Fraud….

[Vita]

I’ve removed images of my car where I can.

Housey, I’m not sure if you’ve ever posted pictures of your vehicles with the reg plates exposed.

I’ve countlesy said on social media many times to people do not post reg plates. There was a time on FaceBook where you could search a reg plate in the search section and it would bring up images of the vehicle if the posts were publicly available.

I’m sorry to read this happened to you. AFAIK I know Experian do monthly subscription of circa £15? It allows you to lock your credit report and I’m sure if it’s locked, you can’t take credit out. You can unlock it to then apply for credit if it’s needed.

Maybe it’s worthwhile to have?

 

[Housey]

The thing is, they didn’t use any of our details it seems. The credit itself wasn’t associated with us at all, it was simply our asset they chose to use. It is an odd case, I have monitors on my credit records.

 

[Vita]

this is like the housing scam too - where if you own it you should put an alert on it at land registry in case they try and sell it from under your feet.

This is a God send in all honesty. Any changes are flagged/emailed accordingly.

I remember this following story:

BBC Link

Quick Summary: Reverend had his house in Luton sold out from under him by identity fraudsters in 2021 while he was working away in north Wales.

 

[Vita]

The thing is, they didn’t use any of our details it seems. The credit itself wasn’t associated with us at all, it was simply our asset they chose to use. It is an odd case, I have monitors on my credit records.

No other vehicle which matches your reg closely? Could it have been a mistake of incorrect plate etc put in?

 

[Housey]

No other vehicle which matches your reg closely? Could it have been a mistake of incorrect plate etc put in?

From what I know at this stage, it wasn’t a mistake, it was someone compiling fake documents. Won’t say any more on it, but felt it was worth a share.

I won’t be posting images of my current cars anymore on public forums or social media. Owner groups I’m sure are higher risk than OCUK for example. Full of people keen to show you their new toys.

Who doesn’t love an incoming thread but not for me anymore and it means I can now lie about all the hyper cars I just bought because sorry mate, can’t show you, crims init…..but gotta believe me…..i mean, it’s no 5090

 

[Diddums]

Shirley you can just blur out the plate?

 

[Housey]

Shirley you can just blur out the plate?

Pagani won’t let me

 

[Vita]

From what I know at this stage, it wasn’t a mistake, it was someone compiling fake documents. Won’t say any more on it, but felt it was worth a share.

I won’t be posting images of my current cars anymore on public forums or social media. Owner groups I’m sure are higher risk than OCUK for example. Full of people keen to show you their new toys.

Who doesn’t love an incoming thread but not for me anymore and it means I can now lie about all the hyper cars I just bought because sorry mate, can’t show you, crims init…..but gotta believe me…..i mean, it’s no 5090

I can’t blame you. I learnt a long time ago it’s better to keep your life private now. Even your inner circle can change and cause issues as I’ve seen with other people I know of.

I hope it’s fully resolved for you. In cases like these is it possible to take the person who’s carried this out to court etc? Or would that be more of the finance company for misrepresentation of facts?

 

[Housey]

It is getting resolved and HPI fixed. Time and stress but no actual loss thankfully.

 

[FluffySheep]

BBC Link

Quick Summary: Reverend had his house in Luton sold out from under him by identity fraudsters in 2021 while he was working away in north Wales.

I know him in a round about way. It took ages to resolve, but it ended with the land registry paying him for the price of the house as they never did their searches properly.

I've now got mine and several houses of family members on email alerts with the land registry to help prevent this, but if they take finance on a car in a different name without a V5 what chance do we have to stop it if they choose our assets?

FluffySheep

 

[Nasher]

Whilst it won't stop what has happened in the original post i.e someone taking finance out against a car that someone else owns.

You can make it more difficult for people who attempt to commit fraud using your details by password protecting your credit file. No one can carry out a credit search against you whilst locked.

Or apply for cifas protective registration which costs £30 for two years.

The above does make it inconvenient when you are applying for credit as it means you won't get an instant decision, but it makes it extremely difficult for anyone to obtain credit using your details.

Problem is they want you to pay for these extra measures and it's not cheap for what it is. It should be free.

Why should we have to pay just to add a password to your own data, or to stop random people from messing with it. If they lose it or don't do their checks properly, it's on them.

 

[EdwardTeach]

I will keep this high level as it is a public forum. I got a letter out of the blue this week from a household name insurer and finance company referencing our car. The letter was from said companies financial crime team. I had no association with the firm and they were asking for proof of ownership of our car suggesting they felt we might have been an innocent party but could we help…

First thing I did was fire said letter into the dealer we bought the car from. They were super helpful and pulled a new HPI on my car to find in July someone had taken out a large chunk of finance on my car! I checked my and my partners credit files and it wasn’t in our name so someone had managed to convince the finance house they had bought the car and then secured cash on it!

I paid cash for the car so there was no finance on it. This it turns out makes it easier as you can’t put more finance on a car with finance on it. I’ve missed loads of details but suffice to say it is getting fixed and quickly but what a palaver. You buy your car, take it away as the new owner and then this happens. I share for experience and to say be wary what you share online!

Yikes - how do you thin the fraudster new you had bought the car in cash?

 

[Housey]

Doesn’t take a lot if you have HPI access. If there is no finance on a car, HPI will show that.

 

[DanTheMan]

It's scary how little information fraudsters need to initiate huge scams. My in law's house was a couple of days away from being sold under their nose, similar to Vita's post.

It all started with a paper phone bill from what I recall. They did the old SIM swap trick and managed to impersonate my father in law when calling Vodafone. This enabled them to reset online banking and it spiralled from there. They managed to forge passports too.

It was only thanks to his Experian subscription that he was notified of a change in details, which prompted him to investigate.

It was frustrating how little due diligence was carried out by some of the companies involved. My father in law couldn't have a more British sounding surname but the call recording from Vodafone was someone who sounded like they could barely speak English. The passport picture didn't exactly match the name.

Fraudsters jailed over stolen identity scams

A fraudster who tried to sell his victims' £500,000 home after transferring the property deeds into his name is jailed.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Diddums]

It's scary how little information fraudsters need to initiate huge scams. My in law's house was a couple of days away from being sold under their nose, similar to Vita's post.

It all started with a paper phone bill from what I recall. They did the old SIM swap trick and managed to impersonate my father in law when calling Vodafone. This enabled them to reset online banking and it spiralled from there. They managed to forge passports too.

It was only thanks to his Experian subscription that he was notified of a change in details, which prompted him to investigate.

It was frustrating how little due diligence was carried out by some of the companies involved. My father in law couldn't have a more British sounding surname but the call recording from Vodafone was someone who sounded like they could barely speak English. The passport picture didn't exactly match the name.

Fraudsters jailed over stolen identity scams

A fraudster who tried to sell his victims' £500,000 home after transferring the property deeds into his name is jailed.

www.bbc.co.uk

And this is why absolutely nothing goes in our bin without being shredded or the details removed.

I've seen on more than one occasion those bums rifling through bins and saving papers - presumably for the same type of fraud.

 

[Nabinium]

Article above mentioned that one of the cretins stole identity documents from a post box. Wow...