Loans.co.uk - personal details sold on - Is this a scam

[TECHSPEC]

Received a letter from Loans.co.uk, saying no compensation is being offered, and telling me i can write to Information Commisioner, but i would be wasting my time.

[MissQtoe]

Received a letter from Loans.co.uk, saying no compensation is being offered, and telling me i can write to Information Commisioner, but i would be wasting my time.

 

It is a game called 'pasing the buck'. According to the Information Commissioner we are entitled to compensation, please see: http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/taking_a_case_to_court.pdf

 

I will claim damages from loans.co.uk for actual losses, including my time taken off work to sort out the mess, the actual financial loss I suffered, 5 years CIFAS subscription and 5 years bank fees at £ 12 per month for ID fraud insurance. Above this I will claim for distress.

 

Whilst I understand not everybody will have suffered actual (liquid) loss, I think we all are entitled to compensation. After all loans.co.uk will have 'employee liability insurance' (ELI) so will in all likelyhood reclaim our claims fom their insurers. If they do not have ELI then they will be operating illegally.

[TUTTSI]

Hi All

I think it is like the bank charge claims, you send them a pre-lim letter, then a LBA then you take out a court action against them. Someone must be able to advise on the amount of damages that we can recover. I also think we should all be working together on this as far as possible to achieve maximum benefit. Obviously reporting this to the Information Commissioners Office does not get us the compensation and from the Information Commissioners Office's point of veiw they will fine them if they think they have a case. I can see the FSA fined them already for misselling PPI.

 

I don't know about anyone else I have been receiving an extra amount of loan companies email spam coming through daily about 12/15 a day on my emails and one or two are from GE Money, who are part of the sam organisation. I am saving them up in a folder in case any of those transpire to be dubious.

 

I also received a call - very funny from GE Money a few days ago asking if I knew anything about identity f....d, I told them I know a little and she started to give me a sales pitch and wanted me to buy a product. I told her that I did not know who she was and that if she wanted she could post to me any leaflets on what she was selling. Apparently, they did not have any leaflets and I told her that I was not interested. I then told her about Loans.Co.UK and she could not get off the phone fast enough. You see I am ex directory so my number and name they can only get from an account with them.

 

I also agree MissQ... that they should have ELI. So lets crackl on with our claim.

 

Let me know what you all think...

Ds

[Maltese_wizard]

Hi again,

 

The saga continues... I also recieved the 'no compensation' letter a few days ago and am too not willing to sit down and accept that.

 

I am on the telephone preference service and as well as recently recieving lots of calls from international numbers with rep's that can hardly speak English, knowing all my details and offering me financial services, a girl from a company called 'Money Matters' offering me financial services called and when i asked where she got my details and then mentioned Loans.co.uk, she too couldn't get off the phone quick enough. I cannot find them on the internet which is worrying as was this a dubious call? she already seemed to know lots of my details.

 

I was going to put another letter together to send back explaining that simply saying 'we are not offering compensation' is not a good enough resolution to the potentially life altering situation they have put us in. If someone emptied my bank account I would be bu99ered, to say the least.

 

If you think the better solution would be to fight together then I'm open to suggestions.

[TUTTSI]

Hi again,

 

The saga continues... I also recieved the 'no compensation' letter a few days ago and am too not willing to sit down and accept that.

 

I am on the telephone preference service and as well as recently recieving lots of calls from international numbers with rep's that can hardly speak English, knowing all my details and offering me financial services, a girl from a company called 'Money Matters' offering me financial services called and when i asked where she got my details and then mentioned Loans.co.uk, she too couldn't get off the phone quick enough. I cannot find them on the internet which is worrying as was this a dubious call? she already seemed to know lots of my details.

 

I was going to put another letter together to send back explaining that simply saying 'we are not offering compensation' is not a good enough resolution to the potentially life altering situation they have put us in. If someone emptied my bank account I would be bu99ered, to say the least.

 

If you think the better solution would be to fight together then I'm open to suggestions.

 

 

Hi MW,

 

My suggestion is that you should write back to them in the form of a Letter before action, you do not have to quote a compensation figure at this time. Tell them that unless they can agree with you within 14 days suitable compensation, you will have no alternative but to take them to court.

 

Have you written to the Information Commissioner yet, my suggestion is that you do to register your complaint with them and also I would keep a diary note of these phonecalls as this may well be connected.

