Jump to content


  • Tweets

  • Posts

    • statute barring in Scotland is 5yrs from last payment/use date or date of default Notice + 14 days, whichever is the later. dont confuse that with the 6yrs debts show on credit files (DN's 6th bday regardless to payment or not). they'd never get a claim raised by august in 99% of cases . as long all these debts were taken out whilst resident in scotland and you have not moved since taking them out but failed to inform the original creditor before the debt sale....... then stay radio silent until sb date is reached. then if you wish send our scottish sb letter. just remember unlike E&W in scotland debts are extinguished, dead , gone , parrot. once SB'd dx  
    • Hi all, Love this site and it's no nonsense advice, have dipped in and out of the consumer forums over the years, mostly to assure myself that what I was doing was the right thing when dealing with various businesses (almost 100% success rate, thanks in part to reading and more reading here.). Anyway, the time is almost approaching where I might need to ask for some specific help and I have a couple of queries that I can't see definitively answered. Due to financial mismanagement and severe anxiety issues I stopped paying all unsecured debt in December 2018 (one slipped to the first week in Jan 2019 when the last payment was made having rechecked my bank statement from that period - all my unsecured debt direct debits were cancelled in early Jan 2019). This has left half a dozen debts;  a couple of credit cards, a bank loan, Shop Direct and some Hitachi Finance stuff having been sold on and passing the rounds through the usual suspects, Lowells, Link, PRA Group, others related to them, and then back to them again. I have somehow successfully managed to maintain radio silence and avoided anything more worrying than their begging letters.  I have blocked their phone calls and texts, bumped all emails to the spambox and had a chuckle at their desperate letters.  I've never had anybody at the door.  I have been at the same address since before I defaulted and all correspondence comes to my current home address.  I have NEVER contacted them or admitted any debt. In anticipation of them perhaps ramping up action at the last minute I've had a look at my credit report on Credit Karma (rec'd from this very place) and I see that the default dates on these range from May 2019 to November 2019. Also in preperation I've been reading, reading and reading lots here as advised. Obviously being in Scotland there are a lot fewer posts relating to these matters and it's always quite annoying when OP's do not follow up with any outcome on their cases - how rude! This has also left me a bit confused of when I am able to finally breathe easy (although cancelling all the direct debits in Jan 2019 was the biggest sigh of relief as I knew it was all going to be unmanageable and, well, default one, default all.). I've been reading that defaults should be filed 3-6 months after the missed payment but one of my larger debts was defaulted on 27th August 2019 when the last payment I made was 10th December 2018, meaning the first missed payment was 10th Jan 2019.   My query for now is - when should I infer that these debts are prescribed?  From when the payment was missed, or taking the default date plus 5 years from the credit report? The three I have with the May date are moot anyway as either way they are gone  - some letters from Lowell offering me 90% off to settle is what got me thinking these must have been near SB status, however I have one big 10k+ with a July date and another 10k+ at the end of August I am feeling a bit anxious again, even though I know there is nothing to worry about with the begging letters.  Reading the various forums I am not sure why the OC's didn't take action against me when I read time and again the surprise that other posters haven't already been taken to court for lesser amounts - I'm also surprised I've avoided any action this long as there are plenty in this forum and sub forum who are whisked off to the court by the beggers minions after only a year or so after defaulting.  There are no CCJ/decrees listed on my credit report and I have not received any such judgements against me.  I still just regularly receive the begging emails to the spambox, the blocked phone calls and the letters from the they. I'm also reading that there is no need in Scotland to send an LBC so what should I be looking out for to know that the time has come to engage with CCA requests etc? I'm afraid in a fit I threw a lot of the paperwork out but I have a box of stuff I'm going to go through which may have the original letters from the OC's. Thanks in advance for any advice.  
    • I'm at work now but promise to look in later. Can you confirm how you paid the first invoice?  It wasn't your fault if the signal was so poor and there was no alternative way to pay.  There must be a chance of reversing the charge with your bank.  There are no guarantees but Kev  https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09766749/officers  has never had the backbone to do court so far.  Not even in one case,  
    • OK  so you may not have outed yourself if you said "we". No matter either way you paid. Snotty letter I am surprised that they were so quick off the mark threatening Court. They usually take months to go that far. No doubt that as you paid the first one they decided to strike quickly and scare you into paying. Dear Chuckleheads  aka Alliance,  I am replying to your LOCs You may have caught me the first time but that is  the end. What a nasty organisation you are. You do realise that you now have now no reason to continue to pursue me after reading my appeal since you know that my car was not cloned. Any further pursuit will end up with a complaint to the ICO that you are breaching my GDPR.  Please confirm that you have removed my details from your records. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I haven't gone for a snotty letter this time as they know that you paid for your car in another car park. So using a shot across their bows .  If it doesn't deter them and they send in the debt collectors or the Court you will then be able to get more money back from them for  breachi.ng your data protection than they will get should they win in Court-and they have no chance of that as you have paid. So go in with guns blazing and they might see sense.  Although never underestimate how stupid they are. Or greedy.
    • Thank you. Such a good point. They did issue all 3 before I paid though. I only paid one because I didn’t have proof of parking that time, only for two others.    Unfortunately no proof of my appeal as it was just submitted through a form on their website and no copy was sent to me. I only have the reply. I believe I just put something like “we made the honest mistake of using the incorrect parking area on the app” and that’s it. Thanks again for your help. 
  • Recommended Topics

