CapQuest Debt Recovery ....Scam?
 

Just received a letter from this company, at the exact same time as a letter from Abbey, who I have not had an account with for over 15 years.

The Abbey letter suggests they have just sold my "debt" from an outstanding loan to CapQuest.
In the same post delivery I have also received a letter from CapQuest, stating the date on the Abbey letter, and advising me that they will accept half the amount as full settlement.

The letter from Abbey is VERY fake if you know what you are looking for, with no address or phone number for them.

Please let everyone know about this. Im gonna humour them for a while, but have NO intentions of paying.
The letters come in UK Mail envelopes.
Im assuming that these people will use other bank names as a front too.

PS the return addresses on BOTH letters is for the same company. And a PO BOX address.

How much is it for?

(just wondered what the return they expect)

Steve

The apparent debt is 359 quid, they will accept 180 as final settlement.
Its the sort of figure you would just write a cheque for.

Here is an interesting bit though.
It could be ID theft, but then I would have received letters before this to say I was falling behind.
It could be Abbey selling on the unpaid bank charges I had with Abbey back in '93, but then "Section 5 of the Limitation Act" would apply.

So this "could" be genuine.

I have tried calling Abbey, but none of the agents I was transferred to were willing to try and deal with the matter and kept transferring me.

Capquest are by all accounts a genuine company, however one that receives a LOT of negative press. Poor tactics, unfair practises, and harrassment to name but a few.

I would also consider it inappropriate for a debt recovery firm to send a letter claiming to be an official letter from a bank on their(the banks) headed paper.

I have contacted both parties by email and will update what happens next.

Like I say though, even if it was this thing from eons ago, with the bank charges, its WAY overdue, and I am pretty damn sure it was never 360 quid.

Sounds like a scam or someone trying it on way too late like you say.

Just ride it out and see what happens, I doubt if it is genuine in any way it would never stand up in court giving tothe time since the charges were made.

It makes for an interesting Saturday though you have to admit lol.

they will try it on coz they know the Section 5 of the Limitation Act applies

it would just mean they would pay Abbey as little as 1p in the pound for the debt on the basis that some people would b=not be aware of the Limitation Act and pay

had the same thing with aol,rang the so called debt company and told them to poke it,heard nothing since

Interesting point there mate, kinda makes sense why they would pursue it.

Sadly on a few forums Capquest seem to have lost in court and ended up paying the person they were pursuing lol

lol sadly unlikely to hear much now til next week, if at all. But I will be pursuing Abbey, to see if they authorise companies such as Cap to send letters bearing their company details, pretending to be them.... Seems wierd to me.

Thats kinda where this is going too, just gonna drag it out and make them work for their money (which they wont get)

Snazy,

I've had one of these today too, but saying I owe T-Mobile. I bloody don't, the account was closed and paid in full 3 years ago and shows so on my credit report

This is strange!!

Its a scam read this Money Saving Forums

Do not give these guys any personal info if asked apart from reference number. Tell them to provide proof you owe this debt or do not contact contact you again as you can provide proof you don't. Should do the trick.

Theivin barstewards!
Did you just get the one letter, or one apparently from each company?

Yeah I have been checking the forums too mate, seen the same.
I have emailed the company asking for proof.

Cheers :thumb:

This the best bit to note:

"continuing to press for payment after a debtor has stated that they
will not be paying a debt because it is statute barred could amount to
harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of the Administration of
Justice Act 1970."

That'll be why the ended up in Court

tbh that is worth a punt -- I would (and have successfully in the past) fire of a small claim against them stating harassment and mental distress

this concentrates the mind because they will have to defend it or counter sue or settle

I am gonna keep it clean and simple if it gets messy their end tbh.
There are loads of parts of the act that would cause them to fall on their faces and bloody theirs noses if they wanna follow up.

Anyone else had dealings with these people or letters recently. By the sounds of things they have just bulk bought a load of debt again. Or are just making things up now.

Well they must be making things up because I don't owe any money to T-Mobile as they claim and can prove it.

Have you checked your credit file? If you have defaulted on an amount owed to Abbey, there will be a record of it on there by them. I advise you check out CreditExpert.co.uk from Experian, Credit Rating Check, Free Credit Report & Fraud Alerts (Experian) and use the free trial. I have worked in fraud in the past with a debt collection department within the company also. Their tactics were a little shady for collecting the money, the letters were sometime vague but the debts were completely real. The company that I worked for would then mark the credit files with bad debt but if this is a "fake", they won't have the power to do that so you'll be clean.

we have had an odd phone call this morning,
someone rang us cliaming to be a relative of some a few doors down, and got our no. of directory inquiries.
we didnt tell them antyhing did 1471 and it was a debt collection company,
so i googled it rang them and played bloody hell,

the woman in question emigrated to oz, and bounced a cheque on my wife for doing her hair,
a builder got the house from the auction and is doing it up.


there was a lot of bad press about this firm though on money saving expert

snazy, give the fraud department at abbey ar ing, they will be able to confirm if its an offical letter or not.

yeah I have read about them playing this trick, involving unrelated people is bang out of order.

Jay, nothing on my credit file mate. Any dealing with Abbey ended a LONG time ago.

Tidgy, I tried mate, and no one was willing to deal with it. Just kept getting transferred. As soon as I made full circle I hung up

that very strange indeed.

just to mnake is totaly clear, abbey wont confirm or deny its anything to do with them?

