SCAM?? DIRECT DEBIT REBATE CLAIM IS THIS SCAM OR NOT? UK

hi I have been contacted by this company stating they can reclaim direct debits but im unsure if it is a scam and thought u might be able to help me. They say my bank account needs to be current and not closed. The address is only a PO BOX number? They say I can claim 50% to 80% of the total amount I have ever paid in direct debits in last 6 years. This sounds to good to be true. they also say I have only 7 day window to claim unless in some cases they can have it extended to 21 days

I cant find anything online about this nor can I find any other companies offering this service. the website address for the newspapers doesn't quite match the newspaper ones I think they maybe copied.

A COPY OF EMAIL SENT BELLOW. WEBSITE LOOKS GOOD AND SOME ONE ANSWERS CALLS FROM LANDLINE....HOPE SOME ON CAN HELP I HAVE DELETED NAMES JUST IN CASE IT IS NOT A SCAM.

this is article website they sent me

http://mirror.co.uk.money.rebate.attivofinance.com/

here is email they sent me PERSONS NAME [email protected] via messagecampaign.com
1 MAY

to me
Attivo Financial
PO Box 55345
London
EC1 4PW
TEL: 01928 503 666

HELLO MRS XXXXXXX

We were passed your details by the financial services
register and have tried to reach you with no joy on
xxmy numberxx

Please let us know if you are no longer using this number.

We also have an address for you but were unsure if this is
also correct so did not want to send anything out before
speaking with you.

We have an address at: MY CORRECT ADDRESS

We urgently need to speak with you as your details have been
flagged up as being entitled to a rebate. You may have seen
it in the media recently but in case not here are some
national newspaper articles we would strongly advise you
read so that you fully understand why you are owed this
money back:

- The Guardian
- The Metro http://metro.co.uk.news.money.attivofinance.com/
- The Mirror http://mirror.co.uk.money.rebate.attivofinance.com/

It has come to light that thousands of companies in the UK
have set up their contracts wrong in regards to payments
and they have been ordered to hand out refunds to those
customers. We deal with this and your details have been
passed to us by financial services for us to process it.

As we were handed your details we know you are entitled to
a rebate, we now just need to assess how much.

* Please be aware we will NEVER ask for any personal details or money up front for this service.

If you would like you can call our office and ask for myself
XXXX XXXX as I will be dealing with your case.

The number is 01928 503 666.

Our inbound lines are open from 9am - 5pm but we are usually
here until 8pm each day. Therefore you can also email me and
I will give you a call if available.

If you wish you can also view further details on our
WEBSITE. http://www.attivofinance.com/

We make everything very simple and we are always here to help
so please let me know if you have any questions.

* If you are not interested in getting refunded please also
let me know so we can say we have made you aware of your
entitlement and cancel it from our end.

Kind Regards,

PERSONS NAME
Rebates Adviser

Attivo Financia

http://www.attivofinance.com/
HOPE SOMEONE CAN HELP. IM NOT SURE IF THIS IS LEGIT OR NOT?

Email addresses at financialservicesmail.com are free addresses, just like yahoo or google. They are NOT something that would be used by a legitimate financial services company.

Your doubts about the newspaper articles are correct. Those links do NOT go to the real newspaper. The "articles" are hosted on their own website, with a deliberate attempt to make it look like they are on a real newspaper. In other words, they are fake.

As for the website itself?

Domain Name: ATTIVOFINANCE.COM
Registrar: PDR LTD. D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
Whois Server: whois.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Name Server: NS1.EXTREMERACKSPACE.COM
Name Server: NS2.EXTREMERACKSPACE.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 12-may-2014
Creation Date: 12-may-2014
Expiration Date: 12-may-2015

Registered a month ago, for the minimum period of 1 year. Not exactly a sign they are sticking around

Even more interesting is the claim on the website:

1987-2014 Attivo Financial

Pretty impressive, a copyright that existed 27 years before the domain!

Registrant Organization: Privacy Protection Service INC d/b/a PrivacyProtect.org

So the owner of the site has hidden their information. Not what you would expect of legitimate business looking for customers.

