Have I just messed up - someone sent a letter to my address registered and I have just handed it over!

[MsFogi]

A lady turned up whilst we were having dinner to ask if we had received a piece of registered post for her. I got her to show my the photo from Royal Mail showing it had been delivered and it was in our post box (which I hadn't yet emptied today) so I let her have it. But I am now wondering if I did the right thing - why on earthy would someone end up with their registered post being delivered to my address (not my name but my address)? Is this the start of some sort of scam/someone registering something to my address? I am starting to worry now that I am thinking about it.

I live on 5 North street

I CONSTANTLY get packages for 5 South street (3 streets away)

I sometimes even get letters for 5 North street in the next town over

I also get regular mail for 4 other people who dont live here. One is clearly a scammer (loads of debt collection bills... I just pointed out Im not her it was easy and they stopped sending bailiff here) and the others are random.

One is personal handwritten and delivered letters/cards, that just randomly appear a few time per year. I held onto them for years thinking an ex tenent would come pick them up but the neighbors (several of who are elderly and have lived here 50+ year) claim to have never heard of the named person so after 10 years I opened the. Some even had money in (out of circulation now) I feel bad for whoever this family is they are clearly reaching out to their son/grandson thinking he is here but he isn't and it appears never has been.

One is DVLA stuff that comes to my house for someone else.

One is for some old couple, looks like pension documents, life insurance updates, bank stuff etc... from the envelopes but I dont open them, they just go in the bin now as I have no idea who they are (its not any of my neighbors).

The creepiest is the scientologist (the cult 'sea' branch where people go missing) recruitment stuff that keeps arriving under someone elses name.

Non sisnister... all been happening since before I moved in 12 years and nothing bad has happened.

i once had a parcel delivered to an address a few streets away( I had no clue where from the picture) luckily I knew the person.

Meant to add it was MY address on the parcel

My DP had to go get a package from a random House the other week. She had a brainfart and put the right street, but the number for our old house when ordering.

So it could be innocent, but also could be a scam

Of course it's paranoia when you automatically leap to the worst possible scenario.

Meanwhile in the real world, mail ends up in the wrong place all the time. I had a letter for me end up the opposite side of town once. The address on the envelope was correct, but the postman somehow managed to deliver it to totally the wrong street.

Yes, it could* *be a scam but the more likely scenario is the postman got muddled or someone wrote the wrong number/street name on a form somewhere.

But it didn’t end up in the wrong place. OP’s address was on it.

And the moral of the story is don't hand over post that has your address on it to a random stranger unless you're quite happy it is a genuine mistake. A genuine stranger would be happy to say what's inside the envelope if they wanted it that badly.

I know that.

And my assumption would be that someone made a mistake on a drop-down list somewhere - put "Jane Smith, 123 The Street" instead of "Jane Smith, 123 The Road", or put "345 The Street" instead of "543 The Street".

I wouldn't automatically assume I was involved in some kind of scam, lol.

Yes, I will give them a call tomorrow. I have no information other than my name and old address. I hope they haven't been sending cards there!
Thanks for your advice.