Wrong address

ankspon

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.I have just received a letter posted to my address with a name that doesn't live here and never has,i know it could be a genuine mistake but i'm worried someone could be committing fraud using my address.Is there someway i could find out some info regarding this persons name and real address

vaio

Open it and ring the sender

A.Penny.Saved

The house number could be incorrect. Do you know anyone nearby with the name on the letter?

If not then the only thing you can do is to open it and phone the sender and express your concerns like vaio has already said.

Innys

vaio wrote: »

Open it and ring the sender

Isn't this illegal?

Surely it would be better to write "not known at this address, return to sender" and pop it in a post box - assuming, of course, that the sender's address is quoted on the outside of the envelope.

st999

Isn't this illegal?

Only if you tell someone about it

latecomer

Not sure whether its illegal or not but I return all mail that isn't for us in the way Innys suggested:

write "not known at this address, return to sender" and pop it in a post box

ic

Innys wrote: »

Isn't this illegal?

No - the letter has reached its final destination (the address on the envelope). Its only illegal to interfere with the post whilst it is en-route.

Innys

ic wrote: »

No - the letter has reached its final destination (the address on the envelope). Its only illegal to interfere with the post whilst it is en-route.

Not sure about this.

Following your logic if I was to be sharing a house with someone unrelated (e.g. living in a student house), I could open anyone else's post.

iamcornholio

I don't know how a single wrongly addressed letter can lead to an automatic assumption that fraud is taking place.

Just send it back, or open the thing

ic

Innys wrote: »

Not sure about this.

Following your logic if I was to be sharing a house with someone unrelated (e.g. living in a student house), I could open anyone else's post.

Just found quoted elsewhere, that it looks like it could be an offence depending on the circumstances:

A person commits an offence if they without reasonable excuse intentionally delay or open a postal packet in the course of transmission by post or intentionally opens a mail bag.

A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, opens a postal packet which they know or suspect to have been delivered incorrectly.

So really it depends on your intention - if you're opening the post to pry then its illegal, if you're opening it in order to find out who to notify that they've the wrong address, that is OK. In your example, to open your flatmates post is wrong, in the example of this thread, it is OK if the sender is then notified.

But as posted earlier - who knows? I suspect the police have more pressing matters than chasing down that one letter.

dander

You can sign up for a free trial with Credit Expert and access your credit report - that should show any other people that have applied for credit at the same address as you. If there are any irregularities there, I think there's advice on that site about how to tackle it. If not, I'm sure there are people here, but perhaps on another board who would have expertise on what to do.