Attempted fraud: what's his game?

Voyager2002

Over the last week about ten letters from banks, money-lenders and insurance companies have arrived at my home. They are all addressed to a person I have never heard of, yet show my address correctly including the full post-code. Since I am a home-owner and have not moved in the last eight years the person is not a previous resident, so I presume this is some kind of fraud attempt. But what is he trying to achieve?

Incidentally I tried to contact one of the banks (Barclays) to tell them what was happening, but you need to call a premium rate number to talk to their fraud team (!!) and the alternative number from SayNoTo0870 got me someone who did not know what to do.

p00hsticks

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Incidentally I tried to contact one of the banks (Barclays) to tell them what was happening, but you need to call a premium rate number to talk to their fraud team (!!) and the alternative number from SayNoTo0870 got me someone who did not know what to do.

In your shoes I'd be clearly marking them all 'not known at this address - return to sender' and just putting them back into the post box.

Could it be a near neighbour ? A lot of address look ups for online registrations now simply require a house number and postcode to generate the full address. So mis-typing the house number (e.g. 28 instead of 18) could result in qwhat you describe, particularly if that address is then circulated via a mailing lsit - does it look like 'junk' type mail offering credit cards, insurance etc, or is it more like actual credit card statements etc ?

Voyager2002

p00hsticks wrote: »

In your shoes I'd be clearly marking them all 'not known at this address - return to sender' and just putting them back into the post box.

Could it be a near neighbour ? A lot of address look ups for online registrations now simply require a house number and postcode to generate the full address. So mis-typing the house number (e.g. 28 instead of 18) could result in qwhat you describe, particularly if that address is then circulated via a mailing lsit - does it look like 'junk' type mail offering credit cards, insurance etc, or is it more like actual credit card statements etc ?

Yes: that is what I'm doing, and quickly.

I don't think it is junk mail: a couple of envelopes have made it clear that they contained insurance quotations, while others looked like the paperwork for loan applications.

scott_lithgows

Visit your local delivery office and inform them that only your mail is to be delivered

SaveTheEuro

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Over the last week about ten letters from banks, money-lenders and insurance companies have arrived at my home. They are all addressed to a person I have never heard of, yet show my address correctly including the full post-code. Since I am a home-owner and have not moved in the last eight years the person is not a previous resident, so I presume this is some kind of fraud attempt. But what is he trying to achieve?

Incidentally I tried to contact one of the banks (Barclays) to tell them what was happening, but you need to call a premium rate number to talk to their fraud team (!!) and the alternative number from SayNoTo0870 got me someone who did not know what to do.

I had this issue too. It turned out that an independent financial advisor had passed on change of address details for one of his clients. He got the change of address wrong, so countless financial companies believed the client now resided at my home. The influx of letters was the financial companies saying they had updated their files with the change of address.

BobQ

Its probably one of the things suggested abaove but personally I would:
(a) check credit reference agencies and ensure that no information was coming up on someone at your address that you might be deemed to have a link to, and inform them of anything unusual.
(b) check with the local electoral registration officer that only those names that should be on the roll appear there and that this name does not crop up as a recent amendment.

Returning mail is clearly the best option, but if it keeps appearing I would take the risk of opening anything official looking to find out what is going on. There seems to be differences of opinion as to whether this is legal but if a stranger is receiving demands from debt collectors at your address its best to know (especially if the sender cannot be bothered to stick them down properly!)

BobQ

SaveTheEuro wrote: »

I had this issue too. It turned out that an independent financial advisor had passed on change of address details for one of his clients. He got the change of address wrong, so countless financial companies believed the client now resided at my home. The influx of letters was the financial companies saying they had updated their files with the change of address.

You should have reported him for breaching the DPA!

Yorkie1

BobQ wrote: »

Returning mail is clearly the best option, but if it keeps appearing I would take the risk of opening anything official looking to find out what is going on. There seems to be differences of opinion as to whether this is legal but if a stranger is receiving demands from debt collectors at your address its best to know (especially if the sender cannot be bothered to stick them down properly!)

It is only illegal if you intend to do something with the information to the detriment of the addressee. Opening the mail in itself is perfectly legal; it's the quasi-malicious intention with which you do it that criminalises the conduct.