A company called Ardent Credit Services in Liverpool emailed me with quite an elaborate and convincing phishing scam claiming to be collecting a debt to Vodafone. They followed it up with a very convincing letter. As Vodafone confirm I do not owe them any money, and they are sure they have not passed my details in to a debt collection agency, its a pretty bold scam. I am not sure where they have got my details from but I wonder if this fraud is widespread?
I have reported the attempted fraud to the Police on their very helpful web site http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ and I would encourage readers to do the same.
A copy of the letter reproduced below. I wonder if the bank account at HSBC (402908 93891100) does belong to Ardent or if the scammers are actually nothing to do with Ardent and have set up that account as part of the scam? I wonder if Ardent really does have an Andy Stanton (who signs using a strange font)?
More info about scams claiming to be vodafone here
Anyone else have a similar scam directed at them?
I have reported the attempted fraud to the Police on their very helpful web site http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ and I would encourage readers to do the same.
A copy of the letter reproduced below. I wonder if the bank account at HSBC (402908 93891100) does belong to Ardent or if the scammers are actually nothing to do with Ardent and have set up that account as part of the scam? I wonder if Ardent really does have an Andy Stanton (who signs using a strange font)?
More info about scams claiming to be vodafone here
Anyone else have a similar scam directed at them?
posted by Billlion at 1:59 PM
7 Comments:
Despite the amateur look of this letter, the strange form of address, the typos, the lack of any traceable information to link with Vodafone, it seems this letter did actually come from Ardent on the instructions of Vodafone. Surprisingly Ardent are a registered member of the CSA, and apparently a legitimate business based in Liverpool not Nigeria! On closer examination Vodafone found that someone opened a fraudulent SIM only account in my name and (approximate) address with made up bank account details, hence no payment being made. Bad on Vodafone for not checking if teh details matched an existing customer and doing identity checks. Bad on Ardent for being gullible enough to believe their scant details and to be sucked in to the scam, as well as sending scam-alike emails and letters.
I have received the exact same letter and the exact same account number and sort code, I have been on the phone to Vodafone and they have reassured me the ardent are a company that work with Vodafone and they are the collections side to them based in Liverpool. Hope this helps
Pav. It seems Vodafone are very disjointed and it is hard to know which person there to trust. I got a different answer from each Vodafone person I asked.
Anything happened on this? Ardent have been harassing me for the last month or so and I got a contract termination warning today. Thinking of going to the police myself.
As Vodafone confirm I do not owe them any money, and they are sure they have not passed my details in to a debt collection agency, its a pretty bold scam. Uni-source
Got the letter, still struggling to get Vodafone to write to ACS
Got the same thing today . And complained to the police. Hope it doesnt affect my credit file :(
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