What can you do if a someone has got loans in your name – identity theft?

A reader, Mrs J, asked:

Since February my husband has started to receive letters from WageDay Advance, Satsuma and QuickQuid saying that he has loans with them that need repaying. He doesn’t have any loans. We have sent Prove It letters to all three. We have now had letters saying that WageDay Advance and QuickQuid have passed the account to debt collectors.

In addition, he has now had a letter from Visa Vanquis saying that he has an unpaid credit card. He doesn’t have an account with them. On speaking to them, it seems that the account number doesn’t exist and that it will be sorted out at their end. 

Along with the Prove It letters (sent by recorded delivery), my husband has also phoned WageDay Advance, Satsuma and QuickQuid telling them that the debts are not his.

They have not proved that the debts are his but they keep sending letters. The debts appear on his Experian credit record. I dread the post arriving every day. Why is this happening? Do you have any advice about what we should do? It’s really starting to get us down.

This sounds like identity theft.

There are other possibilities if a debt collector contacts you about an old debt you don’t recognise, or if you find debts you don’t recognise on your credit files. But to be suddenly chased about recent loans by several payday lenders and a credit card company suggests that someone has got hold of your husband’s details and is using them to apply for credit in his name.

Mr J has done the right things so far: sending a Prove It letter and phoning up the lenders. It is disappointing that none of the lenders seems to have actually grasped that there is a real problem here.

Here five things I suggest Mr J should do now. Some of them may turn out to not be needed, but after six months, I think going for them all is the best approach to getting this all ended as soon as possible.

1 Report identity theft to Action Fraud

Mr J should inform Action Fraud about this identity theft because it is a crime. He can do this online and he will get a Crime Reference Number (CRN).

This is unlikely to result in a police investigation, but being able to tell the lenders that you have reported this, and give them the CRN, should hopefully mean they take it more seriously.

2 Inform Experian about the identity theft

Experian have a Victims of Fraud team that can help you sort out problems – contact them at identityfraud@uk.experian.com or call them on  0344 481 8000.

3 Check his other credit records and statements

So far this has mainly been a nuisance and a worry to Mr and Mrs J. Although the scammers seem to have got enough details about Mr J to fool a new lender, they haven’t mentioned any problems with their own accounts.

But it’s good to be very careful now and for at least another year.

Mr J should check his records with all three credit reference agencies every month, see Check your credit records for free for how to do this. He is looking for any new debts or accounts he doesn’t recognise and any new addresses or associations with other people being added.

He also needs to look at his bank statements and credit card statements every month to check that there are no wrong purchases showing on there.

He could also consider changing his passwords for online and mobile access to his bank accounts and credit cards. Until something wrong shows up, this isn’t essential, but he may decide that it’s better to be totally safe.

4 Put in formal complaints to all the lenders

I suggest he also makes a formal written complaint to each of the lenders, by email or letter. He should put COMPLAINT ABOUT IDENTITY THEFT as the title of the email.

These complaints need to say:

I have told you before [give dates] that I do not recognise this debt [give details of the debt on your credit record] and asked you to prove that it is mine. You have not done this and you have continued to send me letters. [add on if that the debt has been passed to a debt collector]

I have never borrowed from you. I have reported this to Action Fraud, this is my Crime Reference Number: 99999999.

I want you to do the following to put this right:
a) write me a letter accepting that the debt is not mine
b) agree that you will not sell this debt with my name on it to any third party
c) remove the debt from my name with all UK credit reference agencies
d) after this, cease to send me any more communications about this debt.

If this is not done within 8 weeks, I will be sending this complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and asking for compensation. This has been causing me and my wife a great deal of stress and you have just been ignoring me.”

If the lenders don’t give in and agree, Mr J should send the complaint to the Finanical Ombudsman and ask for compensation for the time and stress this has caused. He will need to send a separate complaint for each of the lenders.

5 Sign up for Cifas protection

Additionally, to stop any more problem debts happening, Mr J needs to sign up for protective registration at Cifas. This costs £20 for two years but I think it’s worth it.

After this has been done, when the thief tries to open a new account using Mr J’s details, the lender will see the Cifas flag and will have to contact him to ask if has applied for this credit – he can then say No.

This won’t stop damage Mr J’s credit score and it won’t stop Mr J himself taking out any further credit – it just means that his real applications will take a few extra days to process.

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