Telogram?? H L Legal Solicitors?? But have a good credit report!

[missy1981]

Hiya all, havent posted before but need a bit of advice.. I had a letter from a company named Telogram, asking me to get in touch as they need to update their records with my details, they had my old address on the letter and wanted to verify that i live at the address where i now live at... I dismissed it as it sounded very dodgy. A few days later, i recieve another letter, this time from H L Legal Solicitors, basically I had not responded to Telograms letter so my details had been passed on etc and if i didnt respond by the 6th april then they would basically send the baliffs round.... Well, I checked my credit report today, and well, there is nothing on there that seems to be a miss... I havent lived at my old address for coming up to 6 years now.. Could this be an old debt chasing me even though there is nothing on my credit report about it???? Can a debt be wiped after so many years????

I also did a search on H L Legal solicitors and they are basically a company that write you 'official' looking solicitors letters.. Is that allowed?? Can somebody make out that they are someone that they are not?? (if that made any sense???? Lol)... any help or advice would be great.. Thankyou xx

[{Dakota}]

I googled those 2 Company names and the results are that there are people on other forums sayng exactly the same as you and that it's turning out to be a scam for identity theft.

The only reason my curiosity was piqued was because you received a letter from 'their' solicitors only a few days later, having not given you the time to respond to Telogram initially.

There's one person on one of the results I googled saying that this Telogram and H L Solicitors said that he had outstanding American Express debt and he hadn't had an AMEX account for over 15 years!

I think it would be best if you contact your local CAB and not respond directly to any of those Companies that have contacted you. Hopefully the CAB will be aware of fake Company names designed to scam us folk :0)

[themas]

I agree with the above. Definitely do not contact them.

The mention of bailiffs is intended to frighten you. they cannot send bailiffs unless/until they have got a Court order. If the debt (assuming you do owe them anything) is statute barred (i.e. you have not made a payment or acknowledged the debt for the last 6 years - or 12 years if it was secured on a house) then they cannot get a Court order anyway.

If they do send someone to your house - very unlikely - they will have no authority or power of any kind. Do not let them in & refuse to discuss anything with them. If they harass you or refuse to leave when asked tell them you will ring the police, & do so if they still don't go.

[fredpuli47]

Further to the above answers it is a criminal offence, punishable with up to two years imprisonment, for any person to act as a solicitor or take any part in litigation or steps in it (Solicitors Act 1974, s20 and Courts and Legal Services Act s 70(1) as amended) unless they are a quailified person (here meaning a solicitor admitted to practice and holding a current practising certificate)

No solicitor would call their practice " Legal Solicitors" anyway

Someone who writes letters (as in your post) in connection with debt collecting or any other legal proceeding, contemplated, threatened or otherwise must be committing an offence unless they are qualified as above..

[Floella]

We had a letter from both these companies recently, listing an address in an area I'd never lived in. I just rang them and asked them to remove my name from their records. It all sounds a bit dodgy.

[theonlyone]

I would ring the police as it's a scam ...

[themas]

I don't think it's a scam as such, & doubt the police would be interested. It sounds much more like very unethical debt collection practice. This outfit have probably bought a load of debts (for a small fraction of their face value) & are then trying to find people they can chase for them - without being too particular about whether the people they find are the real debtors.

There's quite a bit of this going on at the moment. The tragedy is that some people become sufficiently worried by the harassment and threats that they make payments, without being certain whether they owe the money.