute barred – a debt older than six years in unenforcable, however if you acknowledge it the whole six year limit resets back to zero. They rely on people panicking and just paying it to avoid the hassle.

You’ll get increasingly threatening letters about it if you ignore them; the next will probably be from Red Debt Collection, which is the next desk over.

Very important: Never give them any information they don’t already have, and whatever you do never ever admit to the debt if it’s not valid or offer to make a payment. Never speak to them on the phone, insist on written communication only. If they ring you, tell them to write to you and hang up.

It is down to them to prove that the debt exists and that you are liable. They almost certainly won’t be able to do this, they buy debt information but don’t have any records or history to back it up.

I’ll dig out my “get stuffed” letter when I get home if you like. We had multiple letters from them about a non-existent debt, since I wrote to them I’ve not heard a dickie bird.

But just in case I wasn’t clear, be VERY careful what information you let slip.

100% fishy
100% scam

you would have received loads of final demands, and at least 2 letters from Virgin media threatening legal action before it was handed over to debt collection agency.

and 20 odd quid? they wouldn’t be interested for anything less than a few hundred, and would also have added on quite a chunk for their costs too.

I would forward it to Virgin, and to Action Fraud, and do whatever checks necessary to be sure someone hasn’t ordered themselves a phone in your name.

Did think it could have been related to that online ransom, that knows who you are. That’s potentially a scary one that could fool a lot of people. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35996408

Someone’s had their database hacked. Sport Pursuit?

Don’t do any of that. Tell them to do one. Trust me.

Ooh, in fact, I might have a copy in my email. Give me a minute.

Seemingly not. Ho hum. I’ll paste it up when I get home.

Thanks for your input guys.
I will proceed with a letter asking them to verigy what the debt is for and all the details of it Your letter would be great thanks cougar.

The only money I owe is my mortgage – to my knowledge!

Thanks for your input guys.
I will proceed with a letter asking them to verigy what the debt is for and all the details of it Your letter would be great thanks cougar.

I wouldn’t be continuing a conversation with them at all. If you want to check for a debt with Virgin, call Virgin.

All contacting them will do is make it even more likely you will be targeted by scammers in future.

One thing,

Is there a date provided for this alleged debt?

Hi,
No date, I have requested original billing date, What the supposed services this debt was for and the address of the account holder (supposedly me) at the time of billing.

Then they want in return from me (to go through security apparently) Full name, address, Date of birth and the reference from the letter they sent.

Thanks

They want you to prove who you are, what, so that you don’t fraudulently pay off someone else’s debt?

We get letters like this at work. We were at our old address for quite some time under various different names

One of the more recent ones read quite well until it was signed by Liz Hurley lol

I bet if I called with card details to pay it then they wouldn’t want to verify all those details!

Cougar has it, these companies buy bad debt from companies like Virgin etc and chase up people to claw this back.
it is all based on admission from yourself.

I had the same a few months back and the emails kept coming back with higher and higher threat levels as I kept asking for them to verify what the debt was for and how they got my current details. lots of threats of court action were thrown my way.
called British Gas to query the debt, they admitted and error and cleared their records.

told the debt collection agency to jog on after that.

I’d be inclined to igone them completely. They have no more legal powers than I have. Only Virgin can take you to court.
Responding might trigger more demands.

Do not ignore, if you do so you risk bad credit (regardless of whether it is a scam or not) You need to contact Virgin and to be honest I would be getting a copy of my credit file.

The net result is that it all could be an error or a scam but modern life is a bit shit like that and only you can resolve it no matter how much time and expense you incur.

Only Virgin can take you to court.

Yes but they can employ people to chase debt on their behalf. If you don’t pay then you get taken to court.

fling it in the bin, don’t contact them, forget about it.

You only get bad credit if taken to court, lose your case and don’t pay within 28 days.

You only get bad credit if taken to court, lose your case and don’t pay within 28 days

No you don’t. You get bad credit the minute you default on a payment / debt. It effects your overall credit scoring dependant on the number of defaults.

Court is a completely different ball game altogether and stays on your credit file for 6 years, and makes it highly unlikely you will get credit

You only get bad credit if taken to court, lose your case and don’t pay within 28 days.

Tosh!

FunkyDunc – Member
You only get bad credit if taken to court, lose your case and don’t pay within 28 days
No you don’t. You get bad credit the minute you default on a payment / debt.

The credit report damage would be on the credit file then, a soon as it passed from virgin to the debt collection agency. So if the Op wants to do anything get a hold of their credit file and check that.

I wouldn’t be acknowledging this company in any way. They can’t do anything without you compliance.

I have just done an experian credit check and it is showing 999 out of 999 for a my score (Excellent) and has only my mortgage showing as an outstanding debt.

I have filled in my previous addresses including the one where I did use Vergin media services so this would be evident on the report if I had an outstanding debt to them surely??

I have emailed Virgin media to establish from them If I have any outstanding debts with them too. I’ll await their confirmation on that too.

Just spoken to Virgin and it transpires it was something that was set up without my knowledge!

And I have received no bills for!

They have credited the account so it is now clear.

Lets hope I can somehow pass this information on to the debt collecting agency.
Still confused how they got my address and why it’s not on my credit report….

Locoboy: good job!

Virgin will call back the debt from the company so that they can clear the debt off their books. ignore the collection agency and keep any records from Virgin confirming their error and rectification.

Are you going to bill them for your morning spent sorting this out?

To be honest, stuff light this puts the fear of gdo into me,I don’t like owing anything so I just want it sorting out and removing from any ‘lists or databases’ so I’ll just be happy to know it has been resolved. I can’t be arsed with the stress of trying to bill someone for something and chasing it up when they fob me off countless times.

You need to still keep checking your credit report for some time unfortunately. Been there and done it, there is almost zero control of the information that gets on to credit reports but it’s bloody hard to get it off.

I know you’re sorted now, but I’ll post this in case if helps anyone else in future. This is the letter I sent to Lowell (who are part of Fred’s). I’ve ***’ed out personal information.

---

Dear Mr ***,

Account no: ***

You have contacted me regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself.

I would point out that I have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to Barclaycard.

I am familiar with the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance which states that it unfair to send demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that they are the debtor in question.

I would also point out that the OFT say under the Guidance that it is unfair to pursue third parties for payment when they are not liable. In not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt you are using deceptive/and or unfair methods.

Furthermore ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment amounts to physical/psychological harassment.

I would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless you can provide evidence as to my liability for the debt in question.

I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the OFT of your actions.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

***

Good letter Cougar. I really dislike all companies collecting personal information. To use my local tip I need a permit as I drive a van. They have my email address and van details and home address but refused to issue a permit as I wouldn’t give them my phone number which they would never need. I complained to my MP who wrote to them and apparently they now don’t need my number. Hurray for my MP and no selling of my number for PPI calls.

Nice letter Cougar.
Thanks for all the tips, hints and advice.