Is this a scam?

soolin

GDB2222 said:

Thanks for posting this @merryb.  It’s really helpful to hear about this scam. 

I wonder why they give an address 400 miles away, which makes the scam so much more obvious?  I appreciate that they don’t want you popping round with the parcel, as they obviously don’t live at the address they gave, but they could have used an address 10 miles away, and you’d not have popped round there either. 

They need some information, possibly financial info about the victim, and the 400 miles is just a statement designed to put someone off tracing them, 400 miles away could be anywhere and therefore not traceable. Any address shown on letter is likely to be fake or another victim anyway.

ih8stress

I would report it to Action Fraud too - they may be able to give you some advice. I would also take photos of the parcel and contents AND of the letter and envelope from the suspected scammer.

Like others say, contact the Company that the item came from and get them to sort it out, arrange collection of it etc. at their expense, not yours.

I'd ignore any dealings or contact from the scammer, do not communicate with them at all.

And definitely let your bank know, and think about changing email and banking passwords perhaps?

Good luck, keep us updated please

RFW

Just a quick tuppence worth as something vaguely similar happened to me and it had a non scammy explanation.
We moved to this house a little over two years ago.

The person who previously lived here appears to buy from various places and some of them he hasn't updated his address. On one occasion he called for the parcel. Another is sitting in my garage. A third I managed to stop the courier delivering and returned to sender. He now lives about 100 miles away and hasn't given me his contact details, I don't have a way of getting hold of him.

So if you've not been in the property for very long that may explain it. The previous owner/tenant would, possibly, have your name or access to it, either by legal means or by contacting a neighbour they know.

Obviously, everyone else may well be right and definitely be cautious but just thought I'd throw that in, as it was genuine in my case.

NBLondon

If the item was just dumped on your doorstep, what would happen if it had been swiped before you got home?  At some point the supplier will try and chase you when the scammer fails to pay and you can respond "no such order made, no such item received"  then see if they send debt collectors next.

Murphybear

RFW said:

Just a quick tuppence worth as something vaguely similar happened to me and it had a non scammy explanation.
We moved to this house a little over two years ago.

The person who previously lived here appears to buy from various places and some of them he hasn't updated his address. On one occasion he called for the parcel. Another is sitting in my garage. A third I managed to stop the courier delivering and returned to sender. He now lives about 100 miles away and hasn't given me his contact details, I don't have a way of getting hold of him.

So if you've not been in the property for very long that may explain it. The previous owner/tenant would, possibly, have your name or access to it, either by legal means or by contacting a neighbour they know.

Obviously, everyone else may well be right and definitely be cautious but just thought I'd throw that in, as it was genuine in my case.

I have had similar things happen.  A parcel turned up with our address but an unknown name.  I checked with the court manager (we live in sheltered housing) and he said to the best of his knowledge no person of that name had ever lived in our property.  I contacted the firm to see if I could return it but they said “keep it”.  They only had our address for his name.  It turned out to be a high quality dish drainer, very useful.  A couple of weeks later another parcel arrived, identical to the first.  I contacted the firm again and they again told me to “keep it”.  I thought this was strange.  This was 3 or 4 years ago, no similar packages since.

Recently I got a small parcel with an eBay label.  It was addressed to me and hand written.  As I buy lots of things from eBay I opened it and found 2 cosmetic items from a brand I hadn’t heard of and I hadn’t ordered.  I contacted eBay buy they said they couldn’t do anything as I hadn’t ordered it.  Not sure what to do, do I just keep it until someone tracks it down or can I give it to a charity shop?