CCS - commercial credit services - who's dealt with them before?

[fiona01406]

Hi
Im just a bit stressed at the moment!!
I have just received a letter via my parents in law in UK - Im now living in Canada.
Its from CCS - commercial credit services chasing an unpaid debt of 39.36 from Anglian Water.
Now the thing is I have just called Anglian water & asked what its all about & given them my last 2 addresses where I lived in UK - they say that I dont owe them anything on either of the two addresses???? Both accounts were paid up & closed when I moved.
CCS wont give me the address that this bill relates to as I wont give them my address in Canada????
HAs anyone had dealing with this company before? Is it a scam??
Ive just had the horrible thought that someone has 'cloned' my identity & is now busy running up debts in the UK as Im no longer living there.

Any advice on what to do would be appreciated.

regards
Fiona

 

[ValencianNails]

I've just done a quick Google search and quite a few websites came up with people having similar issues with them via different companies, BT to name but one.

If Anglian Water have told you that you don't owe them anything then personally I would ask them if you could have that in writing, just in case :hug:

 

[Marley's Ghost]

If they are not more forthcoming with information - tell them to whistle (put politely). They are obliged to give you full disclosure, if they won't tell them to get stuffed

 

[Ruth Mills]

There are a lot of "speculative" debt collection agencies out there, who buy old debts from companies (many of which have passed the 6 year "notification period", meaning that they have become "statute barred" and no longer legally enforceable). They tend to use scaremongering tactics, like threats of legal action, and visits from "licensed field agents".

You might find the following link useful, http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf - it's some guidelines from the Office of Fair Trading that such debt collection agencies should abide by; if they don't play by the rules then you can report them to the OFT.

The fact that Anglian don't have any record of the debt is in your favour. Whatever you do, don't pay them, unless they can provide you with concrete proof that you owe the money, and that the date that you last "acknowledged" that there was a debt was within the last 6 years.

On a similar theme, Sonia received a letter from Lowell Group (another debt collection agency), which alleged that she owed some money to T-Mobile (she had a One-2-One phone back in 2000, but heard nothing from them after she cancelled the phone and paid the bill off - which was definitely more than 6 years after Lowell contacted her) - anyway we wrote them a stroppy letter stating that we didn't acknowledge the existence of any debt, and even if a debt did exist, then it would be "statute barred" anyway and they would not be able to legally enforce it. They wrote us a letter a few weeks later to say that they agreed that it was statute barred, and that they wouldn't be hassling us again. Here's a Guardian article about Lowell Group, Capital letters: Consumer champion Tony Levene fights for your rights | Money | The Guardian - BBC Watchdog have also been after them, as has Dom Littlewood off the One Show - as there have been reports of other people who have been contacted about debts that it turned out that they didn't owe (sometimes due to mistaken identity etc).

According to the Guardian article, these companies often "buy" the debts off banks, utilities, phone companies, etc, for 200 times less than they are worth - so if they get you to pay up, then it's essentially like a licence to print money for them!

Have a look on the moneysavingexpert site, Money Saving Expert: Consumer Revenge - Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more - as there are forums on there, where people have had bad experiences with debt collection agencies - also do a Google for example "statute barred" letters that you can use as a template for writing to CCS to say that you don't acknowledge the debt.

I doubt if they could do much anyway, given that you are in Canada, but I'd feel sorry for your parents if they are having to deal with the hassle from this company "by proxy"...