Dr Mike Thompson was contacted in August 2007 by debt collection firm Aktiv Kapital which was seeking £640 it said he owed to a finance company. Dr Thompson knew the debt did not belong with him and he had never heard of the finance company involved. When Aktiv Kapital threatened court action to recover the money, Mike told the firm it had got the wrong Mike Thompson and that it should produce evidence of the debt. In January, he believed he had finally convinced the firm he was not the person they were seeking. But then he discovered the firm had placed a default on his credit record. He told BBC Radio 4's Money Box: "I was obviously outraged but at that time I had a very good firm of solicitors acting on my behalf." "I was informed that was the point at which we could take legal action in the High Court." Mike's solicitor told Aktiv Kapital that unless it paid damages and apologised, there were grounds for him to consider suing for defamation. That was because details of the debt Mike did not owe could now be accessed by any finance company checking his credit record, adversely affecting his reputation. After weeks of negotiations, Aktiv Kapital paid him £6,725 in damages and costs and issued a public apology, published in the London Gazette. It said: "Aktiv Kapital (UK) Limited now accepts that Dr Thompson has neither been indebted to, nor defaulted on any account with Aktiv Kapital (UK) Limited." "Aktiv Kapital (UK) Limited wishes to express its regret to Dr Thompson for this error, and apologises unreservedly to Dr Thompson for any embarrassment and inconvenience which may have been caused to him." Sarah Webb, head of media and defamation at Russell Jones & Walker Solicitors, believes a claimant like Mike would have been in a strong position if the case had gone to court. However, to succeed he would have to overcome significant legal protection known as "qualified privilege" given to the firms involved. Ms Webb told the programme: "The claimant would have to show the company had been reckless in passing on the wrong name, that they'd got the wrong person." To win, claimants would also have to be prepared to overcome financial hurdles as well. Simon Cook, Dr Thompson's solicitor, says anyone not on a high income might struggle to fund their case. "You can't get legal aid for defamation. Most people can't afford the costs of the proceedings. Even if he'd won, he wouldn't have necessarily received all of his costs," That's a good start then, and well done Mike. BinB.:lol:

Hi All, I got mine from Experian and found 6 searches from the same company as you Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Plc. But I ain’t given them my consent so I wrote to them requesting evidence of my consent and, surprise, surprise, they carried out a extensive search of the computer and were unable to find any details as to what this relates to, what worries me is some one in Morethan Plc. (this is the company that wrote back to me) has my private details, D.O.B. Bank details, Credit Card details, Ect; Ect; Is this how people steal one’s identity. However, they have informed me that a Fax has been sent to Experian to request all entries on my file appertaining to Royal & Sun Alliance to be removed. So good news. BinB.

Hi Sparkie, Sorry to but in on your thread but I am having the same problems, I obtained my Credit file from Experian last month to find some insurance company had accessed my file six (6) times in one day!!! In July 08. I ain’t had any dealings with this firm, and have written to Experian and the company to find out who gave permission to access my file, and after reading your excellent info WHO TICKED THE BOX to say they had my permission to search my file. To get over all these problems Experian should do as they were forced to do in the USA, you apply an access password to your file via the CRA, (which you can change every day or every week) No password no access Simple. Experian is a crap company and ruin many people, and seem to be answerable to know one, but it look as if you have got them over a barrel and good luck to you. BinB

Hi, to you all, This is my 1st post so here goes. Some time ago I remortgaged to help the kids get a roof over there heads, up to this point my credit file was exemplary (there were only 2 CRA at the time) my Remortgage went OK. Some time later I applied for our credit files which I have done for the last 10 years and boy was I in for a shock Experian on the first page of my wife’s report in bold was a heading: ALIAS USED PREVIOUS This all came about from a question on the application form that we completed asking for her Maiden Name which she last used filling in our Marriage Licence in 1962 EXPERIAN used every combination of her maiden name and married name that they could make up ie: Miss, Ms, Mrs.They even addressed her file to Miss******* ********. And when I went through the Credit File with a fine tooth comb there were 10 mistakes, which were pointed out to them all to no avail. And many, many, many, letters later to Experian and the mortgage company we did not use (we had a choice of Two) to request them to remove this from the file they would still not remove it, so I wrote to the Commissioner and it took him 8 months for him to get this removed. During my effort to get this removed I came across Experian’s America web page and found out that this was a big problem over there, any Tom, Dick, and Harry in business who subscribe to the CRA’S just got access to all your Credit File’s but this don’t happen over there now as the law has been changed to stop this, before you apply for credit you write to all the CRA and provide them with a ACCESS PASSWORD, and on all applications forms for credit there is a space for wait for it a PASSWORD which you the punter fills in to which gives the company you chose the access to your file no password no access, SIMPLE it has also stopped a lot of identity fraud in America, and if you know that you will not be looking for any credit in the next 12 months inform the CRA and get your file suspended there will be input but no access until you authorise it, complete control of your file. I wrote to the BBC Working Lunch programme who interviewed some one from Experian to ask why not do this here she replied as there was no legislation in this country requiring them to do this so they would not change the system. P.S. Our credit files from Equifax contained no such Alias. BinB