In January 2008 some Herbert somehow managed to use my identity to take out a credit card with Citibank. I was alerted to this fact by receiving a credit card cheque book in January. I called the bank and was assured this was a fraudulent credit card and I was told to obtain a credit report, check with the local sorting office and and tell my bank. No one mentioned that I needed to get a crime reference number from the police. I received a statement in February, called the bank and I was assured that this would al go away I received another statement in March so I wrote to the bank and received no reply. I then wrote again in September and again I received no reply. I returned from a short tour of Wales in November and there was a letter threatening me with court action. I wrote to W.J.Mills who was the chairman and the chief executive at that time. I also copied in every director on the board and the company secretary plus a raft of others from the Treasury Select Committee to my local MP. There were a couple of directors who had sprauncy addresses in New York – the one regret I have is that I forgot to sign off with “have a nice day”. This matter went to the Financial Ombudsman a couple of times and it took months to clear up. The credit rating agencies were less than helpful and if ever there is an overwhelming case for nationalisation they must be it. The credit rating agencies; as Tony Blair would no doubt have opined when he was in Government, ” hold the people’s information” and we have to pay to access it. When incorrect information is loaded onto ratings agencies data bases it takes a superhuman effort to get it removed. As we saw in the sub-prime mortgage debacle, credit rating agencies – behaving like demented mediaeval alchemists – in the USA gave sub-prime mortgages AAA ratings and in the process managed to turn utter and total dross into fools gold.
“In view of the fact that I alerted you to a fraudulent card on a number of occasions by telephone and in writing I regard and action by you to communicate your egregious errors to credit rating agencies as injurious falsehood……….” To read more
Please click on “Stolen identity and Citibank International – Part one” to access the correspondence