  • Our picks

    • If you are buying a used car – you need to read this survival guide.
      • 1 reply
    • Hello,

      On 15/1/24 booked appointment with Big Motoring World (BMW) to view a mini on 17/1/24 at 8pm at their Enfield dealership.  

      Car was dirty and test drive was two circuits of roundabout on entry to the showroom.  Was p/x my car and rushed by sales exec and a manager into buying the mini and a 3yr warranty that night, sale all wrapped up by 10pm.  They strongly advised me taking warranty out on car that age (2017) and confirmed it was honoured at over 500 UK registered garages.

      The next day, 18/1/24 noticed amber engine warning light on dashboard , immediately phoned BMW aftercare team to ask for it to be investigated asap at nearest garage to me. After 15 mins on hold was told only their 5 service centres across the UK can deal with car issues with earliest date for inspection in March ! Said I’m not happy with that given what sales team advised or driving car. Told an amber warning light only advisory so to drive with caution and call back when light goes red.

      I’m not happy to do this, drive the car or with the after care experience (a sign of further stresses to come) so want a refund and to return the car asap.

      Please can you advise what I need to do today to get this done. 
       

      Many thanks 
      • 81 replies
    • Housing Association property flooding. https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/438641-housing-association-property-flooding/&do=findComment&comment=5124299
      • 161 replies
    • We have finally managed to obtain the transcript of this case.

      The judge's reasoning is very useful and will certainly be helpful in any other cases relating to third-party rights where the customer has contracted with the courier company by using a broker.
      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

      Frankly I don't think that is any accident.

      One of the points that the judge made was that the customers contract with the broker specifically refers to the courier – and it is clear that the courier knows that they are acting for a third party. There is no need to name the third party. They just have to be recognisably part of a class of person – such as a sender or a recipient of the parcel.

      Please note that a recent case against UPS failed on exactly the same issue with the judge held that the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 did not apply.

      We will be getting that transcript very soon. We will look at it and we will understand how the judge made such catastrophic mistakes. It was a very poor judgement.
      We will be recommending that people do include this adverse judgement in their bundle so that when they go to county court the judge will see both sides and see the arguments against this adverse judgement.
      Also, we will be to demonstrate to the judge that we are fair-minded and that we don't mind bringing everything to the attention of the judge even if it is against our own interests.
      This is good ethical practice.

      It would be very nice if the parcel delivery companies – including EVRi – practised this kind of thing as well.

       

      OT APPROVED, 365MC637, FAROOQ, EVRi, 12.07.23 (BRENT) - J v4.pdf
        • Like
  • Recommended Topics

ACS:Law copyright file sharing claims, Gallant Macmillan - and probably some others along the way...


style="text-align: center;">  

Thread Locked

because no one has posted on it for the last 4962 days.

