To think this letter looks dodgy?

[milkmilklemonade12]

We'd never heard of iD Mobile until tonight... But they wrote to DH telling him he owes them £290! They're apparently a division of Carphone Warehouse, who DH has insurance with for his phone.

He has never taken out a contract with these people (we are PAYG anyway) and the letter looks a bit dodgy too; the number of the phone he apparently owes money on isn't listed, and there's no VAT number for the company at the bottom or anything.

Even if it is real, what can we do about it? Are we going to have to pay?

Sorry about the terrible photo!

If it's insurance they may not be a VAT registered company as VAT isn't charged on insurance products. Just get on the phone and see if you can figure it out. Write if you get nowhere on the phone, then you have records if you need to take it to an ombudsman/regulator etc.

idmobile.co.uk/myid redirects to another url, you would think they would put the correct url in the letter.

No invoice reference makes it dodgy as well.

Its not a good advert for the company if they have been cyber attacked.

Of course insurance companies are VAT registered. They may not charge it, but they definitely pay it on goods and services so can reclaim it.

And things like their registered address and company number, as well as VAT details etc. It's usually on the bottoms of letters in the footer.

It being Sunday tomorrow, not too sure how far we'll get but I'll update

insurance is a typical example in the VAT text books for an exempt service, to catch you out. They can't claim VAT back if they don't sell VAT eligible goods. This company may sell other services with VAT applied but not having a VAT no. would not concern me. And this isn't an invoice, it's a reminder. But definitely investigate and don't pay. And call the number off their website not the letter, just in case.

Well it is real!! But carphone have been great. Apparently someone went into a store last year (while we were on holiday ) and set up an account fraudulently. They have confirmed it is fraud, and now want a crime number to close the account so hopefully it will all get sorted. DH is ringing 101 now and they have also advised him to ring Action Fraud, which we will do after. He'll also advise his bank of fraudulent activity in his name, and check his credit report this afternoon.

Thanks all!