Mail intercepted - bank account fraud! Who can help!

qy206 · 24 June 2016 at 7:23PM

Myself and boyfriend have been having problems with parcel and mail deliveries for a while that were apparently delivered to neighbours but never thought anything of it. A few weeks ago, while abroad, both of us got calls from our respective banks saying that someone had tried to open bank accounts in our names. My boyfriend's bank managed to block the opening but my bank allowed the account to be opened and for the suspect to take £1,000 out of my account.

I found out later that this suspect had been using telephone banking to open the account and also transfer money and have bank cards sent to my address. From this I determined that the suspect most likely had access to my shared mail box. We had had problems receiving letters from our mortgage adviser and this letter had a lot of personal details including DOB, National Insurance number, mother's maiden name, employer, basically everything! We think this is probably the way the suspect was able to open bank accounts.

My bank has returned all the money back to me and I've reported everything to Action Fraud. However, I've spoken to both the bank and Action Fraud and no one will make a report to the police on my behalf. This is despite the bank having phone recordings of the suspect opening the bank account and also CCTV footage of the suspect taking money out of the ATM.

Does anyone know how I can avoid this happening again? I only live with 2 other households so it's very easy to pin down which one is the culprit. Do I just approach the police directly or is there anything else I can do? We've recently discovered that they've also been taking our bills which has resulted in us being overdue for our bills until we get a notification by email! We don't know how to stop this and it's very hard to track and we just want it to stop! :mad:

bigadaj · 24 June 2016 at 8:37PM

You can report it to the police, but if you've been refunded then it's the bank that is the victim of the crime so it may well be that they won't prosecute.

Maybe you could try and report this as harassment, have you appreciated the culprits and do they know that you are aware of it?

People often advise of registering with cifas for fraud protection if you've been a victim of fraud or similar but this will make your financial management much harder as well.

masonic · 24 June 2016 at 9:12PM

qy206 wrote: »

Does anyone know how I can avoid this happening again? I only live with 2 other households so it's very easy to pin down which one is the culprit.

Are you confident that you can pin it down to one of the households? Are they renting their property? If so, maybe you could raise it with the landlord - after all, someone who is trying to defraud their neighbours is probably not a great tenant either. At the end of the day, the best way to avoid this happening again is for one of you to move elsewhere.

Robbieh · 24 June 2016 at 9:38PM

You can arrange to collect your mail from your Royal Mail delivery office. Quite a few people do this and it's held until you are able to collect.

djpailo · 24 June 2016 at 10:05PM

I would report it to the police. Someone opening your mail and stealing your identity to do God know's what must surely be illegal. I'm glad you got your money back. For now, Robbieh's advice should be followed too.

xylophone · 25 June 2016 at 12:06AM

Report it to the police yourself.

You suspect that the person on the CCTV images is one of the people sharing your mailbox?

Thrugelmir · 25 June 2016 at 12:08AM

qy206 wrote: »

but my bank allowed the account to be opened and for the suspect to take £1,000 out of my account.

The fraudster went a £1000 overdrawn?

gunsandbanjos · 25 June 2016 at 2:17PM

The police won't be interested in a single incident, the bank are the victim as they will have to take the loss.

You have only been inconvenienced. External mailboxes are a fraudsters friend, change it if you can.

custardy · 25 June 2016 at 2:27PM

qy206 wrote: »

Myself and boyfriend have been having problems with parcel and mail deliveries for a while that were apparently delivered to neighbours but never thought anything of it. A few weeks ago, while abroad, both of us got calls from our respective banks saying that someone had tried to open bank accounts in our names. My boyfriend's bank managed to block the opening but my bank allowed the account to be opened and for the suspect to take £1,000 out of my account.

I found out later that this suspect had been using telephone banking to open the account and also transfer money and have bank cards sent to my address. From this I determined that the suspect most likely had access to my shared mail box. We had had problems receiving letters from our mortgage adviser and this letter had a lot of personal details including DOB, National Insurance number, mother's maiden name, employer, basically everything! We think this is probably the way the suspect was able to open bank accounts.

My bank has returned all the money back to me and I've reported everything to Action Fraud. However, I've spoken to both the bank and Action Fraud and no one will make a report to the police on my behalf. This is despite the bank having phone recordings of the suspect opening the bank account and also CCTV footage of the suspect taking money out of the ATM.

Does anyone know how I can avoid this happening again? I only live with 2 other households so it's very easy to pin down which one is the culprit. Do I just approach the police directly or is there anything else I can do? We've recently discovered that they've also been taking our bills which has resulted in us being overdue for our bills until we get a notification by email! We don't know how to stop this and it's very hard to track and we just want it to stop! :mad:

Classic scam opportunity. Scammer can intercept the mail they need and leave/return the rest. So less chance of you noticing missing mail quickly.
You can easily set up a free mail collect,to collect mail at your local RM office

http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/MailCollect_Application_Feb12.pdf

Or a redirection at a cost. Though this can cause issues with items such as credit cards as they can be 'do not redirect' items.