AIBU to think this shouldn't have been allowed to happen?!And does anyone know how quickly you can get your money back?

[Dennisreynoldsduster]

I've just discovered that someone has taken out a lot of finance 'buy now pay later' in my name, at my old address, attached to my bank account.

I've only discovered this because all the payments have now come out. I've never used finance before so don't really understand how it works. My bank is investigating and my account has been frozen.
I've got to contact my old landlord and supply my mortgage agreement for my current home and the rental agreement for my previous home to demonstrate that I was not living in that address at that time.

The bank says it's most likely that they got hold of a bank statement and used the information on it to apply for finance.

AIBU to think it really shouldn't be that easy???

I'm hoping it will be resolved quickly as all the items were purchased through a company called AO so will have been delivered somewhere...they certainly didn't come to me.

Bank are being a bit vague about timeframes for getting my money back which isn't great as it's over 1k....has anyone got any experience of this and how quickly it got resolved and refunded?

I'm livid that I'm now having to spend time contacting all these companies, supplying documents etc and being out of pocket. It seems like it's way too easy to get finance if that's all the information you need and nothing is cross checked? Or am I being naive?!

You can also get your bank to notify you of and new dd set up to your account. Hope they catch the dirty sneaky bsstards who did this.

You need a CIFAS registration to prevent it happening again.

OP, if you haven't done it already, make a police report and get a crime number, and supply that to the fraud team who are dealing with it. It helps your bank move a bit quicker with the fraud investigation sometimes.

AO is Appliances Online; I saw that abs thought wow that's a few hundred quid per item!

My initial thoughts are if you changed your address with the bank as soon as you moved then could you argue with the bank the it was a breach of GDPR to share your personal information with that household as you now longer live there? I know the letter would have been addressed to you, but this is very poor handling of your personal data by them...

This is why you need to take care of your personal info. It's called "identity theft" and there's been a lot of information of it hitting the media in the past, it has dried up of late.

The Information Commissioner's Office has a helpful webpage, with contacts for more advice on it. Says you should contact something called CIFAS who I've not heard of before. ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/identity-theft/

I check my credit report every month as I moved from private renting and was worried about this

Hope you get your money back Op

I’m aware that it’s identity theft and I did look after my personal info. I don’t really see what more I could have done to prevent post going to that address - I requested paperless statements and changed my address with the bank but it transpires that despite this, some post continued to go to my old address. Not sure what I could have done there to prevent that.

Experian, the credit checking company, suggests going straight to ActionFraud, which has a clearer website. www.actionfraud.police.uk/

Thank you

I too am stunned that this deception and fraud happened so easily with finance. Especially as the goods were delivered to a different address than that connected to your bank account when the credit check went through. Why are the police or action fraud not interested? That's terrible.

What a horrible situation.

Action Fraud is just an incident recording company. They dont act.

The police only act on serious and dangerous crimes. They just don't have the manpower for this type of incident. If it was hundreds of thousands they’d take an interest though as it would be highly likely to be linked to organised crime.

I had a finance account set up with my name and address. They sent me a confirmation letter with a different email address and mobile phone to mine - presumably of the person who set it up. The phone led to a message with no name. I cancelled it and the company said they were suspicious so no money had gone out. I logged it with action fraud - it seems it's a very common occurrence. I am not sure if anything was done.
A few years back someone bought a sofa and a ferry channel crossing on my credit card - both easily identifiable but again not sure if it was just written off. The money was reimbursed to me though.

I'm really sorry that this has happened to you, OP.

It's crossed my mind several times before how easy it is to apply for these things online. I (stupidly) took out a lot of credit when I was younger - store cards, credit cards, payday loans etc. All you needed for each was name, date of birth, address and bank details, plus card details if paying by card. You then "click to sign", or in some cases type your signature - so type "DReynolds" in the box and presto, D Reynolds has applied for finance!
The only time they ever asked for additional verification was if they thought I couldn't afford the repayments.
(The payday loan companies did ask for employment details, but it turns out they don't check up on this, they actually ask so they can ring your workplace if you don't meet the repayment schedule).

I do second checking how the payments were made - if direct debit then you should be able to make an indemnity claim and get the money back ASAP. If it's not direct debit, then that means they used your card details and not just a bank statement. The bank should be on this already if so, but they'll need to stop the payments themselves, as just cancelling the card won't be enough.

what time says is exactly right - if the bank continued to send statements to an address that wasn't yours, they must have some liability here.