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

[Huff&Puff]

Hi, I'm new here and have been reading this thread all morning. Very interesting but I'm not entirely clear on the recommended first course of action.

 

Some suggest a LoD to the first thing they receive (perhaps after waiting a couple of weeks) while Flyyte and some others are saying you should ignore the first letter and wait to see if they follow up?

What are the risks in doing the latter and is it generally advised against?

 

The risk is that they will potentially see an easy victory by taking court proceedings, and then if it is not defended they will get a default judgement. Personally, I don't think it's much of a risk, as they have shown no inclination to take court action so far. However, it may be a bit safer to send the LoD unless you are up for a fight in court.

[G-Barb]

yes please do and post what ur CAB says

 

Hmm. Well I tried 4 times to day and it just rang and rang! I even went on their site to double check opening times but it confirmed they should have been there.

So no advice for this citizen as yet.

[ccsnet]

I've tried to start this as a new thread but it is not showing up so here goes:

 

A new Sheriff in Town? Recorded letter from 'Tilly Bailey Irvine' on behalf of M&M GMBH with an 'offer of settlement' for p2p copyright fraud

 

*****

 

Hi everyone-

 

Any comments and advice from the community very much appreciated on this. I am in the position to pay their suggested 'fine' as a settlement but I did not d/l or share the file they state and I do not want the implied guilt of a 'quick settlement to get ot all sorted and off my mind' scenario.

 

I recently received a recorded letter from 'Tilly Bailey Irvine' a firm of UK lawyers representing 'Media & More GMBH & CO KG'. It does not appear to be a 'Part 36' letter as it is requiring a 14 day maximum response time (UK Justice Ministry guidelines state clearly clearly 'not less than 21 days' to respond to a formal part 36 and I cannot see the phrase "Part 36" anywhere on it which is also a requirement of a letter 'intended to have the consequences of a part 36'.

 

The letter included a copy of a spreadsheet with hundreds of other IP address on it- so I imagine other people will be receiving similar letters.

 

They allege I used p2p software to download porn: what they have identified I did not.

 

The company they used to trawl for IP was 'Media Protetcor GMBH' who have a website Stop-P2P-Piracy - Select Language

 

On their FAQ it states that it is impossible for their technology to identify an IP address incorrectly; or for your wireless connection to be hacked into so that an intruder can use your signal connection to download/ upload i.e. if this were the case then MP GMBH would pick up on that and not identify IP address in their trawl.

 

The TBI 'offer letter' appears markedly different from the ones being discussed such as the DL/ACS and Andrew Crossley situations.

 

For example it refers to a major case at the High Court in London (Justice Warren on 28th January 2010) and it says that there will be no more contact between them and myself unless I agree to their undertakings and make the three digit compensation- otherwise they will move straight to court proceedings. Here is the relevant text:

I see the band wagon is on the move.... some thing I have said would happen.

 

This is where the public start to loose faith in a number areas like ISPs, the digital bill, the court system and more

 

Terran

[derr]

I have just received a similar letter by recorded delivery accusing meof illegal downloading of an adult movie- very distressing and wanting £700to settle- absolutely not guilty of any such downloads- am not even that it literate. Has anyone else had one from this firm-Tilley Bail;ey Irvine for Golden Eye International limited. they aren't mentioned previously. Also reported it to Which? computing who are launching a campaign against ACS.

[derr]

Maxwell2 what do you intend to do-I dont have a clue what best cours eof action is

[cashins]

I have just received a similar letter by recorded delivery accusing meof illegal downloading of an adult movie- very distressing and wanting £700to settle- absolutely not guilty of any such downloads- am not even that it literate. Has anyone else had one from this firm-Tilley Bail;ey Irvine for Golden Eye International limited. they aren't mentioned previously. Also reported it to Which? computing who are launching a campaign against ACS.

 

I have seen them come up on other sites, (google Tilley Bailey Irvine)

 

Apparently they are threatening possible legal action, which you will lose and be liable for £1000's of costs, which if you can't pay, they will go after your house.

 

As their method and supposed evidence is modelled on the ACS approach, they have about the same chance of winning any court case - so the chances of them bringing one are pretty remote.

 

Write to them and flatly deny it.

 

Wondered how long it would be before more **** crawled out of the woodwork.

 

David

[derr]

thanks for that -will send lod-just wish they were soemhow stopped from putting us lowly individuals through this- it is quite scary when you have a job,family (4 young children) and house to consider in allof this

[n11186]

thanks for that -will send lod-just wish they were soemhow stopped from putting us lowly individuals through this- it is quite scary when you have a job,family (4 young children) and house to consider in allof this

If you have a mortgage m8 its not your home its the mortgage lenders home and i dont think they will give any part of it away without a fight, dont worry m8 its just a matter of time untill they come to a sticky end.

[cashins]

thanks for that -will send lod-just wish they were soemhow stopped from putting us lowly individuals through this- it is quite scary when you have a job,family (4 young children) and house to consider in allof this

 

Well, this is the job of the Solicitors Regulation authority.

 

Unfortunately, from the top down this is staffed by people who have found a way of making a decent wedge by doing errrr...nothing.

 

David

[The GodMother]

is a LoD letter of dispute

[JackSchidt]

Letter of Denial

[The GodMother]

sorry far to much abreviations used for me to remember them all.

 

Anyway l am just thinking is this the same as when the platte services [problem] was going about.

 

I kinda got caught by this but we dont know how.

