Nationwide fraud

BartyBoy

Hello all

Please help...

I have been receiving some posts sending to my address but with someone else's name on for a while now. At first, I thought it was just a printing error, so I returned these posts back to senders. But then, I received another mystery post a week ago with another different name on the envelope. My gut feeling suddenly told me it was not right, so I went ahead to open this post on this ocassion. I was shocked and horrified to find out it was a personal loan statement inside. When I looked further, this person has used my address to apply for an unsecured person loan with Nationwide. The amount of the loan is £25k and the loan account started in August 2015. I was totally speechless.

I knew that was fraud. Where I live is a new build, I am the first owner of this property. No one else lived here before me. I contacted Nationwide to report the matter. Nationwide got back to me today and I must say I am not impressed with their response and reaction at all.

They told me they could not comment what I discovered here. Furthermore, they said due to the data protection action, they could not look into the unsecured personal loan account there. They could not tell me how and why my address was used by this stranger for his personal loan. All they could do was to refer me to FOS to make a complaint instead.

Please tell me, have I missed something here?

Someone who I do not know has used my address to apply for a £25k personal loan, isn't it abnormal or wrong? I cannot understand why Nationwide doesn't see the matter is serious and important. They have no idea of who this person is and where this person lives, but they are happy to release £25k cash to this mystery person, how does this work?

I am obviously not happy with the fact that someone uses my address for a personal loan without my knowledge and my permisson. And if this person stops making repayments, what is going to happen to me and my address? Blacklisted I guess...

Apart from FOS, is there any other organisations that I can use to make a complaint? Surely Nationwide has not done their best to avoid fraud to happen here.

Any advice or suggestion is always welcomed.

Many thanks!

TadleyBaggie

BartyBoy wrote: »

And if this person stops making repayments, what is going to happen to me and my address? Blacklisted I guess...

Nothing, addresses can't be blacklisted. And any debt is not in your name so nothing will go on your credit record.

The only issue you might have is that debt collectors / bailiffs may turn up, but once you show you are not the person they are looking for, you can tell them to jog on.

forgotmyname

Or maybe the loan is genuine and they moved and somebody slipped with the property number and typed a 3 instead of a 4 or similar?

So someone with the same or similar postcode will be wondering why they have not received statements?

How do you know they used your address to apply for the loan? A simple type and the letter could go anywhere.

Depending on how their system works it could be a case or house number and postcode. Street address automatically gets filled by the computer.

So the right house number and a simple typo on the postcode = a different street.

And your surprised that they wont tell you anything?

I dont see any proof of fraud, just a mixup on the address.

Geoff1963

debt collectors / bailiffs may turn up

Still not nice. The OP maybe needs to keep his passport to hand.

The OP might also have to find a way to prove the person doesn't live in his house ; maybe a letter off Nationwide.

BartyBoy

forgotmyname wrote: »

Or maybe the loan is genuine and they moved and somebody slipped with the property number and typed a 3 instead of a 4 or similar?

So someone with the same or similar postcode will be wondering why they have not received statements?

So the right house number and a simple typo on the postcode = a different street.

I did think of your points too but the fact is, my property is a new build. It is the 3rd property the developer released keys back in September 2015. As a new development, a new postcode was generated by either the Royal Mail or the developer, it took a good few months before the full address was available on the Royal Mail system. Talking about it now, it makes me wonder how this person knew the postcode back in August 2015. The last two characters of my postcode are completely different to the next street's postcode, such as mine is X12 3AB and the next street is X12 3TG, normally one of the two alphabets remains the same as the streets being next to each other.

The loan account started in August 2015, it has been running for 24 months. I would expect the person to contact Nationwide if they have never received any statements. Furthermore, Nationwide admits they cannot get hold of this person. I did a poll election search in my town and county, not a single record shows there is a person with this person's family name in the system. And of course, this person doesn't need to register to the poll election to live in the UK.