No one would talk to me without a valid account/loan number. I only had the reference on the letter, and when I offered that, they said it was another department and transferred me again.

I emailed and got an email back saying I have to call a national call rate number to discuss it with them.

The letter from CapQuest suggested I would receive a statement of account from them shortly, so I will wait for that.

Im not worried about it, wont be paying anything, so they can take all the time they want.
Next step... letter to CapQuest, that goes off tonight.
I will add to the letter my charges for letters, phone calls and time spent on matters, and advise them i will be invoicing them for any further time spent, and will pursue in the small claims court.

lol, sounds liek a plan.

if needs be speak to the banking obudsman for advice on what to do.

i was more concerned how they got our no,
they said off the electoral roll,

i hope they get their money, the grand son was backward, they let him out all the time,
my little lad looked out for him quite a bit.

lol tbh there is so much ammo against these clowns on the net, I reckon it will keep me going for the next year at least.

I am gonna save myself time, write a main letter, and a simple letter which says, you have not replied with the requested information, I am not willing to discuss this...... and send it recorded delivery each time, along with an updated invoice of charges to them.

I will happily carry that on for years.

Either way, they wont be seeing any money.

Yeah if money is rightfully owed, then it should be repaid, I agree.
Thats exactly how they probably got your number. They play far dirtier tricks than that. None of which should be allowed.

Good news Snazy, then don't worry about it, if the debt was real or outstanding then your credit file would have been marked by Abbey. To be honest this CapQuest place is most likely legitimate, I remember hearing about them when I was in the game as they were a competitor although I never had any direct dealings.

There's a few reasons why they're contacting you but in Snazy's case it could well be an error. Banks have old debt or debt that they consider to be uneconomical to chase, some of which is typo's or errors (and should have been sorted ages ago) but they try it on with the DCA's and sell them a bulk/file of debt at a very reduced cost in the hope that no-one will notice, so therefore the as far as the DCA is aware, the debt is "real" even though the bank is just trying to recoup some of it's "losses" regardless whether people owe or not.

Take your £300odd Snazy, that may well have been a final payment, installment or a settlement amount from a loan you may have had and someone didn't close it off properly (if you had one, just using you as an example), it's as easy as that an human error seems to be overlooked although it can be quite serious. The DCA probably bought that for £50 (if that) so that £180 settlement is nearly 150% profit for them. The best way to deal with this is how you've already gone about it, ask for more info, at this point the collection activity will stop until the info is received and in your case, I doubt they'll be able to provide any because the banks scrap statements after 5yrs max usually on old debt, so the DCA will kick off and make them buy it back and finally, it'll be written off.

I remember a call I took from a guy who received a letter (generic letter that gets sent as soon as the debt is bought, stating all info provided from bank) saying he owed quite a large sum, after some investigation and corresponding with the bank myself, it turned out that they made and error and he owed nothing...how can something like that slip through?

In an ideal world, the banks would sell the debt on, the DCA would send a semi-threatening letter and the recipient would pay out of fear and then no-one has to ask any questions or do any paperwork.

Jacko's mate, the call you got is more than likely from a Trace or Tracking department who have access to national electoral roles, if you are not ex-directory then they can find the tel number or your property. If they can't find the number of the property that they need, then they look for next door neighbours and ask for a forwarding address. Calling you up and pretending to be a relative is agaiant CSA regulation and the company can be fined heavily for it however, calling a neighbour up and saying they're calling about a "personal business matter" or "about an account" isn't.

Just to add, if the debt is over 6yrs old and you have received no contact in a 6yr period/acknowledged the debt, it becomes Statute Barred and you can become absolved from paying it (if you owe it).

Law relating to debts: statute-barred debts

Jamjay, cheers for that detailed reply mate :)

Sounds like a proper messy way of dealing with things to me. Strange part is I have NEVER had a loan or overdraft from Abbey at all.
Not had an account for 14-15 years. And if anything was left outstanding it was some contested bank charges, which was the reason I closed the account in the first place.

And was certainly not that amount either.

As has been said, im guessing these DCA are chasing people for money that may be owed from many years ago, in the hope that most people are unaware of the statute that cancels a lot of these things out.

These clowns will not be getting a single penny from me, other than postage and recorded delivery, and if it takes more than the first letter to close the matter I WILL chase them for my money and time.

I cant believe that these idiots have been doing this for 2+ years now, and still getting away with the same tactics.
If they sent a polite letter saying the debt has "expired" but would you care to pay back the money you owe, I would accept that, and maybe even (if they were right) give them something.... But chasing a debt that technically is no longer owed almost 10 years late...... thats pushing it.

Yeah im on that like a fly on..... :lol1: :thumb:

More people should know about this!

I had a situation where I genuinely forgot about an old Vodafone bill –only about £70

But I had cancelled it coz I got a job that came with a phone, the £70 was the final bill

But they didn’t chase me (otherwise I would have paid) they just marked my credit file

I couldn’t work out why despite earning a very decent salary, homeowner etc I could

never get any credit – once I checked my credit file it was obvious and I paid it of

immediately and got Vodafone to remove the entry

Yeah been down that road Hodgy, spent ages getting my credit file back in decent shape. Which is why I know exactly whats on mine now, as far a negative entries.

Credit Expert was a massive help in this, writing to companies, challenging entries and correcting everything. One of the few services I have been delighted with :)

I look forward to the next letter from these clowns.