No wonder these banks and finance houses get bad debts...

chuckcork

Just had a call from an investigator for a credit company chasing after money from someone using my name and a previous address (ID Fraud) , the call was a good one, they acknowledge that I'm not the one who took out a dodgy loan at an address I used to live at but 18 months after I left. The loan was a bad one they had purchased from a credit company (think finance arm of a major breakdown service provider)

Its been a while to come to this resolution, having been contacted by debt collectors a few times but fought them off using ID, while not been given enough particulars to challenge the debt, and only finding out it was linked to my previous address when I checked my Equifax file.

The scary bit, is when I ask, "what ID was used to get this loan" the answer is "looks like none"!

How can someone take out a loan for something like £16,000 do so with absolutely no proof of identity whatsoever? Just take a name linked to an address, make up a birthdate and go from there?

I can't change my address or do anything with my Bank (the one that hasn't taken government handouts yet) without having my passport as photo ID, debit card and answer security questions, so how does someone simply ripoff 16 grand with nothing?

Beeblebrox

They thought they would make money out of it! Unbelievable stuff, really.

Special K

A lot of retail and service companies that went into "banking" such as the one you are describing, did not bother investing in the full infrastructure required to ensure know your customer and do full credit checking. Rather they outsourced part of it or took a risk based view of the rest. That means that perhaps they did not have post office address file to verifying post codes, or an up to date electoral roll etc. Consequently, in a rental property where junk mail continues to be delivered to your address after you move out, it is easy to scam the lenders. Ultimately this not why we have a credit crunch, although the something for nothing culture evidenced by the perpetrator of the crime is a contributory factor, let's face it.

Eagerness to lend is clearly the reason why this lender went to market before having full infrastructure and compliance checks in place, but they would have known that they were doing this and weighed up the risks of occasional fraud with the risk of not being the market and making money. You are a casualty of that risk based view, and pretty irrelevant to them, not least because they already outsourced collection. You would do well to write to the CEO, sending copies to the CFO and the Head of Sales and Marketing for the Finance arm, the FSA Consumer Panel and the Ombudsman. Don't bother being subtle - state your complaint and make it clear what you want.

Good luck and don't accept their first response

teagar

Beeblebrox wrote:

They thought they would make money out of it! Unbelievable stuff, really.

I think they probably would.

They just would have sold it on as a security to get (most of the) money immediately. At least, that's how I understand it.