Warning: Unexpected Delivery Scam (Next)

Stonehands

General warning, but especially if you are from Enfield.

Had a delivery from Next this evening, for the Mrs, with her surname spelt slightly wrong. Odd I though, as she never orders much online, and never from Next, and usually gets delivered to work.

When she got home, she said she had not ordered anything, and inside was a £250 Coat and two £40 ipod nanos. So she check online her bank and credit card, nothing, rings next, explains everything to them, they say its odd, give her a number to ring tomorrow.

At 10.40pm this evening, the doorbell rings... very odd late time. My brain kick in and I suddenly twig, so I rush downstairs where the Mrs has answered the door, and a Guy with a north african accent is telling her is from Next, they have been delivered to the wrong address, it should be a Mrs Xxxx (another slight deviation in her surname) in south London. I tell the guy to go away, we are dealing directly with next.

He also had a Lanyard round his neck, with Next in it (a child can knock up one of those) and was clutching a Next bag.

So thats the scam, they order to your address (with hopefully not an identity thefted credit card in my Mrs name), wait until they know/guess it has been delivered, and then hope you are gullible enough to believe them and hand over £300 worth of goods. You are left with proof you have received the goods, but dont have them any more and are probably liable :mad:

Im fuming, should I call the police....?
I tried to get a picture on my phone but the guy left before I could

burnleymik

It's even worse when these scumbags know where you live. Yes, contact police immediately, some poor soul has probably paid for them without their knowledge yet. Hopefully the Police and Next will be able to trace the person who made the payment and stop them losing anymore.

dark^knight

How did they know your wife's name?

zzzLazyDaisy

burnleymik wrote: »

Hopefully the Police and Next will be able to trace the person who made the payment and stop them losing anymore.

Hmmmm..... when I last bought something from Next they didn't offer credit card payment - you gave your address etc, and they opened a credit account and dispatched the goods, with an invoice following later. Actually I was furious at the time because I didn't want a credit account, I wanted to pay by card, but it all happened so quickly.

I know there were a lot of complaints about this practice, so maybe it has changed now. But the point of this ramble is... maybe no-one has paid yet - your wife may yet get a bill for the goods.

Stonehands

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Hmmmm..... when I last bought something from Next they didn't offer credit card payment - you gave your address etc, and they opened a credit account and dispatched the goods, with an invoice following later. Actually I was furious at the time because I didn't want a credit account, I wanted to pay by card, but it all happened so quickly.

I know there were a lot of complaints about this practice, so maybe it has changed now. But the point of this ramble is... maybe no-one has paid yet - your wife may yet get a bill for the goods.

Thanks, we did think of this, (she did a search and came across this happening in 2007), and hopefully this is not the case.

She will be following up with Next tomorrow.

Just annoys me the audacity of some people to pull off a scam like this.

Stonehands

dark^knight wrote: »

How did they know your wife's name?

I have no idea... (My girlfriend, so different names, but we have lived here for 11 years ).

Assume some git has been through the recycling box. We shred anything important, but we are forever getting junk mail (ie virgin etc) so things like this are binned, i assume they picked the name and address from there... or the electorol roll?

WhiteHorse

Smile amiably, say you'll get the parcel because it's 'upstairs'. Lock the door behind him while your partner calls the police.

QuackQuack_2

Stonehands wrote: »

So thats the scam, they order to your address (with hopefully not an identity thefted credit card in my Mrs name), wait until they know/guess it has been delivered, and then hope you are gullible enough to believe them and hand over £300 worth of goods. You are left with proof you have received the goods, but dont have them any more and are probably liable :mad:

It's neat, and well done you for sharing this and spotting it.

It does beg the question Where did they get the account details from? Well, they could have stolen mail - but given that Next tend to use some very dodgy people to deliver for them - I'd start there.

Definitely report it to the Police - it's got to be attempt theft/fraud at the least?

Azari

The good news is that - unless they ordered using your g/f's CC - you will not be liable for the cost of the goods and would not have been liable even if you had handed them over.

If they did use your g/f's CC and you had handed the goods over then the situation would be quite interesting, to say the least.

I still think you would not be liable because is was a 'customer not present' transaction but you might have had some difficulties.

Stonehands

Thanks all.

She spoke to next this morning, and basically they let you order without a credit card or anything, so we would receive an invoice in the next few days. They were happy to pick up the goods (with a real collector!;)) but as we both work, she is going to drop them into a next store, and get a receipt.

I assume this is how the old catalogue system used to (and still does?) work.

In a few days, she will get a letter from next (exempting us from anything). The guy was very apologetic she said, and also said 'it happens a lot this time of year'.

I blame Next for having a stupid system where you can order stuff like this. :mad:

A lawyer friend she works with thinks she should write a carefully worder letter of complaint to Next over all the hassle this has caused.:cool:

burnleymik

Wow, I never realised a large highstreet retailer like Next would still use the credit type system for their online orders.

Kudos to you for being on the ball and saving yourself lots of hassle and money.

I still think it's worth a call to the police to make them aware, so if it happens to anyone else and they were not as on the ball as you, when they contact the police at least there will be other recorded incidents.

There is a scam for everything, sigh.