Identity Fraud - SKY TV Issued me with credit card fraud mark on CIFAS

[Grantw]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am seeking legal help or guidance here as I am at my wits end with any Ombudsman, Sky and CIFAS.

 

Over a year ago I applied for a Santander personal account as I had an existing business account with them, to my surprise they turned me down so I contacted them and they could not provide me with the exact reason why.

 

I was also contacted by Santander who then stated that they had to remove my name from our Ltd company bank account. I dug into this and eventually the bank manager found out that a fraud mark had been registered against me and that was against they're criteria.

 

I contacted CIFAS and obtained a copy of the information, in January 2016 Sky TV registered a credit card fraud mark against my name.

 

To keep it short after many phone calls with Sky, a credit card belonging to someone else was used to pay a bill at my address. Obviously I explained this was not me nor did I have any knowledge of this and Sky told me they could no longer discuss the matter with me.

 

At the time the payment was made I did not reside at the property and can prove this, it was rented out to my younger brother and had been for about 12 months. I confronted him about this and eventually he admits he found a card and had been using it fraudulently.

 

I wrote to Sky and CIFAS numerous times over the past 1.5 years to try and resolve this matter, CIFAS eventually stopped replying to my letters and Sky did not once contact me. CIFAS contacted Sky who stated they were investigating the matter but again neither company ever came back to me.

 

I contacted The Ombudsman who initially couldn't help me the contacted another and the outcome offered was a £30 payment towards the arrears that were caused with the fraud payment and a letter of apology for the poor customer service!

 

I obviously decided as that outcome had no relevance to the issue I had.

 

Sky recently contacted me and I called them back today to discuss the matter further, hurrah I though finally after nearly 18 months! But no, Sky once again were unhelpful and told me they would not be taking any more action on this matter!

 

I emailed the lady who contacted me and she responded with the following:

 

Dear Mr ,

Thank you for responding to my previous email and contacting us today.

I am sorry if you felt that my colleague was rude and unhelpful during your phone conversation and will certainly feed this back.

I can confirm that the information supplied to you by Steven is correct. In order for us to take any further action on your account we need written confirmation in the form of a headed letter from the card holder's issuing bank which was used to make the unauthorised payment stating that the payment(s) previously reported as being unauthorised are no longer being treated as such.

Only once we receive this headed letter of confirmation will we be able to take any further action.

Kind Regards

Jacqualyn

Case Investigation Consultant

Escalated Complaints

 

To say I am banging my head against a brick wall is an understatement. I have tried everything but no one will take any action.

 

I have told Sky that my brother is actually willing to come clean and admit he was the one who made this payment but they aren't interested, what more can I do?

 

I've asked them to look at the dialogue for the call as it would not have been me who made it!

 

They have no evidence yet I have a guilty plea and I still can't get my name cleared!

 

Can anyone on here help? I even think I should be compensated for this now as every single day it causes me trouble and not one single person can understand how to solve the issue.

 

Basically if you want to ruin someones credit, get they're account number from the mail, off the TV what ever is easiest, ring them up, make payment with a hooky card and job done, ruined!

 

Please help!

 

Kind regards

 

Grant

[dx100uk]

was the sky account in your name?

[Grantw]

Yes, I lived at the address previously

[dx100uk]

so you let him pay the account under your name because he was using it.

was there a running contract in your name that covered the date of the fraudulent payment?

 

 

so to all intent and purpose they thought it was you ...that was a bit silly?

 

 

did you do the same with gas/electric?

 

 

difficult one

[Grantw]

The gas and electric were metered and I was paying the Sky via direct debit.

 

One month he said he’d cover the Sky bill,

I had no idea he was going to ring up and use a stolen card.

 

Obviously being my brother I had no idea he would do such a thing.

 

I understand the reasons behind Sky registering it

but the 18 months to prove my innocence and not one of these companies looking into or using the evidence at hand is my issue.

[dx100uk]

yes but you havent or cant get the evidence as satans bank wont release the info to you?

[Grantw]

Well the evidence is that my brother is willing to confess to doing it. If they look at the details relating to the call or payment it won’t be me, if they look at the number that called them it won’t be mine.

[dx100uk]

a confession is sadly not good enough

it doesn't prove it was not you.

neither do accounts or phone numbers

 

cant you get a letter off the card provider stating that it was fraudulent usage?

 

cant see a way around this at present.

you need to provide sky with what they want.

[Grantw]

How can I get any letter of the card provider, it was a stolen card? I have no idea who's it was or where it came from. Also, how would a confession not prove that? Surely if the phone log or what ever information they must keep is not me and it tally's up with his admission of guilt then that must be case closed.

[dx100uk]

but sky do.

email back and state that due to data protection laws

you have no idea of any of the details of the card used

however they sky do as they must have the card number.

can they not obtain the information themselves as you are not a legally allowed to be a party of it?

how old is your FOS complaint?

[Ethel Street]

Sky have asked: "In order for us to take any further action on your account we need written confirmation in the form of a headed letter from the card holder's issuing bank which was used to make the unauthorised payment stating that the payment(s) previously reported as being unauthorised are no longer being treated as such."

 

But the card was stolen and used fraudulently by OP's brother so why would the issuing bank even consider sending a letter saying that "the payment(s) previously reported as being unauthorised are no longer being treated as such" ? Presumably the payment was unauthorised at the time and can never have been authorised subsequently - the rightful owner of the stolen card is hardly likely to have authorised the payment retrospectively! Irrespective of who contacts the card issuing bank they are never going to issue the letter asked for by Sky. Unless I am missing the point somewhere the whole question of contacting the card issuing bank is a complete red herring.

 

What Sky want is is confirmation that the payment wasn't fraudulent. That's impossible to provide because it was fraudulent.

 

Next best line for OP may be to acknowledge it was fraudulent but provide evidence that the fraud was committed by someone else. If I were Sky the only evidence I'd accept in these circumstances that someone else committed the fraud would be a criminal conviction or formal police Caution. Is OP's brother willing to turn himself in? If OP's brother reflects a little more on his offer to write letter admitting he did it he might realise that Sky may well hand that straight to the police.

 

OP can then present himself as the vitim of fraud. OP's difficulties at the moment arise not only from the payment (under a contract in OP's name) being made fraudulently, but also that Sky suspect that OP either committed the fraud himself or at least was a party to it in some way.Sadly for OP it's going to be very hard to prove that wasn't the case unless OP's brother is actually convicted or cautioned for it. And even that doesn't guarantee SKY will remove the fraud marker.