These things alone are enough to declare it fake, but just to take it a step further, I did a couple quick searches, and what do I find? http://www.i-newswire.com/dd-refunds-to-exceed-ppi-expectations/270326. Looks like they went under the fake name of "Gladstone Brook Associates" before this one. Funny how similar the history is!

Dotti posted while I was looking up the whois record of attivofinance.com. It is a scam and is in the process of being reported for fraud.

[AlanJones]

In the UK, a Direct Debit would only be set up by a bank if the customer had signed the mandate.

Direct debits are covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee, which means that any changes to the debit have to be notified to the customer in advance and also that the Direct Debit can be cancelled by contacting your bank. The guarantee also covers DDs that might have been set up incorrectly (due to fraudulent signatures for example).

If you signed the DD and the company has followed the rules on notification of changes then it is correctly set up and you are not due a refund. If anything was wrong, you would not need the services of a "company" to get a refund, you ask for it from your bank and they would take it back from the company the payment went to.

As Dotti says, fake websites + free email address = SCAM.

I have had a similar experience. Been contacted by a guy called Alan Marshall from harrington scott associates. Website is www.harringtobscottassociates.com website looks professional to me but 100% sure if it's legit and worried as he has some of my personal information

[AlanJones]

Assuming you meant harringtonscottassociates.com then it is another website pushing the same scam.

The domain was registered in Mid May by someone in Thailand

Updated Date: 17-may-2014
Creation Date: 14-may-2014
Expiration Date: 14-may-2015

Registrant Name: Kritsada Piriyakitpaiboon
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: Sukhumvit Soi 4
Registrant Street: Wattana
Registrant City: Bangkok
Registrant State/Province: Bangkok
Registrant Postal Code: 10110
Registrant Country: Thailand
Registrant Phone: +66.854476231
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: [email protected]

It appears the scammers have set up several similar (and in some cases identical) websites, all for the same scam.

A quick search shows me they had more websites, Jtcrawfordassociates.com, and Westfordandwelldale.com. Both are now dead (undoubtedly removed for being fraudulent.)

Basically these scammers are running this scam on a large scale. They open up cookie-cutter websites under a variety of names, all making the same claims. When one website is closed, they simply open another, and keep going. A little research shows they are scamming over the phone as well, calling UK residents and offering their "services" over the phone, using the websites to support their bogus stories.

hi, I emailed the company and they told me they will not ask for any bank details at all? how will they scam my money when they don't have my details for bank account and say they wont ask for them. He does have my name and address though so will it be id fraud

ID fraud is a definite possibility here.

In addition, though, after doing some research since I am not in UK, it appears that this is what happens:

You agree to pay them a significant percentage of the money you receive. (I saw 43% in one case.)

So let's say you had $5000 in DD payments
-The scammers file a (basically fraudulent) claim stating that your payments were taken illegally. In some cases, the claims will initially appear credible, and the bank will issue the refund.
-The scammers take their percentage of your refunded money (in this example $2150) .
-The bank goes to the company that took the money to get the money back from them.
-The company disputes and shows that you did in fact receive the goods or services , and that you actually owed the money in question.
-The bank comes back and takes back everything that was refunded (or the company takes you to court over it.)
-ultimately, in the end, you end up paying the entire amount back that you were refunded ($5000.) That means that the payment the scammers took ($2150) came out of your own money. The scammers, who are hiding behind fake details, have taken that money and disappeared.
-I'm not sure about UK, but depending on the circumstances, in the US, if it obvious that you (or in this case your representative) obtained that refund by misrepresentation, you could wind up arrested for fraud as well.

[AlanJones]

I'm not sure about UK, but depending on the circumstances, in the US, if it obvious that you (or in this case your representative) obtained that refund by misrepresentation, you could wind up arrested for fraud as well.

There's nothing obvious on the official UK Direct Debit website covering this, but an industry website I found does mention that this type of fraudulent refund request would be covered by the Fraud Act.

I note that there are some silly errors and technical omissions on the website that will make it easy to spot future fraudulent websites. I won't detail them in the open as it will only help the scammer if they read this forum.

Companies providing these service are required to be authorised and registered with the MoJ and this company isn't. It is required to quote its registration number on its website and it doesn't. I won't provide links because the next step will be for the scammers to impersonate real companies and I don't want to help them.

