Severn Trent Water "project" - how did they get my name?

meema

Hi,

I'm a customer of severn trent water. This weekend I received a letter from them. It had my name on it but was addressed to one of the other flats in the building. The weird thing was, it addressed me as "Dr". This is a title I only ever use for my professional membership subscription. It's not on the electoral register or anything.

The letter stated they were aware I had just moved in and they had set up an account for me.

I called them asking who set up the account at this other flat for me. They said they have a special "project" at the moment. If a home is registered as vacant then they use a third party to supply them with the name of the person who is living there. I asked them who the third party is and the customer service rep couldn't tell me. I explained my concerns - that this title is not something I use so i'm worried about how anyone would have come across it.

I'm posting this because I'm curious whether anyone else is a customer of severn trent and have you heard of this project? I have a creepy image of someone rifling through my mail looking for contact details!!

I'm hoping they are going to call me back with more info today..but if anyone has any ideas about this then I'd appreciate it. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.

Thanks!

spiro

When signed up to your professional subscription did you tick the box saying you didn't want your details shared? If not that is possibly how they got it.

GingerBob_3

meema wrote: »

Hi,

I'm a customer of severn trent water. This weekend I received a letter from them. It had my name on it but was addressed to one of the other flats in the building. The weird thing was, it addressed me as "Dr". This is a title I only ever use for my professional membership subscription. It's not on the electoral register or anything.

The letter stated they were aware I had just moved in and they had set up an account for me.

I called them asking who set up the account at this other flat for me. They said they have a special "project" at the moment. If a home is registered as vacant then they use a third party to supply them with the name of the person who is living there. I asked them who the third party is and the customer service rep couldn't tell me. I explained my concerns - that this title is not something I use so i'm worried about how anyone would have come across it.

I'm posting this because I'm curious whether anyone else is a customer of severn trent and have you heard of this project? I have a creepy image of someone rifling through my mail looking for contact details!!

I'm hoping they are going to call me back with more info today..but if anyone has any ideas about this then I'd appreciate it. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.

Thanks!

Did you find out anything else about how they got personal information about you?

Incidentally, don't forget NOT to furnish them with information such as DoB, full name and previous address when arranging your account. They will ask for all of this, but do not provide it.