Should we contact ActionFraud ?

coffeehound

Elderly parent has had a formal letter containing personal information go missing.  Post is delivered to an box at the end of a long drive.

Is this something worthy of registering with AF over would you think?

eskbanker

Impossible to say from that - who is the letter from and what does it actually say about any fraudulent activity?

coffeehound

It's from a hospital.  I don't know exactly what user identifiable info that might include, but could perhaps be used as proof of address?

eskbanker

But what does it say about any fraudulent activity, i.e. what would you/they actually be reporting to Action Fraud?  Or is it just a generic notification of a data breach at the hospital, warning of potential risk?

coffeehound

Oh I see, yes I was under the impression there was an option to notify of an increased risk of fraud occurring so financial lenders would be more suspicious of applications?

eskbanker

coffeehound said:

Oh I see, yes I was under the impression there was an option to notify of an increased risk of fraud occurring so financial lenders would be more suspicious of applications?

Action Fraud's remit is to collate data relating to fraud (that's already happened), and to forward to police forces for investigation if justifiable.

There are proactive identity protection services available, such as this one from CIFAS, but the letter should explain this, and may include a free membership offer:

Protective Registration | Identity Protection Service | Cifas

coffeehound

That's great, thank you

Brie

How do you know the letter went missing?  And from the post box in particular??

Section62

coffeehound said:

Elderly parent has had a formal letter containing personal information go missing.  Post is delivered to an box at the end of a long drive.

Do you mean an item of post they were expecting hasn't arrived, or that they saw the item in the box and it wasn't there when they went back later?

If an item of post has got lost in transit, or someone has stolen it from the mailbox, then it doesn't automatically mean it was taken for fraudulent purposes.

Hospital letters typically have the person's NHS number and/or hospital number, and often date of birth.  But DoB can easily be found from other sources.  Stealing bank statements would probably be more worthwhile - do they get those by post and have any gone missing?  If they are concerned then going paperless or changing postal address might be worthwhile - in addition to eskbanker's suggestion of protective registration.

coffeehound

It's just circumstantial, but the letter should have arrived on the same day that a parcel was delivered to the same box by a courier.  There haven't been any other issues with post going missing, so it seemed a bit of a coincidence.  They are online for bills and banking, etc.

eskbanker

coffeehound said:

Elderly parent has had a formal letter containing personal information go missing.

Just belatedly realised that I completely misread this as 'going' rather than 'go', i.e. I thought that the letter had been received and was advising that personal information had gone missing!  It still doesn't sound like a fraud issue though, unless part of a wider pattern that would be worth reporting to Royal Mail....