If you need to add something to this thread then

 

Please click the "Report " link

 

at the bottom of one of the posts.

 

If you want to post a new story then

Please

Start your own new thread

That way you will attract more attention to your story and get more visitors and more help 

 

Thanks

Recommended Posts

i got a response from the SRA today too, they are looking into the matter now. plus a girl from GM told me directly that if i send a lod in, they automatically drop the case! but i think its fair to say, i think the girl was work experience as when i started talkin dsl, packet etc, she said ''er'' alot!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Replies 4.6k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

i got a response from the SRA today too, they are looking into the matter now. plus a girl from GM told me directly that if i send a lod in, they automatically drop the case! but i think its fair to say, i think the girl was work experience as when i started talkin dsl, packet etc, she said ''er'' alot!!

 

Not quite right. Davenport Lyons's business model was recently leaked via Wikileaks. They put you into a catogory. One extreme that they will not pursue is someone who denies and has official legal representation, to those who respond with indepth technical knowledge as to how their evidence is flawed. At the other end they go after the ones who admit guilt or disclose enough information to warrant pursing.

 

In other words, who is going to pay. To think there is enough money out there to enable these solicitors to prioritise who is going to pay and who isn't.

 

One thing is for sure, if ACS Law had taken someone to Court and had one it would be plastered all over their web site front page.

Link to post
Share on other sites

@ Scooby Doo69

 

Is there any evidence that Deep packet inspection is actually being used? I would imagine that they are just joining a swarm, collecting IP addresses and then maybe seeing if the IP addresses collected actually offer chunks of the file for uplaod / downlaod.

 

They may just be collecting the IP addresses and not even checking anything else.

 

I think that DPI would more likely happen in the case of the ISP like Virgin are currently trialing.

 

I believe so where Digiprotect are involved. Otherwise, you are quite right, they connect to a swarm and hoover up IP addresses for those uploading.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guys - Which and the BBC have been in touch with me.... for a number of personal reasons I said no to an interview ( one been the job I do ;) ) how ever I can tell you The One Show are investigating this and will be doing some thing soon....

 

Needless to say I had a good chat including to the researcher in ( I think cos I do waffel ) how this all works from a techy point of view.

 

Its more rife though as one of my mates got the cascada one today....

 

Terran

 

The One Show are crying out for someone to interview, but to date no one has come forward. They love this sort of thing and the thought of Dom chasing down and confronting Andrew of ACS is too funny to imagine.

 

Come on Guys, go for it!

Edited by Scooby Doo69
Link to post
Share on other sites

sky are sending me a letter to say that i have done everything in my power to stop me from being hacked etc, like i said above they have agreed to let me buy my own more secure router and gallant and macmillan will drop the case on me personally once i have sent the letter back. plus, (currently in my dads house using his laptop) when i spoke to sky, they stated that there was a lot of traffic through my modem as we spoke, which is good, considering my pc is gettin fixed, but its enough for sky to help out even more. what scares me the most was that next door but one has used 452GB this month alone, so makes me wonder how many more times i'll have to do all this cos of him. just wish i could stop him once and for all........can't wait to get my new modem :(

Link to post
Share on other sites

Been sent a threatening letter from Gallant Macmillan re: copyright for ministry of sound using bittorrent P2P network, has anyone got any advice, has it happened to you, what do I need to do next

Link to post
Share on other sites

sky are sending me a letter to say that i have done everything in my power to stop me from being hacked etc, like i said above they have agreed to let me buy my own more secure router and gallant and macmillan will drop the case on me personally once i have sent the letter back. plus, (currently in my dads house using his laptop) when i spoke to sky, they stated that there was a lot of traffic through my modem as we spoke, which is good, considering my pc is gettin fixed, but its enough for sky to help out even more. what scares me the most was that next door but one has used 452GB this month alone, so makes me wonder how many more times i'll have to do all this cos of him. just wish i could stop him once and for all........can't wait to get my new modem :(

 

Use the mac filter on the router, it only allows the mac addresses of the computers you add to the list. Set this up using a desktop which is directly connected to the router!

