ID fraud discovered through Klarna transaction

gizmorat · 5 April 2019 at 11:43AM

Hi Im hoping someone can help me with a few questions about "cleaning up” after discovering that my ID has been used in a fraud. It's the first time its happened to me and I found a lot of ambiguity in the process that isn’t explained in the guides I've read.

Background

I recently received by post an overdue payment reminder from a company called Klarna, a company that I’ve never had any dealings with. The payment was for goods ordered from a company called Tessuti that again I've never had any dealings with and have never received any unexpected goods from. The original fradualent transaction was back in February.

After a somewhat ‘intense’ phone conversation with Klarna, I reported the potential fraud online to Action Fraud and gave Klarna the reference number. They said they would email me if/when they closed the case in a couple of weeks. A few hours later I received a confirmation email from Action Fraud which essentially said that it was not a police recordable crime.

Poking about in my Noddle account, which I don’t often do, I found 2 searches by Klarna on the transaction date one for a “Quotation Search” and one for “Anti-Money Laundering”.

There are no other unexpected AML or credit checks in my other credit files.

Questions

Did reporting it to Action fraud actually do anything for me ?
Is the reference number still valid, is it traceable to my report ?
Does (hopefully) receiving an email saying the case is closed have sufficient legal weight to protect me ?
When I occasionally look at my credit files I’m looking for unexpected credit checks, which hasn’t occurred in this case. Now I know to look for AMLs, is there anything else ?
Should I pay for cifras protective registration ?
Would it even protect me against this kind of fraud ?

My comment on experience to date (bit of a rant, skip if you like).

Its actually quite hard and time consuming to try and fix this and I'm blundering about a bit. But so far these unnecessary factors have caused me grief.

Extending credit based on a minimal, easily discoverable criteria.
Initially refusing to tell me who you are and what you do.
Requiring me to give over personal information to prove who I am before you’ll even deal with it, even though giving out personal information is something I don’t do especially to companies that I initially suspect are trying to defraud me.
Really Klarna ? Really ?

Sending goods to a (presumably) unapproved* shipping address on a first order.
Really Tessuti ? Really ?

* Goods must be sent to the shipping address approved by Klarna at the time of the order. (From Klarna’s retailer policy)

anonymousjohn · 9 July 2019 at 1:29PM

Did reporting it to Action fraud actually do anything for me ?

Almost certainly not, unless the fraudster has been linked to other similar instances of crime and been dumb enough to leave a footprint they can follow. Action Fraud don't actually investigate - they collate reports and forward them to the responsible Police teams.

Is the reference number still valid, is it traceable to my report?

Action Fraud references numbers remain active, yes.

Does (hopefully) receiving an email saying the case is closed have sufficient legal weight to protect me?

It was sufficient for me in the past for insurances purposes. You took the relevant action and they did with it what they saw fit; seems legitimate to me.

When I occasionally look at my credit files I’m looking for unexpected credit checks, which hasn’t occurred in this case. Now I know to look for AMLs, is there anything else?

You should regularly check your credit report for *anything* you don't recognise. You should remember everything that goes on your report, even soft searches, because ultimately if you didn't do it that means someone with your information did.

Klarna is a weird one - you can make orders with nothing more than a name, DOB and address - all information easily acquired on 192.com for example. You can ship to a shop for collection, which is presumably where you're supposed to show proof of ID - but it's entirely up to the shops whether they bother or not.

traveller42 · 15 September 2019 at 7:15AM

I've just had the same problem witk Klarna - the retailer was coggles.com.

Os · 12 February 2020 at 11:07AM

This has happened to us. An expensive item ordered from an online shop ghd! We had letters from Klarna & then a debt collection company! & so we’ve also let Action Fraud know. Think Klarna should be asking more security questions & require a valid credit card to sign up with them!

senecan · 24 February 2020 at 4:40PM

Same happened to me - a letter out of the blue asking for my payment at nike.com as 30 days had elapsed since "my" use of the 30 day pay-later service. Of course I've never heard of Klarna, never visited nike.com or received any goods from them, and the email address provided in the letter is nothing to do with me, an unwieldy address at yahoo.com (who I would never trust to provide me email services either).

I'm still in a bit of shock that Klarna seem to think it's ok to extend credit in my name on the strength of some random Joe who knows my name and postal address. This is public domain knowledge available on the electoral roll and a whole host of other means. The fact of conducting a credit search, even a soft one, is supposed to be done by consent, or at the very least with a notification. As Klarna sent confirmation notice and activation links to this fraudster's email address and then conducted a search on the real me, consent was not given and notice did not happen. The acitvation link just proved a human could receive that email - and as the only reliable information was my postal address they could and should have confirmed by post rather than email.

Having spoken to the ICO I doubt the use of my name and address is a breach of Data Protection, because these details are public domain. HOWEVER, as Klarna have obtained a result from the search, IMHO that *is* personal information. I've requested that they delete any credit search results as they don't have my permission to conduct the search and as I have no contract or dealing with the company, this is excessive and not relevant information.

I also think the search should be removed from my credit record. (Yes I know it's a soft search and doesn't affect the rating, but it's still irrelevant and, therefore, a distortion.) Klarna's security team recommended I contact Transunion to have the search deleted. I'm still considering going back to Klarna to insist they solve the mess they created, not me.

I also couldn't persuade Klarna to do anything without a crime reference number from Action Fraud but, as I suspected, Action Fraud can't consider this a crime since no personal data has been stolen to perform Identity Theft. Action Fraud's response was that the agency (Klarna) could report this as a crime if they've extended credit and made a loss as a result, but there's no loss to me as Klarna or the alleged theif don't have my bank account or credit card details. So I've not been a victim of anything here - Klarna have. Klarna need to wise up and get their own crime reference number if they are going to make fraud that easy.

onlyfoolsandparking · 24 February 2020 at 9:44PM

This Klarna malarchy is a pain, I had exactly the same happen to me BUT worse, the scumbag fraudster ordered a load of 'sex toys' and lingerie, took all my powers of persuasion to convince missus I wasn't up to anything!!!! but I too went through the usual rigmarole contacting Klarna and to be fair they sorted it and put protective registration on my file for 2 years. All done and dusted now but made it hard work when I bought a brand new BMW bike last year, BMW finance made me jump through hoops to prove it was me.

sirfan · 3 March 2020 at 12:06AM

I received a letter by post an overdue payment reminder from a company called Klarna, a company that I’ve never heard of. The letter states , “You have made a purchase at nike.com on 16th January 2020 using pay later Service, which was due on 17 February 2020….” The email address mentioned in the letter does not belong to me and it seems it is system generated as well.
I have never made any purchase from nike.com nor through Klarna. If there was anything purchased they must have stolen my identity details and made a fraudulent purchase on my name. And if karma had approved this pay later loan they must have run credit search without my consent and knowledge, which might affect my credit score as well.
I am not sure what is the best action to take here. Please advise.

[Deleted User] · 3 March 2020 at 6:30AM

Dispute it and make a formal complaint.

Check your credit files.

ID fraud discovered through Klarna transaction

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