 

In the meantime perhaps someone with greater knowlege who can advise us on the compensation level, it might well be different for all of us as for instance Miss Q has had her identity stolen, you for instance have been getting phone calls which sounds like this is connected to this saga. I for instance have been receiving loads of emails from loan companies in the UK, which has esculated since this started at the beginning of September and I received a call from GE... a few days ago they wanted to know if I knew anything about identity fraud, they wanted to sell me a package of some sort. I could not be sure if this was connected.

 

Hopefully, once everyone is at the same stage we can try and figure out what is best to do.

 

All the best

DS

[TUTTSI]

Received a letter from Loans.co.uk, saying no compensation is being offered, and telling me i can write to Information Commisioner, but i would be wasting my time.

 

I do not think you would be wasting your time. But the decission is yours at the end of the day. Another letter to the Informationer Commissioner will only add weight to them investigagting further, but in addition my advice would be to write a 14 day letter before action telling them that if they do not come to an agreement with you within 14 days you will issue a court claim etc.

 

Let us all know what you decide.

DS

[ianfm]

I have today received my no compensation letter from Loans.co.uk and no doubt it is the bog standard reply that others have received, however I did ask them in my letter to say how they got my info as I had never applied for a loan with them or dealt with them. The reply states I made an internet application in 2003, I don't think so, anyone could have done this I suppose, in my name.

 

I have not received any unsolicited phone calls because of this matter so either whoever made my application did not give my phone number, or gave an incorrect number. The fact I have had no unsolicited calls leads me to suspect that I never made an application in the first place as I am sure that a phone number would have been required in any application. I do not and never have made internet applications for loans.

 

So the next step is that I will pursue my claim for compensation, plus I am going to submit an S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) which should cost £10 but under the circumstances i am going to request Loans.co.uk waive the fee.

 

I am with you guys, we should decide a strategy and find out just what we can claim financially, and how to do this. I suppose that the LBA and then a moneyclaim in the small claims court is the way to go but not being a legal expert how do you decide the level of compensation to claim back.

They have offerred a free years subscription to credit expert, I think this should be at least six years since by definition any credit entires stay on your file for that length of time anyway, I also agree we should claim for identity fraud insurance and time taken to deal with the claim, but what level for stress/anxiety etc.?

 

Also i am making a formal complaint to the information commissioner.

Any legal advice would be appreciated.

[tetley75]

I've had the same letter too, could we not also complain to the financial onbudsman as they suggest in their complaints procedure leaflet, at least they can award compensation?

[TUTTSI]

I think that is a good idea as well to write to the Financial Ombudsman, but the legal route I would have thought for sure we would be able to receive financial compensation. I would have hoped that a moderator would have popped on by now to give us advice but no such luck.

 

I think it is the same as the banks as soon as you issue a Money claim on line or even a N1 form, they will cough up something.

 

Again like you I really do not know how much the Financial compensation it could be and how best to go about it, it just my gut feeling we will get some financial reward if we fight hard enough.

 

I am still looking into this and I will come to you when I have the answer.

 

All the best DS

[ianfm]

Regarding getting compensation, it appears there are two options. You can go to court and let the court decide the financial award. See http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/taking_a_case_to_court.pdf

This booklet also suggests that it would be wise to inform the ico before taking court action.

I would like to make sure that this is done by the book so there is no possibility of them getting away with this so firstly i am going to make a formal complaint to the ICO and then advise them of my intention to go to court with an LBA and then a moneyclaim.

 

And I agree with dsilverstein that it is odd that a moderator has not yet had anything to say on this.

[Bowders1]

Hi Folks, I to am party to receiving one of these letters and will also be taking up action. I will be sending my first letter of Complaint tomorrow and will support any group approach to help get action. This is totally unacceptable

 

Rgds

 

Mark.

[TUTTSI]

Thanks Bowders, let us know how you get on.

Also, write to the Information Commissioner with a complaint as well. I downloaded their complaint form from their site. Someone on a previous thread also suggested writing to the FSA.

DS

[MissQtoe]

Dear all,

 

I have not yet received a response (due to postal strike) but expect the 'no compensation' letter any day now. I will definitely take the matter to Court (if all fails small claims track). If I may make the following suggestions:

1) Is there a way by which we can alert a moderator and gain some help here? I dont see a red alert button anywhere.

2) We should stick together and perhaps make one large application to the Courts - if not possible, then we should make regional applications.

Example1: I am in West Sussex disctict, so anyone in my district chould combine forces and do a joint application.

Example2: Decide on a joint solicitor on a no-win-no-claim baiss and we all instruct the same guy.

When the Information Commissioner comes to see me later this month I will ask his oppinion on how best we can proceed.

