Somebody using my details for their water account!

simons_s

Hi

I don't know where to post this as I guess this is an identify theft problem, but someone signed up to essex and suffolk water in 2013 with my information.

This morning I received an email from Anglian water saying thank you for switching to them! The email was definitely from Anglian and had my name and arrived at an email address than I never share. I rang them and they have said someone switched to them from essex and suffolk, where an account has been open in my name since 2013.

Anglian water are wanting proof of my address between 2013-2017. This should get me out of paying for their water bill at least! Because the account is open in my name they could tell me the exact address where this person is using my information.

It should be easy enough to get this water account closed as I will provide proof that I haven't lived there. But I don't know what else this person is using my information for.

My credit report is clean and only contains loans and bank account which I've taken out.

What I really want to know is, what should I do now? Should I get the police involved? Would they even bother with this? I know the address so it's not like they have to search for anyone.

Any recommended next steps?

Thanks

cono1717

The only thing I could think is that if they possibly didn't pay the bill and a debt collector turned up they could say "What no, Joe Bloggs doesn't live here, I'm Jane Smith" but besides that I'm stuck. I'd keep an eye on your credit report and maybe report it to the police though I doubt they will be all that interested.

eddddy

From your description - is it simply that somebody else has the same name as you and has an account with Anglian water - and somehow your email address has been put against their account?

Perhaps because...

Somebody has mistyped / misspelt their email address over the phone - and it ended up the same as your email address.

Or Anglian used some "Fuzzy Address Matching" software which incorrectly matched your email address to somebody else.


(I sometimes get emails intended for somebody else with a similar email address. He tells me that he always gives his email address correctly, but lots of people seem to make the same spelling mistake when they type it in.

I also had an example of where a utility company's system tried to merge/link accounts because it thought they were the same - and ended up with a huge mess.)

simons_s

Thanks both.

Eddddy, it looks like you could be correct and I have over overreacted.

Essex and suffolk water contacted me again and confirmed we have different DOB's and our partners names do not match. They also said they don't even have a contact email for the account, so it looks like Anglian water entered my email address incorrectly when the account was created.

Hopefully it's as simple as removing my email from their account.
Panic over for now.