A default listing by FunnyNet meant Jasmeen couldn’t get a home loan

The issue

Jasmeen applied for a home loan with her bank, which refused her application because of a default listing for $950 from FunnyNet in December 2024.

Jasmeen had never been a customer of FunnyFone.

When she called, FunnyNet said in January 2024 she bought an iPad and didn’t pay for it.

FunnyNet said it sent her bills, overdue notices, and warnings before it default listed her in December 2024.

Jasmeen complained and asked to speak to the fraud team. FunnyNet said it would call her and never did.

The investigation

Jasmeen complained to us.

We think good industry practice is for providers to send bills to all consumers, unless they use prepaid services. This does not depend on payment methods.

We shared this expectation with TellAll, which said its billing system could only send receipts to people using services they pay for by direct debit.

We suggested it add bill functionality to its system.

We asked FunnyNet for interaction notes, contracts and proof of delivery.

We asked Jasmeen to send us her credit report and proof of addresses she’d lived at from 1 January 2023 to now.

We compared the addresses FunnyNet delivered the iPad to with the address Jasmeen sent us proof of.

They didn’t match.

We checked the interaction notes from January 2024 and found the calls in which ‘Jasmeen’ ordered the iPad.

We asked FunnyNet to send us the call recordings.

The recordings showed FunnyNet did not do multi-factor authentication, only accepting a driver’s licence number, which matched Jasmeen’s.

The outcome

We shared the findings of our investigation with FunnyNet and Jasmeen.

FunnyNet accepted it had not done multi-factor authentication, and the iPad sale was fraudulent.

We asked FunnyNet to buy back the $950 debt, get the default removed and offer Jasmeen compensation for her experience.

After recalling the $950 debt and removing the default listing from her credit report, FunnyNet offered Jasmeen $1,000 in compensation.

Jasmeen accepted the offer.

*Names of individuals, organisations and companies have been changed.