Example3: We can use one 'Subject Matter Expert' (SME) in Court to explain best practice access control to the Judge. I work in financial services and have spoken with a couple of people. We definitely have a case. Using one SME will save us costs.

3) I will have a clearer view towards the end of Oct and plan launchign an application early Nov, so monitor thsi thread towards end Oct?

 

As said I am definitely off on a small claims track if everythign else fails, but I think a Judge will act in the best interest of the 'community'. If there is a number of us involved (i.e. a community) then we stand a chance to take a large company like MBNA on. Otherwise I fear many of you who have not suffered actual losses may lose out.

 

Now where's that Mod?

[tetley75]

I've now sent off my complaint to the ICO and will aslso complain t the Ombudsman once eight weeks are passed.

[TUTTSI]

MissQ, you are making a lot of sense and I belive that is the way to go, with a joint application to the courts, but sadly I think this will be harder to deal with as everyone lives far apart. In the meantime we should all follow the same protocol.

 

The way to contact a mod would be to click on their name and PM them and ask them to take a look at this thread. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable could give us some guidance. I will try and get someone to take a look.

 

As I said on an earlier thread we should treat this the same way for the moment that we treated bank charge claims, a pre-lim letter seeking compensation then followed 14 days later with a letter before action then obviously a claim then to be made. You have to follow your time scales and not theirs. Everyone should make the complaint to the Information Comissioner and anywhere else that complaints can be sent to.

 

DS

[lookinforinfo]

One of the difficulties perhaps will be assessing the amount of damages due.

How you quantify them, put a price on being upset etc won't be easy-and the Judge mighty get a bit prickly if the sums are pretty small. And unless you are maybe able to show that Loans actions have affected your ability to obtain credit, or damaged your credit rating, trying to puff up your claim

may require a tad too much ingenuity to be credible.

[TUTTSI]

I have sent a PM to Zootscoot a Moderator, she is quite knowledgable and hopefully she will take a look and advise or ask another Mod who may know to answer us.

 

DS

[zootscoot]

Unfortunately s.13 of the Data Protection Act is quite clear on the issue of compensation in that it can only be recovered where the claimant has actually suffered a loss. Whilst damages for distress can be claimed these can only be added if there is already a claim for damages ie a claim for financial loss.

 

The ICO and the police are involved there is a possibility that the ICO may order compensation although this is unlikely in the absence of any actual loss. They are more likely to be fined if there is an issue of incompetence on behalf of the company involved.

[TUTTSI]

Thanks Zootscoot, for coming back to us, although I am surprised that there is no grounds for recourse against Loans.Co.Uk. We all feel very agreived that our personal info having been passed on to 3rd partie(s) and worrying about what has happened to them.

 

I would have thought that under the Data Protection Act the Data controller would be held to account for the loss of Data under his/her control.

 

I believe that so far most of us have written to the information Comissioner to make a formal complaint regarding this. So if Loans.Co.UK do get fine and a slap on the wrist and told never to do this again what protection do we have as the Consumer with our information having gone walkies. I do agree that it would be difficult to put price tag for compensation when one does not know the full extent of this breach. One person so far that we know has had an identity theft which has happened on or arround the time when this breach happened, now one does not know for sure if this has anything to do with this as how can you prove it? also, if this is from this breach there must be a good chance that the identity theft may happen to many others and these folks do not know about sites such as CAG and would not necessarily report this incident to the Information Comissioner, it is only the minority that are on sites like CAG that have so have reported this incident.

 

DS

[zootscoot]

Generally a cutomer is not personally liable where there is identity theft and this is set out in the terems and conditions of the agreement. If any loss has resulted then a personal claim can be made.

 

The subscription to the credit expert will also help people keep tabs on their account as you will get an alert each time a credit search is done on your file. So you will be aware that an application for credit has been made.

 

I agree it is shabby behaviour from the company, but unfortunately not a lot you as individuals can do. Although at least the burden of investigating the complaints lies solely on the investigation bodies rather than the individauls concerned which has to be a good thing.

[TUTTSI]

Thanks Zoot, I have taken on board everything which you have said.

 

Today, I received my letter from Loans.Co.Uk, they have sent me all the info which they hold on me like an SAR data request. In my case I did not have a loan with them it was just an enquiry back it seems in 2001 for a loan which I did not take up, they do however have my full name and my mothers maiden name which I did not recall giving But since they have this I must of done. They also suggest that because I am getting a lot of mailings that I write to the Mailing Preference Service, Freepost22, London, W1E 7EZ. I think this is a good idea to stop this unwanted mail. Loans.Co.Uk have also told me that they are stopping further mailing to me as per my request. I am also getting a lot of email mailings not sure if there is a n email preference service. If anyone knows please advise.

