Identity Fraud - Legal Avenues

[MikeDrop]

Hi all,

My partner has recently been a victim of Identity Fraud. A few months ago, she had a debt collections letter delivered to a previous address (of which her family still reside; we'll call this Address B), for a debt from a credit account, we'll call them Creditor N, relating to an address she no longer lives at; we'll call this Address G.

To be clear, the address the debt collectors letters are being sent to (Address B) is not the same as the address where the credit has been taken out (Address G). She now lives at Address C, with me.

We contacted Creditor N and they acknowledged the fraud and dealt with the account. Heard nothing more of it since then. The OH immediately signed up with Experian to keep an eye on things and all seemed calm. She also reported it to Action Fraud and got a Crime Reference Number.

Fast forward to yesterday, she is handed another wad of letters from her relative, containing more debt collectors letters for another creditor, we'll call this Creditor J. We contacted the debt collectors, provided the information they asked for and they said they'd be in touch. Having dealt with these sort of agencies before, if they can't get a quick payment the next best thing is to refer the account back to the creditor. So not expecting to hear much from them anymore.

We then called Credit J today and they were predictably unhelpful. As the victim, they wouldn't divulge any information until they referred it to their fraud dept which could take 7 days. Excellent.

Got on the phone to Experian to try and find more info and they were great. They notified her of yet another account relating to Address G; with yet another creditor which we'll call Creditor L.

So to summarise:

• 3 x Creditors; N, J & L
• 1 x Previous address; Address G

Now, what we know is:

• The person living at Address G is known by the OH and her family (her mum is a mutual friend on Facebook).
• Creditor J & L had their accounts started within 2 days of each other, 6 months after the OH moved out.
• Creditor J had an account with the wrong DOB
• Creditor J & L both have telephone numbers that are working (I called them pretending to be a salesman), but are different.
• Creditor L has an email address linked to the account that has the name of the suspects daughter in it.
• Creditor L actually has a zero balance. The account couldn't be verified so the order was never fulfilled.

What we've done so far:

• Got as much info as possible from Creditors J & L
• Registered fraudulent transactions with Creditors J & L
• Notified Experian of the Fraudulent transactions
• In the process of reporting these other accounts to Action Fraud.
• In the process of setting up CIFAS

What I'm looking for some help on, because there's lots of conflicting info online, is:

• Creditor J wasn't as forthcoming with information as Creditor L. Could I submit a Subject Access Request to get this info?
• I like the idea of putting a mail redirect on the address to get an idea of any other mail they may be receiving in the OH's name. £35 seems worth it for the piece of mind
• Will anything actually be done to the suspect? I suspect not. The values we're talking are less than £2k.
• Are there any other ways of stopping this unscrupulous, scabby, waste of oxygen doing this again? If her lawn is about 20'*20', how many frozen sausages would I need?

In all seriousness though, how is it that people get away with this sort of thing? The money isn't the big part really. I mean, we couldn't just pay it all off and be done with it for peace of mind. But it's the stress of the letters and knowing someone is being a brazen thief. The suspect knows who my OH is. The families know each other from being in the same town.

Any help would be appreciated guys. Sorry for the essay!

Edited by MikeDrop on Friday 1st February 15:22