Attempted credit fraud

Poppy99

My partner has in the last week received a letter from a loan company telling him he has been unsuccessful. In the same post he was given an account with CashPlus. He had not applied for either, and went through all the necessary to alert the suppliers that he had not requested these. The loan company think that that scammers had applied for the loan, and were hoping to get it paid into CashPlus which is common apparently. Looking up CashPlus you do not need to go through any credit checks. I think it is a way of getting money without having a bank account - seems strange to me in these money laundering times that these are allowed.

He has a very good credit rating. Or he did...He has now signed up to Experian and CIFAS have him logged as identity fraud etc and he will get alerts. So no more should not go through.

A few days after the above arrived he received another credit card. This was also unsolicited. From the Experian file, all the above were applied for on the same date, along with another one that was rejected straight away. So 2 credit cards, a loan and that CashPlus were attempts to get money in my partners name. Hopefully that is it.

We live in flats. The postboxes are accessible outside to allow postie to push letters through. Inside the lobby the boxes are individually locked. But can anyone explain to me why scammers would apply for a credit card in my partner’s name and address and yet not be able to access it because it goes in our letterbox? The exterior part of box is very narrow, I have small hands and could not get inside the box this way, I suppose if you were determined you could use tongs, although it would look a bit suspicious if anyone saw you. They are tucked around a corner though, not visible from road, particularly if they were accessed at night.

My partner calls me Mrs Doomladen and has dismissed my fears that it is somebody close by. The date of the applications was the first day we were away for a long weekend and you would know because our car was gone. My partner says it is coincidence but I think that somebody may be watching us and took the opportunity to apply for things whilst we were away. Why else would someone try and get credit cards if they could not get hold of them to use them?

Sorry this is long. My partner gets irritated if I mention it. As far as he is concerned he has sorted it, but I am not confident and worried that an attempt will be made on me next. We have to try and get to our mail when it is delivered, and it is not always possible. I hate anything like this. I am a worrier anyway but if it is somebody close by I am now worried about home security. In a weird way I am hoping that the scammers don’t need the physical cards and were attempting to do something remotely- at least that way they are not near where I live. Is this likely?

[Deleted User]

No, not likely. It's either someone wanting to cause you distress, or hoping to intercept the card. Flats are an easy target.

But the CIFAS registration should do its job from now on.

Ben8282

There have been very similar threads to this in the past.
You ask 'can anyone explain to me why scammers would apply for a credit card in my partner’s name and address and yet not be able to access it because it goes in our letterbox?' which is a very good question. Clearly the fraudsters have not got their hands on this correspondence so if stealing it from your letterbox was their plan they have shown themselves to be pretty incompetent and presumably you don't actually leave your post in the letterbox overnight?
Even the loan and the Cashplus business makes no sense as surely if the fraudster was going to have the loan paid into the cashplus account, they would need to have the cashplus details before applying for the loan to give the details to the loan company?
As I am sure you must realise, applying for loans and credit cards requires the applicant to be in posession of quite a bit of personal information - Name, address, date of birth, bank information, employment information etc. How do you believe whoever applied for these financial products obtained this information?
I am a little confused by your concerns that somebody was watching you and you believe that they took the opportunity of your being away for a long weekend to apply for things. This would make no sense as they could hardly expect the credit cards etc applied for to arrive immediately during the same weekend.
You say CIFAS have logged him as identity fraud etc so he will get alerts. Could you please clarify this. What exactly have you requested here? Have you paid and signed and returned the form already?
You say he has a good credit rating yet although one credit card application appears to have been successful the loan was declined, a second credit card was declined although how you know this I'm not sure because his credit files won't show a decline only a hard search so the card could well arrive tomorrow if the lender has been a bit slow. You could not have determined from the credit files that a credit card application was rejected straight away. Also you have only checked Experian and therefore can only be aware of products which have been applied for where the lender has searched Experian. There may well have been additional applications that you know nothing about where the lender has not searched Experian but has used one of the other two CRA;s.
The fact that the loan company was discussing this application with your partner would indicate that correct details must have been used by the fraudster to enable your partner to have been able to talk to them and for them to go as far as speculate to him.

Poppy99

Although we were only away for a long weekend, if we were being watched they would not know that. They might have thought we were going away for a week or longer. They perhaps saw an opportunity when our mailbox might go unemptied for a while. Except we weren’t away long enough.

A few of the applications had wrong details for one of the questions which is why we suppose they were declined. Prior to all this there has never been any problems. He is solvent and very vigilant with his own accounts. I have seen the report.

The loan company has alerted CIFAS (saw the letter they have since sent), and my partner has set up alerts from Experian.

Ben8282

Poppy99 wrote: »

A few of the applications had wrong details for one of the questions which is why we suppose they were declined.

I am curious as to how you can possibly know this.
And 'a few of the applications'? How many were there then? But if the wrong details were only in respect of ONE specific question there still remains the question of how did they obtain the necessary information in order to get the answer to all the other questions correct?
But one credit card application was not declined because you received the card and the other hard search you can't possibly know the result of the application from the credit files as I previously pointed out. So the only thing you know for sure was declined was the loan..

Poppy99 wrote: »

The loan company has alerted CIFAS (saw the letter they have since sent), and my partner has set up alerts from Experian.

