Someone bought fake Home Insurance on my property?!

BAM666

I received two letters at my address today from John Lewis. I have owned my property for many years and I knew the recipient had never lived here so I opened the letters. The first one was thanking the man for choosing John Lewis, the second one was confirming the the bank details and monthly payments.

I called up John Lewis and informed them that this person has never lived at this address. They informed me that this man had taken the policy out on a comparison site on Monday and cancelled the policy the same day. They also confirmed that a policy was emailed back to this fake person before they cancelled.

They said they could only pass it onto their fraud department.

I googled the sort code and found it was an RBS sort code. I called their fraud dept and they confirmed all the details were fake ( bar the sort code)

I contacted Experian and CIFAS who both informed me there as no way of protecting my address, just my name. CIFAS said it was prob not worth doing this as the policy was not in my name if he tried to obtain credit it would be under the name on the policy not mine.

Can anyone advise me on any further steps I can take please? I have no idea what this person can do with this policy?? Surely you need more proof than that to obtain credit?

Unbelievable that policies are emailed out like this, they should be posted to stop fraud!

Thank you

C.M.

What do you think they were trying to do? It’s unlikely they were carrying out a fraud against you...more likely it was against John Lewis - possibly trying to obtain an offer or free gift, or some other incentive linked to the insurance

[Deleted User]

No need to take any action. You're not at any risk.

jimbo26

Possibly am input error by the person taking out the insurance, maybe an incorrect postcode. Really not sure how a fraudster could benefit from taking out insurance on a house they don't live at.

BAM666

You could be right C.M I found an article re people doing this to claim a free gift in the FT after I posted. The article also said that some use it to open bank accounts too. But the article was from 2010 so I would have thought this was no longer possible.

John Lewis do also say they were treating it as fraud as the bank details were fake. They have to enter DD details generate the policy it seems. They have to use this policy number to claim gifts.

Thank you for the replies, I had no idea what someone could do with a policy in my address, maybe he just really likes Meercat toys!

Colincbayley

I'm not saying it is, but one possible use of a Home Insurance document is for a rental scam.

In order to list a property to let (on some landlord only portals) you require proof of ownership of the property I.e Land Reg doc, council tax invoice or Home Insurance Schedule.

Might be worth keeping an eye on the likes of Rightmove for a while

DCFC79

You will be fine OP, your address wont be blacklisted.

BAM666

Colincbayley wrote: »

I'm not saying it is, but one possible use of a Home Insurance document is for a rental scam.

In order to list a property to let (on some landlord only portals) you require proof of ownership of the property I.e Land Reg doc, council tax invoice or Home Insurance Schedule.

Might be worth keeping an eye on the likes of Rightmove for a while

:eek::eek::eek:

Maybe Airbnb?

My full insurance pack came today. Fake phone number obviously. All the details of my house wrong (ie type of house,rooms) The insurance was meant to start 10.11.2018. Found out it was only cancelled when JL found out the bank account did not exist.

I will see of I can report my address and the email on the policy to Rightmove and Airbnb.

Thank you for the advice

AnotherJoe

Buy home insurance with fake details, get a code, get 2 for 1 cinema tickets, could be as simple as that.

A few years ago i had a set of car insurance details arrive for someone that had never lived here. I called up the insurance co and they weren't bothered.No idea what that was about it was pre freebies for insurance. Might just have been soemone looking to get quotes for comparison and took it too far.