Help! Scammers using my address

[Utilitywarehouse]

Hi, NCed for this as I've told people in real life. Last week I got a welcome letter from utility warehouse, addressed to a common female name, at my address. I then got a 'sorry you're leaving' email from my energy supplier. I contacted them straight away and they blocked the switch. I got in touch with UW who were a bit baffled but we presumed it was a genuine mix up with the address, they cancelled all the services that had been signed up to my address, and confirmed the last 4 digits of the bank on the direct debit which were not mine.

Today I've received another welcome letter, with a different account number, to a very strange name that looks like a fake name. So I've started the process again of reporting it as not my account etc. I'll ring them in the morning but WTF? What is the intention here? They don't have my bank details, they can't receive any of the services set up at my address, all I can think is they are trying to get a 'proof of address' like a utility bill to obtain credit elsewhere.

I'm going to report to action fraud, I've warned my suppliers that I haven't authorised any changes, what else should I be doing?

Thanks for reading if you've got this far!!

We have something similar. We keep getting letters from the tax office for bills for a company at our address. I contacted companies House but they weren't interested. A bit of research showed there are about 15 businesses linked to either the 'company' or our address.

I called action fraud. They weren't all that interested as they say that no crime has been committed (!). We've now have more bills and we recently had a hand delivered letter from a bailiff.

I hope you get to the bottom of yours.

@withaspongeandarustyspanner I heard an interesting, and vaguely terrifying programme on Radio 4 about this

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0019z2g

@withaspongeandarustyspanner I'm sorry that's happened to you, I used to work in an accountants and it's ridiculously easy to register a company with Companies House. You would think HMRC would be interested as it sounds as if the company owe tax. Try HMRC by phone, you occasionally get a very sensible human at the other end.

Yes, apparently I can provide copies of my deeds to show that I own the house, and to remove any association from it, yet they don't need those documents to set up a company, get a plan etc using our address?!

Thanks. I'll have a listen.