A free ipad from Jacamo! Not really. A puzzling occurrence.

procleon

Something really strange happened three days ago: I received a plastic bag from the postman (delivery before 1 p.m. paid but I did not have to sign for it). It was correctly addressed to me so I opened it, even though I was not expecting anything. Inside was a beautifully packaged ipad and a customer advice note from Jacamo that told me that the ipad cost £429.00 and was intended for me. Now, I do have a family member who does, from time to time, bestow expensive digital gadgets on me in order to keep me from becoming utterly outdated, so I applied to him first. He said that he had not sent me an ipad; Jacamo was not the company from which he would have bought an ipad; he asked whether I needed a new ipad. It was a bit embarrassing.
I checked my credit card and debit card accounts and found no ipad sized debits.
So all that was left was to ask Jacamo what was going on. I used their chat line because their phone line is exorbitantly priced. I am not entirely happy with their responses but I must stress that the two employees with whom I chatted were polite and (I think) as helpful as they could be in the circumstances. So, the first person I chatted with asked for my address and told me that Jacamo would send somebody to pick up the ipad. I said that I was not worried about returning their ipad, I was worried about the use of my personal details and wanted to know the last 4 digits of the card used to pay as I might need to replace one of my cards.
 It took a little repeated explanation of  my anxieties and the threat of keeping the ipad till I got some answers to get me transferred to their fraud dept. The answer was that the ipad had been ordered on credit by an unknown third party, so no card was involved. I think that Jacamo admits that my details were taken from their customer database: over ten years ago I used to buy clothes for my father from them.
Jacamo advised me to "update email and password with ...other creditors."  Do they mean other online stores? That will prove time-consuming! They told me: "The account will be closed. All information that this account has generated will be removed from your credit file": and that the latter action may take up to 28 days. They sent me lengthy "We take fraud very seriously at Jacamo..." blahdy blah and advised me I could report the matter to the Police. I asked the person from their fraud team to email me a copy of our chat (so that I can read it with furrowed brow for several long minutes) and he was kind enough to do so.
Now, of course I shall not hold the ipad hostage but I don't think the whole problem is solved. I ask myself - and have asked Jacamo in an email- what did the perpetrator of the fraud hope to gain from it? After all, I got the ipad. Am I going to have a burglary? Is somebody who is not from Jacamo going to try and collect it from me? I appeal to the collective wisdom of the Forum.

elsien

Some of the delivery services are doing a dump and run, rather than knocking to hand over parcels.
If the fraudster has set to their own contact details for phone/email they could track the parcel and hope to intercept it if left outside. 

cymruchris

Have you been keeping an eye on your three credit files just as a matter of course? If not - you might want to go have a look to see whether there are any other erroneous applications you're not aware of. 

Do you live in a built up city area or the depths of the countryside? I can imagine if you're in the heart of a busy place - it's possible that whoever applied might have been waiting at a distance to try and intercept the delivery driver - but nobody really knows. 

Some of your data has been compromised somewhere along the line, so you should be extra vigilant for these next few months, and keep a very close eye on your credit history.

Ectophile

It's possible that you will shortly receive a visit from somebody claiming to be a courier, to pick up the iPad that they now know you have.

procleon

A man came on Saturday asking to pick up the parcel. I had not packed it up yet. He said he'd come back today. I asked which company he was from and he said Hermes. Jacamo does there returns via Hemes; though the parcel was delivered by the postman. If the man comes back today I shall ask to see his receipt pad/forms. If it says Hermes I shall give it to him. I think that is as much as I am prepared to do for Jacamo.
Did I really write "could of"? I was always correcting "of" for "have" in exercise books. Alas.

cymruchris

procleon said:

A man came on Saturday asking to pick up the parcel. I had not packed it up yet. He said he'd come back today. I asked which company he was from and he said Hermes. Jacamo does there returns via Hemes; though the parcel was delivered by the postman. If the man comes back today I shall ask to see his receipt pad/forms. If it says Hermes I shall give it to him. I think that is as much as I am prepared to do for Jacamo.
Did I really write "could of"? I was always correcting "of" for "have" in exercise books. Alas.

Anyone could have a pad of forms.... 
I'd confirm with Jacamo exactly which courier they were sending and when. 
Have you checked your credit files as suggested?

procleon

The man came; he had the Hermes receipt form; my daughter recognised him as the local Hermes man. I think I have done more than enough for Jacamo: if they had wanted to make the return more secure they could have done so.
I am still thinking about the credit scores. I had a look at Experian; they want to know far more about me than I am comfortable with telling them. I once got a letter from (I think) Equifax saying that my name, address and d.o.b. had been hacked from their files; I had never used them but somebody else must have checked me, perhaps a bank? Anyway, they offered me a credit check for free in compensation; I did not take them up. Apart from my credit card, which I pay off every month, I do not ask for credit and have no loans. I do not see myself ever asking for loans. On the other hand, the last six months of a very dear aunt's life were made very difficult when somebody fraudulently used her details to take out a credit card. Still thinking.

cymruchris

procleon said:

 I had a look at Experian; they want to know far more about me than I am comfortable with telling them.

They already know all of the data - they are just authenticating that you are you when you sign up. If somebody had taken credit out in my name - I'd be urgently accessing all three of my files to ensure there were no more successful or unsuccessful attempts. I wouldn't be waiting around thinking about it, it can make your own life difficult if you don't nip these things in the bud.

[Deleted User]

Are you sure the postman delivered? It’s Hermes they use for their deliveries too I believe. 

tempus_fugit

procleon said:

The man came; he had the Hermes receipt form; my daughter recognised him as the local Hermes man. I think I have done more than enough for Jacamo: if they had wanted to make the return more secure they could have done so.
I am still thinking about the credit scores. I had a look at Experian; they want to know far more about me than I am comfortable with telling them. I once got a letter from (I think) Equifax saying that my name, address and d.o.b. had been hacked from their files; I had never used them but somebody else must have checked me, perhaps a bank? Anyway, they offered me a credit check for free in compensation; I did not take them up. Apart from my credit card, which I pay off every month, I do not ask for credit and have no loans. I do not see myself ever asking for loans. On the other hand, the last six months of a very dear aunt's life were made very difficult when somebody fraudulently used her details to take out a credit card. Still thinking.

The last point is why you should take them up on it. It's not about how much credit you are using, it's to keep tabs on your credit file to catch any cases of credit being taken out in your name using stolen data. 

procleon

yes, we have a regular postman and he delivered.