Unsolicited parcels - asking for a friend (honest!)

MalMonroe

Hasn't your friend reported this to the police? It's all very suspicious and nobody really knows why it's happening. For all you (and your friend) know, the police may have an ongoing investigation in connection with such parcels. I'd contact the cops without delay. Worst case scenario, your friend will find herself involved in something dodgy that she can't get out of if she keeps just accepting and storing these goods. Police will come and collect and will start to investigate. Unless your friend is a cop herself? 

Best to hand over and get rid of all this stuff. Police can arrange to have these specific deliveries re-addressed to them as well by the courier. It's the best way forward. No good trying to sort it out herself when she can pass the problem on. 

letsbehonest

I too have heard about this scam , as said above something to do with CC scam. Get it delivered to someone else's address then later a so called delivery driver returns and say's he made a mistake and delivered to the wrong address and asks for it's return. The problem can be that if you've signed for it then you are responsible.

GraceCourt

In case it's of any use to your friend, the old statutory fee of £1 for a copy of your credit data from a credit reference agency was abolished a couple of years ago, so it's now free. So as your friend's credit record will include the name(s) of anyone recorded by the agency as living at their address, getting a copy of that will show if someone has managed to obtain credit for these goods to be sent to that address, and he/she can then inform the credit reference agency that it's wrong. That will alert others to the problem and will almost certainly stop any more goods being sent - traders cannot obtain authorisation from credit card companies to protect payment for goods sent other than to the cardholder's address.

The three big agencies are Experian, Equifax, and (smaller) TransUnion (used to be CallCredit), although there are others. Your friend can start off the process online, although the agency will probably want to check that their request was really made by him/her by writing to them, if they haven't asked before - the links provided are to the pages for making a statutory request.

MalMonroe said:

Police can arrange to have these specific deliveries re-addressed to them as well by the courier. It's the best way forward. No good trying to sort it out herself when she can pass the problem on.

I'm afraid that it's simply not true that that deliveries can be "... re-addressed to [the police]...", that would make the goods subject to the Police (Property) Act 1897, and that's enough of a headache for police property officers as things are!

By the way, although it's true that the courier shouldn't disclose any personal data if the sender is a person (unless one of the exemptions from non-disclosure made under Section 15 of the Data Protection Act 2018 applies), details of a "legal person" - e.g. a company or partnership - are not in any way protected by the Act or by the GDPR.

Finally, the relevant legislation here is the Torts (Interference With Goods) Act 1977. It would be inappropriate to suggest how your friend might use the legislation proactively, especially as there are no sender details, but the best general advice is simply that he/she should simply record the "reasonable steps" taken to try to contact the sender/owner (e.g. unsuccessful requests to the courier for assistance) and there can be no question of theft (this would be rebuttal evidence of any alleged dishonesty - Section 2(1)(c) of the Theft Act 1968).

And as has been made abundantly clear by others contributing to this thread, advise your friend NEVER to hand these goods over to any caller at the door, even if they purport to have been the delivery person. They won't hang around if they are politely told that the police are being requested for immediate attendance for a crime in progress...!

Takmon

GraceCourt said:

In case it's of any use to your friend, the old statutory fee of £1 for a copy of your credit data from a credit reference agency was abolished a couple of years ago, so it's now free. So as your friend's credit record will include the name(s) of anyone recorded by the agency as living at their address, getting a copy of that will show if someone has managed to obtain credit for these goods to be sent to that address, and he/she can then inform the credit reference agency that it's wrong. That will alert others to the problem and will almost certainly stop any more goods being sent - traders cannot obtain authorisation from credit card companies to protect payment for goods sent other than to the cardholder's address.

The three big agencies are Experian, Equifax, and (smaller) TransUnion (used to be CallCredit), although there are others. Your friend can start off the process online, although the agency will probably want to check that their request was really made by him/her by writing to them, if they haven't asked before - the links provided are to the pages for making a statutory request.

MalMonroe said:

Police can arrange to have these specific deliveries re-addressed to them as well by the courier. It's the best way forward. No good trying to sort it out herself when she can pass the problem on.

I'm afraid that it's simply not true that that deliveries can be "... re-addressed to [the police]...", that would make the goods subject to the Police (Property) Act 1897, and that's enough of a headache for police property officers as things are!

By the way, although it's true that the courier shouldn't disclose any personal data if the sender is a person (unless one of the exemptions from non-disclosure made under Section 15 of the Data Protection Act 2018 applies), details of a "legal person" - e.g. a company or partnership - are not in any way protected by the Act or by the GDPR.

Finally, the relevant legislation here is the Torts (Interference With Goods) Act 1977. It would be inappropriate to suggest how your friend might use the legislation proactively, especially as there are no sender details, but the best general advice is simply that he/she should simply record the "reasonable steps" taken to try to contact the sender/owner (e.g. unsuccessful requests to the courier for assistance) and there can be no question of theft (this would be rebuttal evidence of any alleged dishonesty - Section 2(1)(c) of the Theft Act 1968).

And as has been made abundantly clear by others contributing to this thread, advise your friend NEVER to hand these goods over to any caller at the door, even if they purport to have been the delivery person. They won't hang around if they are politely told that the police are being requested for immediate attendance for a crime in progress...!

That's incorrect; a credit report only contains details of the person who requested it and will not include any details of someone who has simply put they are living at the same address.
The only exception is where joint financial accounts are opened and then they will be linked to that person, but that won't apply in this case.

eve824

I'd be tempted to drop them off at a local police station and explain the situation and why you are concerned. 

hb2

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54055669