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I've had a few emails from a company called BW Legal chasing a debt for an outstanding Sky bill.
I've had no evidence of the debt, they've
mentioned writing to my home address but I've never received anything and the fact that I've never had a Sky account makes me think that they have the wrong email address. The last email has a deadline to pay or they'll be starting court proceedings.
Tried to call them a couple of times but the queue is always +20 minutes.
I've emailed their enquires address requesting proof and get a response that I need to submit any queries through their customer portal. In order to progress through their portal I need to input my address DOB etc... which I'm reluctant to do.
There is a dispute email address, this also mentions they won't respond to emails unless all of my personal details are included.
Anyone dealt with something similar? If I do write a letter of dispute with all of my contact details on are they going to harass me?
In the unlikely event they can provide proof I have no issue paying.
I can't help you but I know of BW Legal (they were briefly a client for completely unrelated services to their business). From what I have seen online, there is not many nice things being said about them.
Just ignore. Block the email address. When they mention writing to your home address do they state it in the email? If so, send them a SAR recrded delivery.
That's a deleted email straight away. If it's real then they will write to you.
Who chases debts via email? You're supposed to have a debt to Sky yet they don't have your address?
1) Ignore it.
2) [color=red]DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TALK TO THEM ON THE PHONE.[/color] I cannot stress the importance of this enough. They will have call handlers trained to trip you up and you might end up admitting to a debt which isn't yours. It is very difficult to un-say things you've blurted out in a panic. In the unlikely event that they ring you (they probably haven't even got your phone number), insist that you will only correspond with them via post and hang up.
3) Do not give them any information they do not already have. Do they know your name, even? Don't tell 'em, Pike.
4) It is unlawful to pursue a debt which is contested and continuing to do so is harassment. They have to prove that the debt exists. In the even more unlikely event that they write to you I can give you a 'get ****ed' letter to send to them.
5) See 1).
In the unlikely event they can provide proof I have no issue paying.
They're going to provide evidence of a debt to Sky when you've never had a Sky account?
The last email has a deadline to pay or they’ll be starting court proceedings.
How? They have your email address and... uh... 🤷♂️ They're no more going to start court proceedings than I am.
Seriously mate, you're overthinking this. Organisations like these have no proof, they buy bad debts and scattergun scary-looking letters in the hope that people either roll over or self-incriminate. How much is the alleged debt, let me guess, 2-300 quid maybe? Just enough for a nice little earner but low enough that people might think "I'll just pay it, I don't want the hassle"?
Ignore them, block the address, get on with your life. Absolutely don't be going out of your way to empower them.
Firstly, have you checked that the email address it’s coming from actually relates to the company? “Chasing debt” via email just sounds like a scam to me
Secondly, block and ignore. You’ve never had an account, so you know the debt isn’t real. Real debt collector or not - **** em
Read the reviews too which is why I don't want to give them personal details.
I deleted the first few emails but subsequent ones have mentioned that they will be writing to my home address, never received anything in the post. They have never referenced my home address or given details of the address related to the debt.
I have written a letter disputing the claim excluding any personal details. I have added their reference no. and my email address and asked that they email any evidence. Not posted it yet.
Not posted it yet.
Don't.
Wait until
they will be writing to my home address
which they almost certainly won't because they don't have it. If, and only if, they write to you then we can consider writing back. Until that point, the energy you should be investing in this is zero.
This ^
They’ve provided you with no details at all, not even able to tell you your address. Don’t make it easy for ‘them’ whoever they are. If this was a random scammy email from a (fake but looks authentic) bank you wouldn’t entertain it, this one needs the same level of respect.
I have written a letter disputing the claim excluding any personal details. I have added their reference no. and my email address and asked that they email any evidence. Not posted it yet.
Don't.
Block and ignore.
They'll have bought your email address from somewhere or other or simply be bulk emailing plausible addresses automatically - any modern emailing system can tell when something has been opened, links clicked etc and then they'll focus on that.
Edit: or it could simply be a genuine email but to an incorrect address.
As above, it'll be a scare tactic that sounds plausible - DID I once have an account? DID I sign up for something inadvertently? "Sky" is broad enough that it could be internet, TV, phone and if you get confused enough on the phone about what you have/haven't got, what you might have signed up for and so on, you can end up admitting to something in error.
My Mum gets a couple of these on her old Hotmail account every once in a while. She is under very strict instructions never to open stuff and to video call me if she's at all unsure. Mostly she's pretty good but you can see how elderly people in particular fall for these things for debts they don't have or products they don't need. Again with my Mum, she had to be amazingly persistent in one sales call to say that she didn't need a mobile with 20Gb of data since her average monthly data usage was well under 1Gb. Many people would just have said "oh that sounds good" and signed up to an expensive contract they didn't need.
Cheers all - I've ignored it for a quite a while and will continue to do so.
Unfortunately they are a legit company and the reviews indicate they are a bunch of scumbags.
My email is my name.co.uk, I've had emails sent to me that should have gone to who ever has the same name.com email.
Unfortunately they are a legit company and the reviews indicate they are a bunch of scumbags.
legit company, but not necessarily a legit email. E.g the ones I used to get from “HSBC” and other banks. Have you checked the email address they’re being sent from?
Again,
It's email. They might well be a legitimate company, for some value of "legitimate" at any rate, but so what. They've made a mistake, either accidentally or optimistically, this is their problem not yours.
Add the email address to your list of blocked senders. It's not illegal to do that. Problem solved.
Do not give them any details or email them. Even if they are a legitimate company who legitimately believe you owe Sky money they have to prove it first. You do not have to disprove it. As Cougar says, if by some remote chance they get hold of your address and send a letter, do nothing until you have asked on here for advice... Or, there are loads of standard template responses available on the Money Saving Expert forums depending on what any letter actually says.
Tried to call them a couple of times but the queue is always +20 minutes.
Have you made sure its not a premium rate number ?
Go on the offensive. Best form of defense. Find their home address, then sausages, lawns and bombers. If you can wee in their shoes even better.
Treat it as a SCAM unless otherwise informed.
If I was certain that it had nothing to do with me, that’d get filed away under “someone else’s problem” deleted and completely ignored/forgotten about. I mean, if they take you to court, how’re they going to prove that you had a Sky account when you KNOW that you didn’t?
It's a fairly underhanded but common business model.
They'll have bought a load of unenforceable bad debt at auction for pennies on the £ and they then send out scary Emails and harass people, even if they only manage to scare 1 or 2 people out of a hundred into paying they'll be in the black.
As advised above, they only have your email, delete and block. If they call you say you'll only communicate by letter, don't give out any details , don't get into a conversation, then block the number.
Had a one try it on with me years ago, again a debt associated with an address I used to live at but nothing to do with me.
I refused to play ball but them a year later when I went to buy my first home I was worried that they may have nuked my credit rating, nope, no problem, credit rating was spotless.
All bark and no bite.