I returned all the posts that didn't have my name on to the senders, this specific post that I opened this ocassion is only one of those not having my name on the envelope. As far as I can remember, the other posts that I returned had two different person's names on. I understood a printing error or typo can happen, but it can't be 3 different people all having the same typo on the address. Another reason I decided to open the post is I realised the sender's address is the same on all ocassions. When I googled the address (only two lines on the return address), it says it belongs to Nationwide. So Nationwide has been sending posts to 3 different people under my address. I simply cannot think of anything else but fraud.

[Deleted User]

As long as you forget about blacklists, and accept that Nationwide will be doing more about this than they are prepared to tell you about, you don't need to do anything further.

BartyBoy

Deleted_User wrote: »

As long as you forget about blacklists, and accept that Nationwide will be doing more about this than they are prepared to tell you about, you don't need to do anything further.

Thank you and the others for the message, I should have said so before, anyway...

According to the 'final response' letter from Nationwide, they are not preparing to do anything. They claimed they have not done anything wrong so they referred me to FOS instead.

This is why I asked, have I missed something here?

Nationwide does not see a stranger using my address to apply for a loan is wrong.

Anyway, I appreciate all the inputs that I am given here. It is something that I have never experienced before, so I just wanted to know what action I should take here.

BartyBoy

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

debt collectors / bailiffs may turn up

I think these guys will definitely turn up if the person has stopping making payments.

These guys (debt collectors / bailiffs) are tough cookies. I used them once in the past after failing to get my money back from a dodgy trader, not even the County Court could make the trader pay me the money. So in that sense, I will be worried if a debt collector / bailiff comes to my house and take everything!

poppasmurf_bewdley

BartyBoy wrote: »

I think these guys will definitely turn up if the person has stopping making payments.

These guys (debt collectors / bailiffs) are tough cookies. I used them once in the past after failing to get my money back from a dodgy trader, not even the County Court could make the trader pay me the money. So in that sense, I will be worried if a debt collector / bailiff comes to my house and take everything!

A bailiff CANNOT just turn up at a house "and take everything" as you put it.

A bailiff has to work to a set of rules - one being that there are many things he cannot take. Secondly, no bailiff can remove goods without being given access to the premises - and presumably any person present would say "hang on, I'm not the Joe Bloggs you are looking for!"

All the OP has to do 'if' bailiffs (or debt collectors) turn up is show some ID and they will go away. If he doesn't want to do that, all he has to tell them is 'so* off' and not let them in the house.

BartyBoy

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

A bailiff CANNOT just turn up at a house "and take everything" as you put it.

Out of interest, what can a bailiff do and what are they for if they can't turn up to the address and take things?

norsefox

BartyBoy wrote: »

Thank you and the others for the message, I should have said so before, anyway...

According to the 'final response' letter from Nationwide, they are not preparing to do anything. They claimed they have not done anything wrong so they referred me to FOS instead.

This is why I asked, have I missed something here?

Nationwide does not see a stranger using my address to apply for a loan is wrong.

Anyway, I appreciate all the inputs that I am given here. It is something that I have never experienced before, so I just wanted to know what action I should take here.

Companies have to be very careful about their compliance with the Data Protection act and so will (rightfully) provide you with very little information for an account that is not yours.

Get a copy of your credit report. These cost £2 from the major companies. You can access your Clearscore for free and Experian through the MSE Credit Club.

Your credit report will highlight any inconsistencies. If there's nothing dubious on your report there's nothing you need to know.

Continue returning the Nationwide mail with the note 'not known at this address'.

I for one would not expect to receive statements from Nationwide. It's perfectly possible that Nationwide send my credit card statement every month to one of my neighbours and I wouldn't be any the wiser. I do everything online, and it's possible this person does too.

Frankly, as you've been able to read the statement, if the loan is being paid off, why are you so worried about it? I can't see the benefit of having a wrong address whilst paying off a loan...