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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU - calling all am amateur sleuths

91 replies

Busydays13 · 14/09/2016 10:53

Ladies - not a traditional AIBU post - but having read previous posts here and the very clever responses - I thought I would give it a go...... as I am baffled.....

Basically my husband has had someone order an iPhone 6S (rose gold colour) on his mobile phone account. They did this by calling the phone company and asking to set up a new account - (the mobile number the call came from is not his and is now dead) - the phone company said you already have an account with us which he does - but let's do a credit check on you to see if we can supply you with a new phone. From what they have listened to so far (calls are monitored for training and recording purposes etc) - they gave his date of birth - knew where he banked - post code of where he lived etc - and while they failed one or two questions - they basically passed this person to get the phone - they had tried to get 2 phones - but because they failed some of the credit questions - they only got one!!! (don't even start me on the fact that it was a credit reference company which ADVERTISES that if you pay them they will help protect you from fraud!!!! Meanshile they give some scamster a phone by failing to follow basic control procedures). My husband is not from the UK and has quite a distinctive foreign accent - this caller was English apparently - so definitely not my husband. This call to order the phone was made on the 23rd of August when we were not in the country and can prove that by flight records. We arrived back on the evening of the 23rd late. The email address used for confirmation of the order was not the email address which the phone company holds for my husband and is quite obviously a fake - so I am very annoyed with them for not at least checking by phone, text or email to my husbands current records. Therefore my husband knew nothing about this until his phone got blocked on Monday and he rang his provider. Delivery was scheduled for the 24th August and occurred around 1pm according to the deilvery company. My husband was in at that time as was our au pair and children and no such delivery was made. I rang the delivery company - and they sent a scanned copy of the signature they received for delivery (it was not even remotely like my husbands) - their records show that the delivery van co-ordinates placed the van on our street at the time of delivery. Even more worryingly apparently the delivery was signed for using my husbands passport (though the passport details which the delivery driver took - do not match my husbands passport - so am assuming IF one was actually provided it was a fake). The Delivery company states that identification must be provided and it would only be delivered to our house - i.e. someone had to be in the house to accept delivery. So Ladies, does anyone know how this could have occurred. I thought at first that perhaps they intercepted the driver - as they send texts giving an hour window for delivery - but the van co-ordinates dispute this. Then I thought maybe someone hung around outside and just pretended to have exited the house - and signed for it - but the delivery company stated that it had to be taken in by someone actually in the house. So I am baffled. This is a genuine fraud....... we have to contact the police with respect to my husbands passport and report it - as god knows what else they could have done or accounts they may have set up. If the driver didn't follow orders with respect to ensuring the person who took delivery was actually in our house - then I don't expect them to admit it - but how else could this delivery have been made? They had said they will get a descripton Any Sherlock Holmes out there?

OP posts:
SuperFlyHigh · 14/09/2016 11:34

au pair or her boyfriend or driver...

not place marking not me... Grin

Workinzzz · 14/09/2016 11:35

any older children with your husbands surname?

DeepfriedPizza · 14/09/2016 11:36

You should speak to the au pair, tell the story like you have done one here and gauge her reaction.

arrrrghhwinehelpswithteens · 14/09/2016 11:37

Sorry OP but I too would be looking at the au pair and a male accomplice. I would imagine if she was in the house whilst you were overseas you would have left her information such as flight details (& I know my parents normally leave me their passport numbers in case of issues) but again, not difficult to find these if she's in the house all day whilst you are at work, unless you locked them in a safe. Ditto bank accounts etc.

Also, if she had impersonated you, you would have realised straight away.Easier to get a male accomplice, in which case she can say "can't have been me, I'm female".

On delivery - pretty easy to get male to sit in a car near the house, wait to see delivery van pulling up then get to the front door (and if you have a door / porch /door arrangement get through first so it appears you've opened it and come from inside) then accept the delivery, wait five minutes, leave the house & get into the car.

Oh god, I've read too many crime novels and watched too many CSI episodes!!

AnotherPrickInTheWall · 14/09/2016 11:39

Could it be your Dh's twin brother; the one who was doing time in a Texan jail, but has now finished his sentence and returned to the UK and is secretly living in your garden shed ?

BustingOut · 14/09/2016 11:41

It's not looking good for the au pair! Have you employed her for long, or had issues with her before?

Mycatsabastard · 14/09/2016 11:42

Au pair / au pairs boyfriend

or the driver.

I'm suspecting the au pair.

Counterpane · 14/09/2016 11:42

AnotherP,

I was just thinking the same thing! Grin

BeMorePanda · 14/09/2016 11:42

though if this was CSI it would not be the au pair. Everything would point to her, and then she would be interviewed and be innocent but point them towards something much bigger and more sinister

MakeMyWineADouble · 14/09/2016 11:42

Delivery driver is au pairs boyfriend? I think the Au pair has to be in on it somewhere along the line who else has access to the information and the house. Which part of the security check did they fail? Sometimes it's easier to figure out who doesn't know something than who does?

Stopyourhavering · 14/09/2016 11:42

Is your au pair still around?, have you asked her anything about a delivery?

FeliciaJollygoodfellow · 14/09/2016 11:42

Unfortunately I agree with PP. Au pair and a male friend or boyfriend.

The most obvious answer is likely to be the right one, and as she has had access to your personal documents when you were abroad it would seem likely. She probably didn't do it on OPs account because it would have led the trail straight back to her.

I think the delivery driver is probably lying about the passport being shown as ID though. Much easier and cheaper to get a counterfeit credit card (or just use one which DH hadn't taken away) which suffices as ID for most deliveries.

BeMorePanda · 14/09/2016 11:43

or it is the twisted secret identical twin

i8E314 · 14/09/2016 11:47

i hope it's not your au pair but when you said she was in when the company claim the delivery was made.....................

dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 11:50

But why didn't all this take place before they got home? Much safer for the au pairs accomplice rather than skulking round waiting for the van to appear when the op's DH was at home. Why wait till the 24th?

Can you talk to the neighbours to see if she had a boyfriend round while you were away Or get them to check any CCTV cameras?

Unicorntrainer · 14/09/2016 11:53

Do any of your neighbours have cctv?

Def sounds like au pair and male accomplice.

dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 11:55

Oh to answer my own question - So that they can frame the ops DH as he was around. Much more suspicious if he could prove he was out of the country when it was delivered.

AnotherPrickInTheWall · 14/09/2016 11:55

The model and colour are relevant ?

dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 11:58

If mail regularly goes to the house three streets away they could have opened mail containing all the relevant details, then hung around for the delivery. Was it a timed delivery or could it have arrived anytime?

dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 11:59

So 4 suspects

  1. Dh
  2. AU pair and accomplice
  3. Delivery Driver
  4. People who live 3 streets away.
QuimReaper · 14/09/2016 12:07

I've never been asked to show ID receiving a delivery, even of a phone Confused

Can't they send you the recording of the call?

SaucyJack · 14/09/2016 12:19

"y didn't all this take place before they got home? Much safer for the au pairs accomplice rather than skulking round waiting for the van to appear when the op's DH was at home. Why wait till the 24th?"

Because they needed his passport as ID?

dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 12:20

But it was a fake passport number.

furryminkymoo · 14/09/2016 12:21

could the phone have been ordered by your DH for his secret lover/mistress/mother/love child/you ?

AnotherPrickInTheWall · 14/09/2016 12:23

You couldn't make it up....