Just received PNLB-review letter?

[#1]

So I just received a letter from Karen Bracklebank-Lambert (billing and collections) stating “We’ve recently reviewed our accounts and need to check some details with you as you might be owed a refund”. They ask me to call them on 0800 077 8488 Mon-Fri quoting “PNLB-review” and my old Plusnet username.

Is this legit and if so why not just automatically refund anything to my existing Plusnet account? Is it just a way to cut down on payments by making customers call them first? It seems very unusual as I am an existing customer.

[#2]

Marked as a scam at http://checkwhocalled.co.uk/phone-number/08000778488

[#3]

Thanks and I saw that, but someone else posted it’s OK and there was an assumption it was a scam as they were no longer a customer. I also haven’t received any calls from the number... just the letter so could the scammers be spoofing the number? I would expect a genuine scam to have far more reports and a fraudulent 0800 number several years old to be cancelled.

Quite worrying they have full details of my previous account if it is a scam. I have attached an image of their franking account... is it the same as the one Plusnet use?

Maybe an employee can look into this and confirm?

[#4]

@fester

I take it you haven't tried calling the 0800 number, probably quite sensible if you haven't.

However if you are curious or maybe want a bit of fun you could call it, and possibly, depending on your phone providers service, withhold your own number by prefixing it with '141'. e.g. from a BT page:

• 141

 If you're not withholding your number permanently, you can use 141 to withhold your number on a call-by-call basis.
Simply dial 141 then dial the number you want to call.

As you know this could well be a scam you will obviously not divulge any personal information (such as going through identity verification etc.) but you may get to find out a bit more. 

[#5]

Thanks @RobPN

I had no plans to call the number unless it had been confirmed by an employee on here and even then I was going to call the normal billing department first.

I don’t like to call scam numbers as any inbound traffic on the number can benefit them. Also, 141 and withholding your number is not infallible... especially on mobile networks.

[#6]

@fester - Well the next time you're passing a payphone, as it's free is won't cost you anything and if they harvest the number you'll not be there to answer the calls.

[#7]

Payphone... what is that?

Feel free to give the number a try

[#8]

Hi @fester,

I'm really sorry to hear that you have had a scam communication.

You've absolutely done the right thing by ignoring the communication.

Should you receive further communications please feel free to give us a shout. Alternatively you report this to:

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-a-fraud/how-to-report-a-fraud

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Please see later response from @HarryB Here: https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Account-Billing/Just-received-PNLB-review-letter/m-p/1575786#M33000

Thank you.

[#9]

Thanks for the info @OllieC. I tried twice to call (actual Plusnet number) but couldn’t hold for the 40min then 50min wait time. Just to clarify, you are aware of this scam and 0800 077 8488 is not a Plusnet number?

It raises a more serious issue though. I appreciate you would like me to let Action Fraud know, but I need to find out how they got hold of my full details specifically relating to my previous Plusnet account. I am extremely protective of all my info and this is the first scam postal letter I have ever received... in fact it’s the first scam communication of any kind that has my proper information.

Will this be related to the website breach?

[#10]

Hi @fester,

Please accept my sincerest apologies for causing any distress.

I have double checked this with our documents and the number is actually a genuine one from Plusnet.

It is one of our billing department numbers.

Again, please accept my sincerest apologies as that was my mistake.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Thank you.
 

[#11]

@OllieC So are you saying that the letter is valid correspondence from PlusNet? Just confirming that it is a PlusNet number does not really help the OP who is concerned that there is some scam going on. Making an error regarding the number did not help.

[#12]

Hi @RealAleMadrid, the number is one of ours and goes through to our Credit & Debt Management team.

I appreciate the initial error doesn't help this situation and I'm trying to get more information from the relevant department regarding the letter in question so we can come back with a more detailed response.

[#13]

@fester - I've now discussed this with the relevant people and confirmed the letter is legitimate and I've been advised we unfortunately couldn't just issue the refund against a different account despite you currently having an account with us as this refund would need to be logged against the account the refund relates to.

We sent out the letter advising you to contact us but this was simply to confirm your address was still the same before sending a cheque out to.

As I have manually located your old account and your current account, our billing team have said they'll make sure the cheque is sent out asap as the address matches your current account.

I do sincerely apologise for any confusion/concern this has caused, hopefully you shouldn't me waiting too long for the cheque to arrive.

I hope this helps.

[#14]

Thanks for your assistance @HarryB

 My name, address and bank account has not changed... I hope there will be some further information about these charges and not just a cheque. I wonder if Plusnet would charge me interest on a three year old overdue bill if the situation was reversed?

[#15]

No further information by post so I called the number. The chap who answered said I was through to “collections”. When I asked for what company he hesitated then said John Lewis and Plusnet

I have now gone through years of previous direct debits/statements and can’t see any outstanding debt or credit.

I tried the actual Plusnet billing department again and couldn’t wait for 30 min so can an actual Plusnet employee please look into this again? I don’t really want to discuss anything with a third party collections agency so I would even appreciate if someone can confirm holding in the queue to the real billing department would be productive.