I got a letter in April and was shocked. I e-mailed them several times saying that there has been a mistake but they never got back to me. I received a second letter still last week and this is really annoying me. I thought it was illegal to send letters that caused panic or distress to people. I hope something is done about this. This update article is great.
ACS:Law still sending out letters alleging file sharing as SRA investigation nears conclusion
Broadband Genie is receiving around one email per day from concerned visitors that have been contacted by solicitors firm ACS:Law accusing them of illegal file sharing activity. In each case the firm has asked the recipient to pay £295 to settle the matter before it goes to court.
Many who receive these letters claim to have no idea they've done anything wrong, and in fact may not have done. The letters have been described by some, including consumer group Which, to be threatening, or of being a bullying tactic. This has led to an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) into the matter, and several similar instances involving other law firms.
We spoke to the SRA this morning for an update on the situation. It would seem the SRA's investigation into ACS:Law's Andrew Crossley is into its final stages, with the final response it is waiting for due in at the end of July. Once in, the SRA will decide whether or not to proceed with a disciplinary tribunal.
But don't hold your breath. In a similar case involving solicitors that were at firm Davenport Lyons, disciplinary proceedings have now begun. However, it is a slow process and a hearing is unlikely to be heard before the end of the year. This would mean even if a case was made against ACS: Law, it would be at least 2011 before any outcome was reached - and then there is no guarantee it will side with the SRA. As this is the case, ACS:Law is quite within its rights to continue to send out these letters.
so what should you do if you receive one? A spokesperson for the SRA said today: "Anybody who receives a letter from a solicitor about alleged file sharing that they think is improper can lodge a complaint against the solicitor with the Legal Complaints Service. Go to http://www.legalcomplaints.org.uk/home.page for details of how to do this, or call the helpline on 0845 608 6565. The Solicitors Regulation Authority, which is investigating the solicitors’ firms involved in this activity, liaises closely with the Legal Complaints Service."
If you feel you have received this letter in error and dispute the allegations, do not ignore the letter - instead reply saying that you deny the charges. It is a legal matter and will not go away if you do not respond. We cannot give you advice beyond this, as we're not lawyers.
But let's get one thing straight - getting copyrighted files from the internet via a P2P program means potentially breaking the law and those who do so risk being caught and paying the consequences. The reason isn't that you are downloading a file, it is that while you are downloading that file you will also be sharing parts of it you've already downloaded with other people, which makes you a distributor. So even if you were downloading an MP3 album file you already owned on a CD, the P2P program you're using to do so is sharing bits from your computer with who knows who at the same time. If in doubt, just don't do it.
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Comments
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I received a letter from them at the beginning of the week and have sent a reply. I have also sent all letters of correspondence to my MP and the SRA.
The letter that I received was a follow up letter claiming that I had not responded to the first Letter of Claim. I had received no initial letter in the first place.
They are accusing me of having downloaded a song that I have never even heard of and even had to Google it to figure out it was a song from the early 90's?
The only music I have ever downloaded was via Amazon and I think that was 1 album. Apart from that I don't even really listen to the radio, so I was completely befuddled by this claim.
I know thousands of other people have also had letters form this firm and I would definitely advise that they reply to the letters in a polite way. There is fantastic advise on how to reply to the letters at BeingThreatened.com People there will help you regarding any questions you may have. -
i also recieved a letter demanding £295.00 to make it go away so i wrote a letter of denial
saying they had no proof that i had downloaded the song. if i get another letter i will respond accusing them of harrassment. To date apparently they have not taken anybody to court yet because they do not have a strong enough case. So my advice is do not pay them but respond to the letter -
Write a letter of denial but add that from some fixed date in the future you will start charging for any replies that are required. It is legal, and you get to make a profit.
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I love the first paragraph from the website "Which" (the consumer pro's)
http://www.which.co.uk/news/2010/07/qcs-view-raises-doubt-on-online-piracy-cases-221050 (copy and paste)-
It's very reassuring. I used their quote to send to ACS Law after I recieved my second letter. Maybe these parasites will get the hint that they wont get a penny from me. -
i also recieved my first letter on 7th july 2010 asking for £295,00 for a download i never made i sent a letter of denial then on fri 30th july recieved another letter from them saying the letter i sent back to them was not satisfactory and they now give me 14 days to pay or they will get an ammediate interim payment of £1,000 towards legal costs. i made contact with this so called firm but got no where they wont be getting a penny off me i have also contacted the SRA & Fraud investigation team
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I to have recieved a letter from this law firm stating I downloading some album in October 2009, funny thing about it is they state they obtained my details from Bethere but I left this ISP in April 2009 when I moved to O2, so a LOD has been sent with an email I got back from Bethere confirming I was no longer a customer from that date, sent the LOD a week ago not had anything back and as far as I care it's end of as I didn't do it, so Andrew Crossley can put that in his pipe and smoke it, if he wants to sent me more junk mail he can and it'll be filed under b1n.
