Unexpected parcel - scam!

hollydays

batman2000 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies :-)

'Look Again' said they'd contact Action Fraud, but it might be worth doing it ourselves anyway. I'm trusting nobody at the moment!

GreenQueen, I was planning to say that we're dealing directly with 'Look Again' but your suggestion is better because they'll think we don't have the parcel anymore. Oh, and I'm hoping to covertly check out their vehicle reg etc. Wish me luck.

I'm a bit surprised the policeman my husband spoke to wasn't wise to this kind of scam? Maybe they just have bigger things to think about....

Chances are the vehicle will be parked some distance away

landsberger64

I had something very similar with an expensive phone which we refused delivery of. We received a statement and an invoice, and contacted the catalogue company who cancelled the whole thing there and then and explained the whole fraud to us. We never heard from the "courier company" presumably because we aren't in much. The catalogue company told us often, with packages of lower value, the scamsters wait until the company has delivered and put them in a recycling bin - the first a punter knows they've been scammed is when they get a statement.

It was all the more surprising because a few years back, the very same company sent us a massive bill (ca £400) for a pram that had been delivered (in our name) to a former address (it was forwarded on via Royal Mail Redirect). I had an absolutely massive problem with them because they wouldn't accept I hadn't received the goods and passed the bill onto debt collectors - even though we could prove we weren't living there at the time, and, er, we don't have kids..."Ah, but you could have keys to both places and be collecting stuff from the old address".

Their perspective was that I needed to prove I didn't receive the goods - how I would be able to do that is moot. After weeks of sleepless nights and them threatening to send bailiffs round, I rang up the Chief Exec's office and, in about 20 minutes, the whole thing was cancelled.

robatwork

landsberger64 wrote: »

It was all the more surprising because a few years back, the very same company sent us a massive bill (ca £400) for a pram that had been delivered (in our name) to a former address (it was forwarded on via Royal Mail Redirect). Their perspective was that I needed to prove I didn't receive the goods - how I would be able to do that is moot. After weeks of sleepless nights and them threatening to send bailiffs round, I rang up the Chief Exec's office and, in about 20 minutes, the whole thing was cancelled.

You should have thrown your toys out of the pram you didn't have.

batman2000

Thanks for all the comments/links etc.... it's food for thought :-/. Still no contact from the scammers/delivery company and hopefully it'll stay that way. We've received packaging from the catalogue company though, to return the mobile phone in, so I'll do that tomorrow.

landsberger64 wrote: »

I had something very similar with an expensive phone which we refused delivery of. We received a statement and an invoice, and contacted the catalogue company who cancelled the whole thing there and then and explained the whole fraud to us. We never heard from the "courier company" presumably because we aren't in much. The catalogue company told us often, with packages of lower value, the scamsters wait until the company has delivered and put them in a recycling bin - the first a punter knows they've been scammed is when they get a statement.

After reading this, I'm almost glad I was in and able to sign for the parcel. Sometimes parcels are left in the porch (if it's open) or in an empty bin at the back of the house (which is not something we've ever requested, but has still happened).

landsberger64 wrote: »

It was all the more surprising because a few years back, the very same company sent us a massive bill (ca £400) for a pram that had been delivered (in our name) to a former address (it was forwarded on via Royal Mail Redirect). I had an absolutely massive problem with them because they wouldn't accept I hadn't received the goods and passed the bill onto debt collectors - even though we could prove we weren't living there at the time, and, er, we don't have kids..."Ah, but you could have keys to both places and be collecting stuff from the old address".

Their perspective was that I needed to prove I didn't receive the goods - how I would be able to do that is moot. After weeks of sleepless nights and them threatening to send bailiffs round, I rang up the Chief Exec's office and, in about 20 minutes, the whole thing was cancelled.

That's terrible! It would give me sleepless nights too. Glad you got it sorted out but what a palaver... we were amazed that the fraud office at the catalogue company were fairly relaxed about it, because (they implied) it happens from time to time. So they expect it. Why aren't there more safeguards in place to stop it?!

My husband's worried about what else the scammers might be using his data for. As far as we know, they don't have any financial information (card numbers or so on). But it makes you stop and think....

landsberger64

batman2000 wrote: »

Thanks for all the comments/links etc.... it's food for thought :-/. Still no contact from the scammers/delivery company and hopefully it'll stay that way. We've received packaging from the catalogue company though, to return the mobile phone in, so I'll do that tomorrow.



After reading this, I'm almost glad I was in and able to sign for the parcel. Sometimes parcels are left in the porch (if it's open) or in an empty bin at the back of the house (which is not something we've ever requested, but has still happened).



That's terrible! It would give me sleepless nights too. Glad you got it sorted out but what a palaver... we were amazed that the fraud office at the catalogue company were fairly relaxed about it, because (they implied) it happens from time to time. So they expect it. Why aren't there more safeguards in place to stop it?!

My husband's worried about what else the scammers might be using his data for. As far as we know, they don't have any financial information (card numbers or so on). But it makes you stop and think....

To be honest, I don't think anything more will happen. As far as I am aware, the scammers operate a scattergun approach here (i.e. they do this over a range of addresses), and will only pursue successful leads. Worth keeping an eye on your credit score perhaps, but nothing more than that.

batman2000

landsberger64 wrote: »

To be honest, I don't think anything more will happen. As far as I am aware, the scammers operate a scattergun approach here (i.e. they do this over a range of addresses), and will only pursue successful leads. Worth keeping an eye on your credit score perhaps, but nothing more than that.

I hope you're right in that nothing more happens. I returned the parcel today. And maybe in a month or so we'll check the credit score as a one-off