Letters for person who has never lived here (ID theft?)

Privateer

Hi,

First of all, apologies if this is in the wrong place.

Background

My wife and I live in a semi-detached house, so nobody has access to our mail once it has been posted through our front door.

In late November 2012, a letter arrived at our address from the DVLA with a V5C (logbook) for a person and a vehicle neither of which we had heard of before. We immediately phoned the DVLA and explained that neither the person nor the vehicle was based at our address. We then sent the V5C back to DVLA with a cover letter.

Today, Thursday 13 December 2012, we received a letter again addressed to the same person, this time from the local council with regard to a large number of unpaid parking fines. We phoned the council and they said just send the letter back to them.

Questions

Should we be concerned that an unknown person has registered our address as the address for their vehicle?

Could we get problems in the future, i.e. poor credit scores, etc?

What can we do to safeguard ourselves from any problems?

Are we worrying too much?

Many thanks.

pmduk

I think you are worrying too much. If the DVLA has mucked up an individual's address and frankly, I understand they're not the most efficient Government Dept, it would explain the parking tickets as the local authority will have obtained the driver's registered address (ie yours) from the DVLA.

InsideInsurance

Its not in your name and so no impact on your credit scores.

Any post you receive not addressed to you, dont open, write Return to Sender - Addressee Unknown on the front and pop it back into a postbox.

It could well be that someone has moved house recently, gave the postcode slightly wrong to the DVLA and when the person in the DVLA office typed in the postcode they didnt bother to check that the address it brought up matched the address given. Having worked in call centres for 10 years, it happens frequently (or is miss read/ heard)

The council will have done a DVLA lookup for the parking ticket and just sent it to the address they got

qetu1357

Maybe check your credit file with Experian to see whether anything else has been put against your address

InsideInsurance

qetu1357 wrote: »

Maybe check your credit file with Experian to see whether anything else has been put against your address

You cannot check "your address" as there are no address level files simply individuals files which is why you cannot be affected from a credit score perspective simply by someone lying saying they live at your address

stclair

Just return everything to the sender marked "not known at this address"

Lith

stclair wrote: »

Just return everything to the sender marked "not known at this address"

Exactly,

@Privateer wouldn't worry 'if its not your name' then why all the panic?

relax

elmer

I recently took a new phone with Vodaphone for my son and they put the wrong address on the account,

I then had a visit from the police at my work as the occupant of the house 10 doors down( who knows me!) had taken all the post to the police.

When I explained what had happened, they were not very happy with my neighbour.

Mistakes happen, its not always fraud.

elmer

[Deleted User]

Why is everybody telling the OP not to panic?

PANIC!!! PANIC MORE!!!

No, OK. Don't panic. There isn't any need.

+1 for anyone saying to write "Not known at this address" on it and stick it back in the postbox.

But don't panic, Mr Mainwaring.

Privateer

Thank you to everybody how has read this thread and a big thank you to pmduk, InsideInsurance, qetu1357, stclair, Lith, elmer, and billbennett for replying.

The best thing to do is to print off some labels and stick "Return to Sender - Addressee Unknown" on the front of the letter.

Update

Since the initial contact from DVLA and the council, we have received a third letter, this time from a well known high street bank addressed to the same person using our correct full address and post code. The person has opened an account with our address and that person has considerable debts.

Don't street banks have to use id and proof of address with utility bills when you open an new account? Or do you think the account already existed and the person has changed their address to our address? Even when you move house don't you have to provide proof?

Whilst the "Return to Sender - Addressee Unknown" method is useful, do the recipients take notice when they are owed money?

Having been frugal with my money all of my life, I am in the position of not owing any money to anybody so I'm genuinely worried about things like bailiffs, and other problems that this might cause.

Many thanks,

rb10

Privateer wrote: »

[/B][/U]Since the initial contact from DVLA and the council, we have received a third letter, this time from a well known high street bank addressed to the same person using our correct full address and post code. The person has opened an account with our address and that person has considerable debts.

Don't street banks have to use id and proof of address with utility bills when you open an new account? Or do you think the account already existed and the person has changed their address to our address? Even when you move house don't you have to provide proof?

Whilst the "Return to Sender - Addressee Unknown" method is useful, do the recipients take notice when they are owed money?

Having been frugal with my money all of my life, I am in the position of not owing any money to anybody so I'm genuinely worried about things like bailiffs, and other problems that this might cause.

Many thanks,

It's not your problem whether they have debts or not - if they are not in your name, then you'll be fine.

As others have mentioned previously, the best course of action is to not open the letters, but just cross out the address and put them back in the post box.