Do not divulge your banking details to these people. I don't know what they have in store for victims, but it won't be good.

I note this curious feature. In the banner it mentions "GATEWAY TO MENA" and, having been involved in the financial services industry all my life, I would expect to be familiar with any terms they use.

It appears that this is an abbreviation for "Middle East and North Africa" I note from a Pakistani article. I suspect that this may give some clue from where this scam originates.

There's no telling what the scammer is up to though knowledge of standing orders and d/d's is often used by UK banks as an alternative means of verifying a customer's identity when they're giving instructions by phone or if they've forgotten their password.

The bottom line is that a scammer will be intending to do something nasty that puts you at risk to fill his pockets with money, and you don't want to find out the hard way what it is.

A little more background from looking at another person's experience on another forum

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4961963

They have contacted me also, told me to do an indemnity claim against northern rock for 3000. They said northern rock agree to pay me compensation hut said it would take 120 days to process so give permission to do an indemnity claim to get it back quicker. How they discussed this with NRAM without my account number ect i do not know! I rang bank to do it n the bank asked lots of questions and said the indemnity team would contact me within 48hrs. Think they think something is wrong too n not put it through. Told phillip westford who seemed anxious n that that had never happened before...anyway started doin research as felt something wasnt right, rang a solicitor and financial advisor who both said theyd never heard of that scam but of similar. I emailed peter welldale with my concerns & he took more than 12 hrs to reply. Said he wasnt a scammer and that philip is goin to ring later...i emailed the journalist on the telegraph article n he said he didnt write it and that the site must have been hacked and hes going to investigate. Ive spoke to 5 different people at westford and welldale so this isnt a conartist working alone, would a firm really try and commit fraud on such a scale??

The indemnity claim process is detailed here.

https://gocardless.com/direct-debit/guarantee/

The Direct Debit rules around refunds are particularly strong. A customer can charge back any payment, and will receive an immediate refund. Further, there is no time limit on when chargeback (or indemnity) claims can be made……...

The customer's bank will always accept the word of the payer, and immediately credit them with a full refund.

IMPORTANT NOTE on that page.

…. and fraudulently charging back a Direct Debit payment is a criminal offence, covered by the 2006 Fraud Act.

The important point being that as the customer/victim has to sign an indemnity, meaning he'll get the money no questions asked in to his account, but the indemnity will ensure that the payee can claim the money back in due course because we know that the scammer's grounds for making any claim are completely bogus.

It does seem to be an over convoluted and ill though out scam but nevertheless it would be devastating for anyone who falls for it.

Thanks for the reply about alan marshall im really worries as he knows my address and asked for proof of my surname change so I sent him a copy of my marriage certificate which no diubt he will use now

The scammer who emailed me also has my name address and telephone number i have not given anything else. Should i report this to anyone just in case they to steal my identity?

hi, I emailed the company and they told me they will not ask for any bank details at all? how will they scam my money when they don't have my details for bank account and say they wont ask for them. He does have my name and address though so will it be id fraud

The scammer is talking rubbish as he wouldn't be able to reclaim anything without your bank details and he wouldn't know where the funds should be sent.

With just your name address and hone number all he can do essentially is bother you some more. Apart from that I wouldn't worry.

For Claireholland1983 - he may try to use the copy marriage certificate but I'm no great supporter of the claim that identity theft is even possible. What happens is that someone tries to obtain some benefit acting as an imposter using your ID and some idiot doesn't make the appropriate checks. An imposter can only ever be an imposter.

A copy marriage certificate doesn't confer any great ability on a scammer, though often they use ID documents to attempt to fool other victims. To perform any financial fraud a scammer would need more than one document and they'd have to be forged to match the marriage certificate. The clinching matter would be that any money they scammed wouldn't go to your account, so if they got a loan, it would obviously unconnected to you, and any financial company with lax and negligent procedures deserves what they get.

I don't use credit reference agencies or pay insurance against ID fraud because if anyone performs a fraud using my identity I know how to blow a raspberry at anyone foolish enough not to properly check someone's ID (but I'm like that).