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I recieved a letter in April of this year in my fathers name referring to his misdemeanours of downloading "Granny Porn" back in Nov 2009 ! Mmmnn...! Considering he's an 80 year old retired Dentist... ( Oh! That might implicate him ! Ageism! ) What next.? I really don't think he's guilty. PTP or networking means nothing to him, infact he's completely computer illiterate on his own. The reasonable payment from ACS for him to make his life easier is £1200 ...cheap at the price for the little time he has left (Post quadruple Bypass patient). Was it me.?( His son) No. I'm aware of this questoinnaire and have no problem with forensic analysis as there is no implicating evidence in his computer. I won't fill it in for my father on principle. I have sent a LOD in the last week of April but alas no reply. Chances are when they do get around to harrasing him further he'll probably be dead.!! I intend to see my MP should any further correspondence arrive. Looking at ACS LAW website they talk about protecting the Intellectual Property Rights of Holders and that copyright law should be enforced . Mmmnnnn!!! In this case all those Porn Stars losing their jobs in this bad economic climate ...Oh ! Shame. I think have a moral and ethical dilemma with a bucketful of guilt to throw at my confused father.! Sorry , my sarcasm gets in the way of an absurd situation. To Be Continued.....
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Well just a little update since my post on 3 Aug 2010, I got a letter back saying sorry for the me recieving the letter and they were infact given incorrect details by the ISP and they have now written to the correct alledge people who did it, surely he should be offering some form of compo for the distress this thing has caused me and also my time and effort and cost of proving my insence ? is this worth following up ?
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I have received a letter today and spent all day worrying. Certainly I know I did not do this (I'm a 50 yr old woman, "Porn Babes" would not have interested me a lot anyway!) The only other in the household is my 12 year old son who is adamant he also did not download this. I have now even contacted his school to know for sure that on the schoolday in question at 2pm he was, in fact, registered as present. I am starting to think the whole thing is one big scam and that this law firm may occasionally hit lucky on some guy who did do some porn download and who thinks he's guilty of huge wrongdoing and then pays up. My own "fine" is nearly £500 and as I say, I have been worried all day that somehow this really could have happened and me unable to prove personal innocence - until I got onto this highly informative site. Thank you.
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I got the same today Lynsey asking for £495 for sharing a file i have never heard of or even watched one single frame.
I have written back to ACS and my ISP who claim to have not passed any info onto ACS. I will fight this all the way from DPA regulations to SRA and harrassment.
It's completely crazy that a supposedly professional Legal company resident in the UK which has very good financial and Human Rights protection can actually think its ok to suddenly write to someone making such and accusation which can permanently scar a person and get away with it.
I might as well write to the Pope who was in the UK today and tell him he owes me £500 for visiting my country......
Mark
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Hello I recently received a letter from acs:law demanding £495 for downloading some 888888 which I cant remember doing and threatening to take me to court . I am in the process of byeing a house and the last think I want is all this .
What should I do ?
Has any one had the same problem and has any paid .?
Do you no if any one has actually been taken to court .
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I too have received one of these letter.
Firstly, make sure you respond to the letter. details of how to do this can be found at
http://beingthreatened.yolasite.com/questions.php
This law firm appear to be trying to make a quick buck by (in my opinion) sending bullying, threatening and intimidating letters.
Get as much info as you can from the internet on these parasites but, most importantly, do not pay up as they don't appear to have any real evidence against you. -
Hi, we have received one of these letters from ACS demanding £495 for downloading a film of shall we say 'adult nature'. The isp given is ours and they have gained our home details from SKY, our ISP. We had a trojan horse virus on our pc at the stated time and can only assume this is when our connection which is WEP KEY protected was used by someone to download the film.
Can you please advise us if this can happen and what we can do to prevent any further intrusion of this kind.
Thanks for all the advice given on here in how to respond and defend ourselves, and we will place further updates on what response we get from ASC:LAW. -
I also have received similar letter from ACS:LAW dated on 9th September demanding £495 for sharing one of their client's "the Work" over P2P protocol using my internet connection. My network router is a wireless router and kept in open places. I really do not know who did this and how. More over I can't see any reason of inerest, why people will do this.
This letter scares me a lot, because they states that the file transfer happens using my network. They are refering a date of file sharing which is 12tth Jan, 2010, 8-monh a go. I do not know what happend that day, why suddenly my interne connection started sending "the Work" to some unknown ip-address?