Link to post
Share on other sites

HI

 

My Dad also got the letter from Gallant Macmillan the other day asking for £375.

 

Now my dads on Job seakers so cannot pay that much and don't even know how to use a PC.

 

My parants are saying to ignore the letter.

 

Now the file may have been downloaded but on my mates laptop or someone one got into our Sky Router.

 

Should I send a LOD?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Use the mac filter on the router, it only allows the mac addresses of the computers you add to the list. Set this up using a desktop which is directly connected to the router!---- cheers, me new router has arrived so i'll wait for me pc to come home too xx

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Is there any evidence that Deep packet inspection is actually being used? I would imagine that they are just joining a swarm, collecting IP addresses and then maybe seeing if the IP addresses collected actually offer chunks of the file for uplaod / downlaod.

 

They may just be collecting the IP addresses and not even checking anything else.

 

I think that DPI would more likely happen in the case of the ISP like Virgin are currently trialing.

 

 

A while back letters from ACS Law provided details of the "forensic IT specialists" - namely NG3 Systems Limited. It is thought that the program used is the one advertised on their website:

 

eyeNet

eyeNet Is a Powerful & Fast Traffic Analayser Featuring DPI - Deep Packet Inspection Technology

 

There is more info on this (rather dodgy looking) company further back in this thread - since this information was published on here, ACS Law have stopped providing their details in the recent letters.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I got my letter today i feel a lot better now after seeing im not the only one. I read that there is a template for a letter which i can use how do i go about downloading or seeing what to put in my letter thanx

 

I would also like a copy of the template letter, as this is getting to me, I received a letter saturday and I have no idea what to do about it

Link to post
Share on other sites

For all the people asking about "deep packet inspection" this is a form of interception mainly used by ISP's if they are monitoring what somebody is doing, it has to be based at the ISP because all of their traffic flows through.

 

Deep packet inspection is useless for what these monitoring companies do as the computer they are talking to over a P2P network sends the complete packet to their computer anyway, so they have the full packet anyway (A packet is the way computers send info to each other) why would they need to snoop on it again?

Link to post
Share on other sites

For all the people asking about "deep packet inspection" this is a form of interception mainly used by ISP's if they are monitoring what somebody is doing, it has to be based at the ISP because all of their traffic flows through.

 

Deep packet inspection is useless for what these monitoring companies do as the computer they are talking to over a P2P network sends the complete packet to their computer anyway, so they have the full packet anyway (A packet is the way computers send info to each other) why would they need to snoop on it again?

 

So they can do it remotely? ie inspect the traffic between a known host (the file seeder) and the clients that connect to it to (the download/uplaoder) - it would make sense to do it this way as it guarantees that the host remains anonymous.

Link to post
Share on other sites

So they actually are monitoring data transfer, and not just getting the IP addresses of the swarm? That's a more honest strategy than what I assumed these companies were up to :)

 

To be honest I don't know for sure - I just think it's more than coincidence that ACS reveiled their IT experts as NG3 Systems Ltd who also happen to be advertising a DPI program on their site.

Link to post
Share on other sites

So they can do it remotely? ie inspect the traffic between a known host (the file seeder) and the clients that connect to it to (the download/uplaoder) - it would make sense to do it this way as it guarantees that the host remains anonymous.

 

Its impossible for them to intercept a transfer mid flight between two computers to examine the packets without some seriously powerful software and if they did this with out a proper legal consent I am quite sure it would be a highly illegal practice, and would also require direct access to major internet backbones / isp's networks (or they plant viruses but that is all getting a bit xfiles and way over their capability). This is why ISPs usually only use DPI as all of their customers traffic has to travel through their network at some point, allowing them access. ACS:LAW's / GM's monitoring company would have no data transferring over their network/internet unless they are directly connected to a computer this is why they have to connect to the P2P network, then what would the point of having DPI be as they already have the complete packets entering their computers.

