IMFS debt collectors for mysterious bill from 2021

[Kez-23]

Hi, I have today received phone calls, emails and now text messages from IMFS debt collectors claiming I have unpaid bills from virgin media broadband dating back to may 2021. We moved house and I cancelled our package as VM couldn't provide a service at the new address. I thought I paid all bills and i also sent back our router. I received no correspondence from VM about unpaid bills, so v confused. I phoned VM today and they told me its probably a scam and to ignore, but having googled the companies name, it looks genuine. They are telling me virgin media have sold the debt to them & passed on all my personal info to them. VM are saying they can't email me confirmation that my closing account is cleared with no outstanding bills. 

Looking for a speedy resolution pls as v stressed and being hounded by the so called debt collectors 

[VicVip0r]

I'm going through the exact same thing - Closed my account in 2021 - a few months ago start getting spammed by CRS via texts telling me to pay my outstanding debt @ the attatched link. I just ignored & blocked - no matter how many times I blocked the texts kept coming - it wasn't until a few weeks ago, when they emailed me, I found that the source of the debt was Virgin Media. So I call Virgin to see what exactly is going on as I've never missed a payment or been in any sort of arreas for anything - ever! I was told there is no outstanding debt & this was a scam, I then asked if VM use any debt collection agencys if they're ever chasing people who owe them money? I was assured they don't.

After reading this thread - there is clearly something fishy going on here - CRS say JC International are their client in the email they sent & one of the mods here have confirmed VM are associated with this JCI company - seems to me VM are creating debts via account closure charges they're not informing the customers about (I apparantly owe £33 but was never informed via mail/email or text from VM that I had something outstanding to pay or what it was for) & selling them on to JCI who in turn are using these scam debt collection services to scare people into paying for an apparantly untraceable debt. VM need to step up here & do something - go read the google reviews for Credit Resourse Solutions (CRS) they're absolutely shocking & I certainly won't be handing these scammers my bank details. This will have & has already caught many many people out & VM have to sort this mess out before it gets too big.

[coops67]

good luck with getting VM to assist in any way. Myself and others have tried but they refuse to discuss anything. As far as im concerned now though im taking CAB's advice and ignoring it. They put the code into the verified CRS pay site (as i didnt want to risk dealing with them in any way) and they confirmed the code was completely wrong format and wouldnt allow them to proceed after the first 1 or 2 digits were attempted, so clearly a scam. My code starts JEFP and apparently if was genuine wouldn't be that. We shall see what happens. im sure there will be further threats issued. 

[Tom_W1]

Hi @VicVip0r thank for your post here, although we're sorry to hear of your concerns raised.

We do use debt collection agencies, if a customer is past 90 days of arrears - we do however, make attempts to contact individuals who are in such arrears to notify them of this so I'm sorry you never received these messages.

It does sound like this may be linked to a former account of some kind, did you speak to our Collections Team?

If not, we'd advise trying them directly on 0345 142 4444 - please let us know if you need any further help.

Many thanks

[VicVip0r]

Hi @Tom_W1

I wasn't in arreas nor did anyone from VM get in contact with me to notify me of any monies owed - like I said in my original post I pay EVERYTHING on time & in full, always have - VM have passed a debt on I had no clue about - passed on my private information I trusted them with, information they could have used to contact me to tell me I owed them for x,y,z...they instead sold the 'debt' off to what appears to be a scam debt collection service twice removed from themselves. I already rang you guys & you said nothing was owed & you don't use debt collection services, low & behold here you are saying the excact opposite. How can you sit there & tell me you attempt to contact individuals? I was a longstanding customer of yours, been with you guys since the NTL days - you've had all my contact details for years - no change in address, phone number or email - yet you guys coulden't contact me in 90 days of me canceling? After all the YEARS of spam from you guys over the years to all my points of contact - you expect me to believe you guys actively tried to get in touch with me to notify me of this said 'debt'? This is an aboslutely discusting tactic VM are using to get just a little bit more money from leaving customers by selling these spurious 'debts' & more importantly - our data - you should be ashamed & trying go give us some real answers to the problems not caused by us - I shouldn't have to be trying to figure out what has happend here when I did nothing but cancel my accout with you.

[Travis_M]

Hi @VicVapor

Thanks for posting on our community forum and sorry to hear about the issue with these charges.

I am going to drop you a private message now to collect some more information and check on this myself, please keep an eye on your inbox for a message from myself.

Regards

[Spencerd]

I to have the same issue I left virgin media in March 2021 never moved adress or emails etc and now out the blue got a demand and on my credit report for £75 I managed somehow to speak to virgin on phone and they said I owe nothing and sent a email saying I owe nothing but the 3rd party debt collectors won’t accept that as proof when that’s what they asked for 

it’s obvious after now seeing a few of us going through this there systems or staff working from home after lockdowns have made errors on our accounts and now we are being penalised 2 years later for there incompetence 

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @Spencerd,

Welcome to our Community Forums! Thank you for your first post and we're very sorry to hear that you're being contacted by collectors after having it confirmed that you don't owe anything! 

I'll be more than happy to have this looked into further for you and see what we can do to help and rectify this issue.

I'll send you a Private Message to confirm a few details. Please keep an eye out for a purple envelope at the top right corner of your Forum page. I'll be in touch soon.

Thanks! 🙂

[Spencerd]

 

[spell]

VM have been scammers for years but the circumstances outlined in the above posts are a step too far and in their arrogance they have crossed a line. I suggest and what I would certainly do is cease playing their silly games (I will send you a PM - thank you for reaching out - you need to submit a complaint etc).

Normally advice from Citizens Advice is a good move but what is outlined is so serious it should be straight to a specialist solicitor to pick the bones out of everything from breaches of Consumer law up to unwarranted demands with menaces (blackmail).  Prepare the fullest evidence package possibly of all contact with VM including by this thread. Look out for any threats made by the "debt collectors" to prosecute/ take you to court it's not allowed and is deemed as harrassment.

Be aware that Virgin ignore solicitors letters - either lost in the post or if signed for lost on the premises.

Good luck with it

[Spencerd]

I believe that this was during and after lockdowns many people were struggling financially they was not allowed to hound people with threatening letters emails etc so they just wrote off or sold on a load of smaller debts to a 3 rd party to chase at a later stage as I’ve now seen just in this forum 3/4 people all are pins same time early to mid 2021 with the same issue and VM just say there’s no account