Block the sender's number, reject anonymous or private calls, delete any suspicious text messages, and refrain from clicking on links or downloading apps offered by bailiff companies purportedly for debt repayment programs.
Downloading such an app could enable the bailiff company to track your location, monitor you, locate your vehicle, and clamp it to extract payments. They may also attempt to obtain your bank details to facilitate a Third Party Order, allowing the creditor to draw monewy from your bank account.
If you receive an unexpected text message from a bailiff company, it's likely due to an outstanding traffic contravention debt associated with a previous address. They obtained your mobile number from the DVLA database, likely the same number provided on the V5 new keeper slip submitted to Swansea when you purchased the vehicle.
Sending distressing or anxiety-inducing text messages without reasonable justification commits an offence.
DO NOT click on any links in text messages sent by bailiff companies, as doing so confirms your number and makes it difficult to block them, especially when they use fake or anonymous numbers.
Enforcement laws and associated regulations do not endorse text messages as a legitimate means of enforcement.
Bailiff companies often intimidate unsuspecting individuals with text messages, urging them to make contact, particularly when they lack the debtor's current address. They may not even be certain if your mobile number is accurate, hence the messages to elicit a response.
For traffic debt collection, bailiffs obtain your mobile number from the DVLA when you complete the new keeper document.
Upon contacting the bailiff, they may request confirmation of your address and continue to send messages in an attempt to extract further information from you.
When reporting nuisance or unlawful text messages, be sure to include the following details:
If the message includes a threat, the sender commits an offence under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
If the message is highly offensive, indecent, obscene, or menacing, the sender commits an offence under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003
Engaging in conduct that constitutes harassment, and if the sender is aware or should be aware that such conduct amounts to harassment, is an offence under section 2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
Both the sender and any individual in their company who knowingly send messages in this manner also breaches section 993 of the Companies Act 2006.
How to Make a Report:
Messages from a persistent text sender can be submitted online to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which will conduct an investigation into the sender. The Commissioner has the authority to suspend the sender's services and impose fines.
You can also report them to your mobile phone provider at no cost by forwarding the message to 7726. All operators now support this service, except for Vodafone, which uses 87726.
You have the option to seek an injunction against the sender.
The offence can also be reported online to the police.
Cease receiving bothersome messages:
For Android devices, access the text messaging app and tap the three-dot icon located in the upper right corner. Then, choose Settings >> Spam protection and activate the Enable spam protection option. Your phone will notify you if incoming messages are deemed spam.
If the sender's number is concealed and you own an Android phone, configure your device to Block unknown callers.
Example spam messages from bailiff companies:
The final example includes a distinctive link where the last few characters are specific to the intended recipient. Altering a character in the link's concluding segment redirects to a website named soundbite.com, revealing individuals' names and enforcement references related to OneSource Enforcement Services. Irrespective of the postcode or characters entered, it consistently indicates an incorrect postcode. This constitutes a covert scam aimed at validating debtor addresses.
The Law:
Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 states:
Offence of sending letters etc. with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
(1)
Any person who sends to another person—
(a)a letter, electronic communication or article of any description which conveys—
(i)a message which is indecent or grossly offensive;.
(ii)
a threat; or
(iii)information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender; or
(b)any article or electronic communication which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature,
is guilty of an offence if his purpose, or one of his purposes, in sending it is that it should, so far as falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated.
(2)A person is
not guilty of an offence by virtue of subsection (1)(a)(ii) above
if he shows—
(a)that the threat was used to reinforce a demand made by him on reasonable grounds; and
(b)that he believed, and had reasonable grounds for believing, that the use of the threat was a proper means of reinforcing the demand.
(2A) In this section "electronic communication" includes—
(a)any oral or other communication by means of an electronic communications network; and
(b)any communication (however sent) that is in electronic form.
(3)In this section references to sending include references to delivering or transmitting and to causing to be sent, delivered or transmitted and "sender" shall be construed accordingly.
(4)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a)on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine (or both);
(b)on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine (or both).
(5)In relation to an offence committed before section 154(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 comes into force, the reference in subsection (4)(b) to 12 months is to be read as a reference to six months.
(6)In relation to an offence committed before section 85 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 comes into force, the reference in subsection (4)(b) to a fine is to be read as a reference to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum.
Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 states:
Improper use of public electronic communications network
(1)A person is guilty of an offence if he—
(a)sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or
(b)causes any such message or matter to be so sent.
(2)A person is guilty of an offence if, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, he—
(a)sends by means of a public electronic communications network, a message that he knows to be false,
(b)causes such a message to be sent; or
(c)persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network.
(3)A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both.
(4)Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to anything done in the course of providing a programme service (within the meaning of the Broadcasting Act 1990 (c. 42)).
(5)An information or complaint relating to an offence under this section may be tried by a magistrates' court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland if it is laid or made—
(a)before the end of the period of 3 years beginning with the day on which the offence was committed, and
(b)before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the day on which evidence comes to the knowledge of the prosecutor which the prosecutor considers sufficient to justify proceedings.
(6)Summary proceedings for an offence under this section may be commenced in Scotland—
(a)before the end of the period of 3 years beginning with the day on which the offence was committed, and
(b)before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the day on which evidence comes to the knowledge of the prosecutor which the prosecutor considers sufficient to justify proceedings,
and section 136(3) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (date when proceedings deemed to be commenced) applies for the purposes of this subsection as it applies for the purposes of that section.
(7)A certificate of a prosecutor as to the date on which evidence described in subsection (5)(b) or (6)(b) came to his or her knowledge is conclusive evidence of that fact.
Section 1 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 states:
Prohibition of harassment.
(1)
A person must not pursue a course of conduct—
(a)which amounts to harassment of another, and
(b)which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other..
(1A)A person
must not pursue a course of conduct —
(a)which involves harassment of two or more persons, and
(b)which he knows or ought to know involves harassment of those persons, and
(i)not to do something that he is entitled or required to do, or
(ii)to do something that he is not under any obligation to do.
(2)For the purposes of this section or section 2A(2)(c), the person whose course of conduct is in question ought to know that it amounts to or involves harassment of another if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment of the other.
(3)Subsection (1) or (1A)
does not apply to a course of conduct if the person who pursued it
shows—
(a)that it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime,
(b)that it was pursued under any enactment or rule of law or to comply with any condition or requirement imposed by any person under any enactment, or
(c)that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.
Section 993 of the Companies Act 2006 states:
Offence of fraudulent trading
(1)
If any business of a company is carried on
with intent to defraud creditors of the company or
creditors of any other person, or for any fraudulent purpose,
every person who is knowingly a party to the carrying on of the business in that manner commits an offence.
(2)This applies whether or not the company has been, or is in the course of being, wound up.
(3)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or a fine (or both);
(b)on summary conviction—
(i)in England and Wales, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both);
(ii)in Scotland or Northern Ireland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both).