 

What it is thought they do is enter a P2P network and broadcast they want certain files from the company they are acting on behalf of, any uploads to their computers are logged (ip address, client software and time stamp). a "whois" is done on the IP immediately and the Isp logged. If it is a uk ip then they keep it, other ips that are not from the uk are binned.

 

ISP's use DPI from my understanding to help with traffic shaping, ie they will find out if your using p2p and throttle your connection to allow other users more bandwidth to watch iplayer or browse etc. Usually happens when your exchange suffers from contention. Maybe the police use it also to help catch terrorists etc that's just pure speculation though.

 

If you are interested in whois check out this site. http://cqcounter.com/whois/

Edited by youtube
Link to post
Share on other sites

[...]What it is thought they do is enter a P2P network and broadcast they want certain files from the company they are acting on behalf of, any uploads to their computers are logged (ip address, client software and time stamp).

 

Yeah, that all makes sense. Also, I do remember reading somewhere that an adapted torrent client was being used?

 

However they do it - it doesn't seem that accurate does it?! On the date they accuse me of this, we only had a Wii console connected to the router!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, that all makes sense. Also, I do remember reading somewhere that an adapted torrent client was being used?

 

However they do it - it doesn't seem that accurate does it?! On the date they accuse me of this, we only had a Wii console connected to the router!

 

lol your memory must be amazing. If they are just randomly bashing IP addresses into WHOis and finding UK ips then accusing them of downloading some low budget production, then no its no accurate and highly illegal and they would probably end up with long prison sentances. I am 99.99999% sure they wouldn't do this though and their methods are a little more accurate. For some reason when routers are issued to customers they do not come with high security levels and are very vulnerable to attack, there are tutorials freely available just do a google search, also there are hardware dongles that can do all the password cracking you would need to enter somebody's router. This vulnerability is the probable cause of an allegation aimed at yourself (if you are innocent) it is impossible to prove this has happened / didn't happen on the time/date. A quick search of networks in my area reveals around 11 wireless routers/connections, 3 of which have no security and I could access if I pleased (mine now has full WPA2 to stop anything like this happening again to me, although even WPA2 is not completely safe).

Edited by youtube
Link to post
Share on other sites

I found this earlier...

 

Gallant MacMillan ?Latest entrants into the hall of Infamy? demand Money for ?Ministry of Sound? Received a letter from ACS LAW?

 

it states at the end "I would urge ANYONE who has received one of these letters who are innocent to contact the SRA."

 

Solicitors Regulation Authority - Contact us

 

Should we all be doing this, the more the better...

Link to post
Share on other sites

hi. ive just recieved a letter from acs law saying i downloaded "evacuate the dancefloor(the work)"on the 28 aug last year. they are proposing a £295 settlement fee due within 21 days. i cannot find the file on my pc although i have downloaded files using bit torrents b4. i cannot find any records of my pc being online at that time...i believe i was on my way to brighton on holiday. whats the best course of action?

 

thanks in advance

hooper

Link to post
Share on other sites

Whats bothering me about this is the lack of information about this monitoring software, bearing in mind that these NPO's are granted based on the evidence obtained from it, I wander if there is some kind of industry standard or quality requirments that this software is required to conform to? Surely there should be if it is used evidentually.

Link to post
Share on other sites

hi i got another letter today about 6-7 months after i got the first 1 should i send a LOD or just ingore this 1 as well,

 

If you have not already send a LOD, do not ignore them as it could make matters worse. What makes me laugh is why has it taken so long to get back to you. Probably to busy with their mass mailing.

Link to post
Share on other sites

style="text-align: center;">  

Thread Locked

because no one has posted on it for the last 4962 days.

If you need to add something to this thread then

 

Please click the "Report " link

 

at the bottom of one of the posts.

 

If you want to post a new story then

Please

Start your own new thread

That way you will attract more attention to your story and get more visitors and more help 

 

Thanks

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 Caggers

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Have we helped you ...?


×
×
  • Create New...