 

Christmas day/early boxing day 2008 we allegedly downloaded a movie that was from a site. Platte services were trying to collect on this alleged bill. Platte services no longer operate in the uk. This is also malwear BTW.

 

They were trying to get us to pay for a bill that we never even new of and as result never got a penny from us. At the time we allegedly watched this movie we was in bed sound asleep, who was not at 3am boxing day?

 

We tried to get rid of it off our comp but nothing would shift it every time we deleted it or zapped it or anything it would come back and then a extra £30 icon charge would be added to the bill. Its only this year, about 6 weeks ago, that we got rid of it by sending a bomb at it.

 

We also was been persued by them via letter addressed to the ocupier to the owner or the the person whose pays the internet bill. The letter suddenly stopped last year and have not had one since about mid september or october.

 

Is it possible they could be the same ppl?

[inatiable-cj]

sorry far to much abreviations used for me to remember them all.

 

Anyway l am just thinking is this the same as when the platte services [problem] was going about.

 

I kinda got caught by this but we dont know how.

 

Christmas day/early boxing day 2008 we allegedly downloaded a movie that was from a site. Platte services were trying to collect on this alleged bill. Platte services no longer operate in the uk. This is also malwear BTW.

 

They were trying to get us to pay for a bill that we never even new of and as result never got a penny from us. At the time we allegedly watched this movie we was in bed sound asleep, who was not at 3am boxing day?

 

We tried to get rid of it off our comp but nothing would shift it every time we deleted it or zapped it or anything it would come back and then a extra £30 icon charge would be added to the bill. Its only this year, about 6 weeks ago, that we got rid of it by sending a bomb at it.

 

We also was been persued by them via letter addressed to the ocupier to the owner or the the person whose pays the internet bill. The letter suddenly stopped last year and have not had one since about mid september or october.

 

Is it possible they could be the same ppl?

They are not the same people.

[The GodMother]

they sound similar tho the amount they want and everything.

[cashins]

We tried to get rid of it off our comp but nothing would shift it every time we deleted it or zapped it or anything it would come back and then a extra £30 icon charge would be added to the bill. Its only this year, about 6 weeks ago, that we got rid of it by sending a bomb at it.

 

That sounds like a malware type virus that you had inadvertantly downloaded and if so is an outright [problem].

 

Got caught the same a while back by a 'Microsoft' message that came up with an update.

 

Errr...... it wasn't Microsoft and thereafter the computer froze everytime I tried to do something, with a message coming up that I had a virus, (which they had put there), but if I paid £29.95 for an antivirus package from them, I could fix it.

 

My lad ran a malware scan on it and got rid of it for me.

 

David

[The GodMother]

yeah everything we tried for over a year would not shift it so i bombed the comp. This if after getting everything off l wanted off.

 

Its a russian program and done the job not had any problems since.

[Shaggy123]

yeah everything we tried for over a year would not shift it so i bombed the comp. This if after getting everything off l wanted off.

 

Its a russian program and done the job not had any problems since.

 

TBH I wouldn't have waited a year when I knew there were possible nasties on my machine. It's tantamount to financial suicide. Who knows what else the nasty was doing in the background. Stealing personal data? logging keystrokes? For a year!

 

Shudders!

[The GodMother]

Yes but l did not know that it was malwear or anything about the company as when every l clicked the icon on my desktop it took me to there home page of a proffessional looking website.

 

There was contact details and everything. so it was hard not to believe they were not proffessional.

[cashins]

There was contact details and everything. so it was hard not to believe they were not proffessional.

 

Same here - the one I got caught on was a dead 'ringer' for Microsoft

 

David

[andydd]

Yes but l did not know that it was malwear or anything about the company as when every l clicked the icon on my desktop it took me to there home page of a proffessional looking website.

 

There was contact details and everything. so it was hard not to believe they were not proffessional.

 

People/gangs who nick credit card info and clone new ones are very clever and professional.

 

Andy

[The GodMother]

well they can happily have my credit card info. I dont have any and if i did they would be maxed out.

 

Not had any suspicious activity on our debt cards but then again we would notice if we did have as they are checked regualrly.

[Caimbeul]

fyi - Government dumps plans to cut off illegal filesharers | News | TechRadar UK

[Huff&Puff]

A different take:

 

The Myth of Three Strikes ? The Register

 

Mandybill petition puts hacks in a spin ? The Register

[DandD]

Hi

 

Just a little bit about ACS:law

 

I had a legal letter from them a couple of years ago demanding repayment of a debt that I didn't owe. They even enclosed a seperate 'Without Prejudice' letter saying that they would accept a smaller full and final offer.

 

This letter, including their REALLY amatuer LOGO was all printed by their ink jet printer. They don't even have their own company letterheads.

 

I wrote back to them and said that I don't know them or their clients and have never had contact with them since.

 

They work from Serviced offices in London, so they can move out really quickly without giving notice.

 

They ONLY have one solicitor called Andrew Crossley ( Still can't work out where they got AC:Law from!)

 

Don't phone them at lunchtimes, there won't be an answer.......he's at lunch and there's nobody else to answer the phone.

 

Does this give you an idea of the type of person you are dealing with now?

 

D

[Shaggy123]

well they can happily have my credit card info. I dont have any and if i did they would be maxed out.

 

Not had any suspicious activity on our debt cards but then again we would notice if we did have as they are checked regualrly.

 

Doesnt matter if they're credit or debit cards. Then there's bank details or any other data on the PC.

 

They dont generally use the cards straight away. They wait a while, often over a year to use them.