Surprised that the loan company forwarded you a copy of correspondence between them and CIFAS.

Poppy99 wrote: »

Although we were only away for a long weekend, if we were being watched they would not know that. They might have thought we were going away for a week or longer. They perhaps saw an opportunity when our mailbox might go unemptied for a while. Except we weren’t away long enough.

That is of course possible. Do you have a particular suspect in mind? Somebody in a position to both watch you and obtain a large amount of your partner's personal information? But you say 'The date of the applications was the first day we were away for a long weekend and you would know because our car was gone'. Now presumably you do actually go out in the car without going away for a long weekend (or longer). If the applications were made on the FIRST DAY then what reason would the watcher have had at that point to believe that you would be away even overnight let alone longer and would not be returning home that evening? Realistically a new credit card will take a week to arrive at the very least.
Do you seriously believe that somebody is sitting there peering through their curtains (or however they are conducting their surveillance of you) with all your partners details to hand just waiting for your car not to be there for a few hours so they can assume you will be away for a week and make all these fraudulent credit applications in your partner's name and get access to your letterbox?

Poppy99

The Experian report shows some of the key details were wrong, this is for a credit card, the one that was not accepted. The loan company letter confirming recent tel call and the attempted identity fraud confirms they have contacted CIFAS and they have supplied general CIFAS advice. They have not shown him the corres between them and CIFAS.

Your tone is very accusatory and a bit unpleasant. Thanks for your feedback but as I came on here for a bit of reassurance, please don’t bother to respond further.

Ben8282

Poppy99 wrote: »

The Experian report shows some of the key details were wrong, this is for a credit card, the one that was not accepted.

Experian reports don't show 'key details' in respect of individual searches just that a hard search was carried out. Could you please be more specific as to what these key details are and explain how you know that the card application was not accepted because contrary to what you are saying this information is not contained in Experian credit reports. As stated the report will just show that a search has been carried out. The result of the application will not be shown.

Poppy99 wrote: »

Your tone is very accusatory and a bit unpleasant. Thanks for your feedback but as I came on here for a bit of reassurance, please don’t bother to respond further.

Just trying to get the information correct as to advise you properly I need to understand the facts and some of what you are saying doesn't quite add up. Sorry if you don't like what I am saying but when you ask for advice....
Actually I would have thought that pointing out the improbability of the 'we are being watched' scenario would have been reassuring to you.

DCFC79

Poppy99 wrote: »

Your tone is very accusatory and a bit unpleasant. Thanks for your feedback but as I came on here for a bit of reassurance, please don’t bother to respond further.

I don't see it that way, could be worse if you were speaking to the police.

cymruchris

I experienced this myself when living in East London - same principle - I lived in a third floor flat - post boxes with narrow slits on the outside and lockable on the inside. I set up a camera and caught the perpetrators in action - but the police didn't want to know. They were basically following the postman - and were obviously targeting many addresses. Within 2-3 minutes of the postman delivering the mail, they were straight in with various long nose tools to fish out the mail and run. I had several accounts attempted to be opened in a short period of time - including one mobile phone account. All bar that phone account were stopped before they started - but whoever 'they' were did get a phone out of my personal details.

AliceBanned

I had a credit card opened in my name and have a similar set up for receiving mail (shared entrance with locked letterboxes on the ground floor, opening to the outside wall).


I received the credit card I hadn't applied for and thought exactly the same, it could well have been someone locally but I was totally perplexed as to why and how. It was classed as 'identity theft' not credit fraud but I did contact CIFAS. Also received a letter about some payments being transferred into Lloyd's bank account with my name on it from a business account in Devon.


It was all a bit puzzling and I never got the bottom of it but reported to CIFAS and associated banks. Left it with Lloyds and made sure my name was not associated with any of it. I had the same thought re the credit card, what would be the point of someone applying as they probably can't access it.


Nothing has happened since and that was about a year ago. I'm more vigilant on disposing of old statements and changed all my passwords including email. I even wondered if it had happened through a Facebook security breach, but equally someone could have got my details from the communal bins.


It was a bit alarming at the time but nothing since and nothing went on my record as there was no actually money taken. The credit card application search was removed by the bank. They only managed to get a £200 credit limit anyway but I was surprised that it was that easy to open a credit card in my name. It seems fairly common, I had the same thoughts about who locally might have done it but then realised it could have been someone getting info on social media and I was unlikely to find out how it happened. So try to not worry too much and things may settle, hopefully you won't have another occurrence and all you can do is focus on security online and any communal areas as best you can. I did think even if it was a neighbour or ex neighbour they didn't get anything out of it so are obviously quite incompetent at what they are doing.

Poppy99

Partner has received a pin number for the card that appeared on Friday, he has safely dealt with etc.

He has also used CheckMyFile to check the activity on other credit agencies, only the Experian ones are showing up for unusual activity.

Hopefully that is it. We will be diligent. I have gone paperless on everything!

I hope it is randoms following posties rather than a neighbour etc. There are a few flats where I live that seem to be let for short time (not Air B n so we get all sorts in and out. It was that aspect I found more worrying. If it was a neighbour what else might they try. Thanks for the responses.