 

They also said that which I found strange Loans.Co.UK state that both the police and the ICO will not give me any further details about the police investigation and they have told me not to contact them. I am still writing to the ICO with a complaint to add weight to the others that have already done so.

 

Well there you go a dead end and no financial compensation.

 

DS

[cheken]

Finally i have found a thread relating to this mess from loans.co.uk, i have recieved letters from lcuk and also wrote back asking for an update into their investigation, they replied on the 16th oct with the standard letter i now believe every one else has got,that is that the ICO are investigating along side the police and we should not contact them, well i think we should and also make this as puiblic as posssible. since the beginning of this mess i have only recieved phone calls mainly from india and also calls from a uk based company called glc. i will be writing to the ICO in due course, i have signed up to the credit expert and am monitering my report as much as i have the time to do so. i have a few queries on my report as there are recent search entries on there that dont make any sense where they are from,

 

cheers

 

cheken

[MissQtoe]

Just a quick update:

 

Many thanks for all the replies and information given. Loans.co.uk has not replied to my letter as they promissed to, so I have today sent a Notice of legal Action letter to loans.co.uk. I am claiming liquidated damages of:

• CIFAS subscription fees @ £11,75 per annum for 6 years
  
• Additional bank fees to cover ID fraud insurance £144.00 per annum for 6 years
  
• Leave taken to deal with their incompetence: 2 days
  
• Postal and administrative costs

I reserve the right to seek further damages including un-liquidated damages from loans in the event that this matter is not settled within 14 days of my letter. I sent the letter per registered mail to

Julieann Greer

Managing Director

Loans.co.uk

6 Marlin House

Croxley Business Park

Watford

Herts

WD18 8TD

The Customer Advocate Office

MBNA Europe Bank Limited

PO BOX 1004

Chester Business Park

Chester

CH4 9WW

United Kingdom

Willian J. Fox

Global AML Compliance Executive

Bank Secrecy Act Officer

Bank of America Corporation (the Corporation)

Bank of America Corporate Center,

Charlotte,

NC 28255.

USA

I recon between the above brainboxes they should be able to see the light.

 

Zootscoot, Although my innitial losses (Argos and flights and store cards) have now been refunded by my bank, I have had to incur additional costs to protect myself against future fraud. I am a single parent and sole breadwinner for 2 children thus cannot afford to let my kids go hungry 6 weeks at a time while I wait for banks to refund defrauded transactions. Additional insurance against further fraud in my case is essential.

 

I am aiming for Small Claims track, and will let you guys know how things proceed.

 

Kind regards - the Mozzie

[beverley70]

Hi

 

Got my letter from Loans.co.uk today. I tried to set up free membership to Credit Expert but it says I have already joined so not entitled to free membership. I don't recall joining and end of card details is not mime unless an old card and I can't remember it.

 

I have emailed them asking for login details, hoping no-one has used my details to set up account on Credit Expert as they have enough info from Loan.co.uk to do this. This would explain letters I have received saying I had applied for a loan (which I binned thinking it was a [problem]).

 

Will be sending off letter of complaint.

[thelightbrigade]

Just found this thread, i received a letter this morning about my details being sold on. I think I may have applied a few years ago bu tnever taken a loan with them. I think the vital point here is that the information has been sold regardless whether you have an account with them. As per a pevious post staff will need access to information to do their job but to be able export thousands of 'sales leads' to disk, email or print should be impossible for the bog standard data entry clerk.

The minimum recourse should be:

1) 6 years Credit Expert subscription, extended if an incdent occurs.

2) Bank account ugrade fees paid in full for 6 years

3) token payment for the inconvenience of being a victim of this breach.

 

This is something tht an come back and bite us in years to come, the information is out there now, all very well to sign up to TPS and MPS and hope for the best. Identity fraud is one of the only growing industries remaining and a slap on the wrist fine is not good enough.

I have received 100's of calls from mainly Indian call centres, some of them were quite rude and most of them had a my information. I always make a point of opting out of the marketing options for 'carefully selected companies to contact you' triggers.

In my opinion we need to follow a uniform process and seek items 1 and 2 above and a set figure of compensation in addition to any actual loss sufferred. This letter this morning explains a lot over the past few months and has at times really wound me up.

If Loans.co.uk have messed up, which they have, then they need to pay up. i will be sending letters off next week and propose seeking £5000 compensation. If they reach a final settlement now then there can be no comeback for us if our idenity is used in 3 year time? So they can safeguard against future action or leave themselves open.