How concerned to be about giving home address to scam sites?

GervisLooper

Can they do much with your address?

There are some sites I would use but seem dodgy but maybe maybe not. Of course this is in cases where there are not other options and they might have something hard to find otherwise. Times when there are a mix of good reviews and ones saying it is a scam.

I know how to insulate against payment fraud (prepaid card or the like) but I worry about them having my home address and feel somehow it would be 'tainted' if they got it.

What can they do with your home address? Any nasty? Identity theft or suchlike? Bomb through the box?

In such situations I had considered using a parcel forwarding service but that adds another £10-20 to the cost to ship twice so not very palatable to do regularly - not that I use such sites where I would want to do that regularly but it is another level of complexity which I want to know if justified or not.

In this case the parcel forward company would be used as a proxy address so then they can send to your home once it is received.

I wonder though if it is overkill or worthwhile to protect one's identity?

PHK

Personally, I wouldn’t give out any details to a site I knew was a scam. 

marcia_

 If I had the feeling a company or website was scammy I certainly wouldn't be giving my personal details over 

GervisLooper

marcia_ said:

 If I had the feeling a company or website was scammy I certainly wouldn't be giving my personal details over 

In an ideal world we would never do anything we didn't want to do but what about when you really want something and it isn't available elsewhere?

400ixl

Rarely is something not available from somewhere reputable. Maybe not at the price you believe you may be able to get it somewhere else less reliable. There is usually a reason for that.

What you are buying that makes you think you may get a letter bomb rather than the product is mind boggling.

As to what can they do with your address, it is one of the pieces of information that can be used as identity verification, but rarely on its own.

As you will be buying online, you will likely have to give a billing address for the card details as well as whatever shipping address you use. Some companies only ship to the billing address, although any dodgy company won't care if they don't plan to ship anything anyway.

Simple answer is don't buy of any site you think may be dodgy.

soolin

GervisLooper said:

marcia_ said:

 If I had the feeling a company or website was scammy I certainly wouldn't be giving my personal details over 

In an ideal world we would never do anything we didn't want to do but what about when you really want something and it isn't available elsewhere?

If after doing due diligence I suspected an element of a scam I would still avoid. I am perhaps over cautious, I need to be reassured that I am 100% safe against losing money - we all rely on credit/debit card protection for instance but it isn't fool proof. How many threads do we get on here where people send money to a site that they admit didn't seem entirely straight - but can't retrieve money as it's gone to a foreign country and they have received some tracked item in the post so can't just claim INR.

If I thought a site was 'scammy' enough to be worried about my personal details then I wouldn't even get as far as considering payment.

Martin_the_Unjust

Perhaps post which site you are interested in purchasing from, the clever folk here will soon tell you if it’s scammy or not.


(but as a general rule of thumb, if a site gives you a scammy vibe that’s because it is)

kempiejon

I used to have a PO box. Collect post from a local post office distribution hub. No need for a real address. In fact you can change your banking details to match that address and the people you deal with will have no idea. 
I assume PO boxes are still a thing. Ah they are but it'll cost you hundreds each year.

GervisLooper

kempiejon said:

I used to have a PO box. Collect post from a local post office distribution hub. No need for a real address. In fact you can change your banking details to match that address and the people you deal with will have no idea. 
I assume PO boxes are still a thing. Ah they are but it'll cost you hundreds each year.

Ye I looked at that option and super expensive! Almost like renting a flat again at £30 a month!