Finally I got some direction after visiting his web-site. -
Am I special, my demand is for £1200 pounds. Inflation will the demise of us all. I shall be replying with your template letter sending a copy to my MP and making a complaint to the SRA. Thank you for your excellent advice
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in march i received a letter to say that i owed £1,000 for downloading porn we sent a letter of denial ,back came a reply that it was a template letter and so they increased the amount to £2.000 .i then sent a letter back to them to say that at the time of the alleged offence i was at work that was the end of that or so i thought untill last week when i was received another letter saying i had been downloading porn again this time they wanted £495 .i am a 65 year old woman why would i want to look at porn.i would like to know when all this will stop
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My husband received a letter from ACS dated 9th September - but received on 16th Sept. They are asking for £1200 for us to settle out of court. Seeing as they only give 21 days to reply, they have already wasted the first week. Again, the allged offence supposedly took place on 12 Jan at 2:13am and was for some granny porn. I certainly dont want to see them get away with it and will be writing to the SRA and our local MP. By the way, the Court order that came with it was dated July 2010, which is when the SRA were supposed to be finalising their investigation into this matter. Has anyone seen anything about what their findings were?
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im back again (post 23 July 2010) this was for downloading a song, i also sent a letter of denial i got a reply saying i had got it off the internet and i had 14 days to pay, seven weeks later i have still heard nothing from them till today now the say i downloaded a XXX film and they want £495.00 but no mention of the mp3 file i was supposedly to have downloaded in July ? To me this is just more evidence that this is a scam .
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I received a letter dated 9th Sept asking for £495 to settle for a violation.. I am worried sick and don't know what should I do.. I have got till 29th Sept to settle this.. anybody has any information regarding the current status of this company or how to deal with these people? Why govt. or nobody doing anything to deal with this man/ company? :(
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***TAKE NOTE***
ACS:Law has been taken down.
Read the following links:
http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-anti-piracy-law-firm-torn-apart-by-leaked-emails-100925/
http://www.slyck.com/story2058_ACSLaw_Email_Database_Leaked_onto_The_Pirate_Bay
http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-gay-porn-letters-target-pensioners-married-men-100925/
@Persons asking for advice above, go to http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=44092 for all the help you'll need to combat this scam law firm. -
Roy just send a letter denying any knowledge of downloading then just ignore the next letter you get giving 14 days, i did and have heard anything for 8 weeks they just try to frighten you then ring the S R A and sent them the paper work they are very helpfull and interested in ACS Law
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Just in case anybody from Germany is getting such 'leeters' or mails - the advice given by my solicitor is to disregard them completely. Dont answer them at all. The first letter that you will have to answer - and put your denail forward - is any letter coming from a court.Since most of these gangsters will not go to a court and risk losing money by losing such cases - you will not have to worry - unless you really and intentionally have been naughty. They will have tpo prove your intentions. Judges are extremely friendly towards 'innocent' users of misleading websites.
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Hi
I received an Acs:Law letter 2 weeks ago, and have been sick with worry. I was one of the people whose details were leaked via Acs:Law's security breach. A couple of things I found helpful was to contact Privacy International who gave me some non-legal advice. Secondly, the http://beingthreatened.yolasite.com/info.php has been a great help although Acs:Law ignore the template letter suggested on the 'being threatened', website.
I wish all of my best to anybody else in this situation. -
i have just recieved a letter syaing that i downloaded a song on utorrent on a certain time and date. now i didnt download this and i do not have utorrent or any other such programs. i only use itunes. they have all my details etc but i am unsure on what to do i have checked all the websites. do i Send the letter denying it using the template or just pay to get it out the way? i dont have the money to be goin to court etc as i am a houseowner and have other debts thanks JJ
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JJ just send a letter of denial and forget about it you will get another letter just bung it in the bin DO NOT PAY THEM if you do you will keep getting letters and they have your details
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thanks glen i have used the letter from another website even though they dont take templates it is what i shall send anyway. thanks for your help and eveyone for reading and taking time to help others in this way.
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I refer to my note above on 22 Sept. My husband sent the template letter from "being treatened". We've now got a reply sayng it was a template and not a proper denial. They also enclosed a payment form and demanded the money within 14 days. We haven't yet replied to the second letter as we want to take further advice. But the tone of the second letter is quite bullying. I dont think ignoring him will make it go away.
We've written to RSA who just acknowledged our letter. Wrote to Judge Wintergarden - again just a clerk's acknowledgement. BSkyB just said it's not their fault the names got out on the web - but have reconsidered the situation and wont be supplying any more info to ACS unless they can guarantee it is stored securely - too late for many people. Seems no-one is really trying to stop this guy. It's a legal loop hole and he is using it to great advantage.
Anyone who pays up is just lining his pockets and letting him know he can get away with it. If you didn't do it - dont pay and defend yourself. -
can anyone send me a copy of the second letter they sent out? i have just recieved a bullying letter telling me to pay up in 14 days. dows anyone have the second letter they sent off. i will obviously write my own but would like to know how to go about it thanks my email is jameshill011 [at] hotmail.co.uk (please no junk i would just like help. Also shall i send to a solicitor and how do i go about it i have never used one other then purchasing property. thanks JJ
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