To get annoyed with being used as a postbox

[Hothammock]

About 2 months ago we started getting post for a name who doesn't live at my property, has never lived at my property. Conscious of the risk of fraud I kept a record of the company it was from and then did 'return to sender not at this address' and shoved it back in the postbox.

About a week later, a woman turned up to say she was a relative of a lady a few doors down and to ask if we were getting Mail for someone else. She got DH at the door who wasn't aware of the letter I had returned so he said no. She told DH that when the mail comes he should give it to their relative x neighbour and explained her own husband had set up a redirect and changed all his banking details etc to the wrong address-our house rather than their relatives house down the street.

I thought this was all a bit odd especially as the woman wasn't claiming to be the person on the letter, and it wasn't my neighbour coming to explain this, for all we knew it was a random stranger.

After this we started getting loads more post and some with redirected stickers on. Basically someone had set up a redirect with Royal mail to our house. It says it lasts to October 2021 on the envelopes!

We now get more mail for this person than for ourselves.

The woman hasn't been seen since and I haven't seen my neighbour either-she works shifts and hasn't made any effort to speak to me etc about this. She is a nice friendly lady and we chat maybe 2 or 3 times a year if we bump into each other on our street. She lives alone and is in the process of selling her house so the story of a relative redirecting post there until October doesn't add up anyway!

Aibu to shove it all back in the postbox as not at this address? I am really irritated about this random woman's husband using my address whether it's an accident or not, she doesn't seem to be doing anything to correct her mistake and surely I shouldn't just be handing over post addressed to x man to a random woman claiming to be connected to a neighbour. They do not even live at the neighbours house either.

Object to the redirection & return all the mail to the postbox. Likelihood is, someone has copped your neighbour isn't in all the time/is moving and has feigned a relationship with her to make you think it's ok to accept their post... When they have nothing to do with the neighbour. I'd pop a note in her letterbox and ask her to phone you.

I would report to Royal Mail to see if they can stop them being delivered to you.

return to sender, if they go into debt then you'll be the one having to deal with bayliffs and trrying prove they don't live there and you don't want that hassle.

I was going to say exactly what Longsleepneeded said.

Sounds like fraud. Report it to Royal Mail and to police on 101

Wait, @Hothammock, did you just say that the stuff arriving is not all re-directed mail - and some of it is actually coming to you DIRECTLY?? That's even more worrying. He/she could take letters from banks and use as ID (proof of address) in all kinds of frauds. How can he "accidentally" put your address as the redirect, and also then register your address with companies?? Very dodgy. I'd actually report to Police, or Royal Mail Fraud department (if they have one). Good luck with it all. What a nuisance :0(

Open it and see whats being sent

I can't believe that "doghead" person trolling you - this could be very bad news - I would put the onus onto Royal Mail to sort this out as these people are up to no good

The more I think about this, OP, the more I think you ought to notify the police about it. The accidental redirection is (just about) understandable if the original person made a genuine mistake during the redirection process, but for mail to be sent directly to your address sounds much more suspicious. There must be a reason why that person gave a false address, and I'd be very surprised if there's nothing dodgy behind it.

I recently set up a redirect address after moving house and both my new address and old address was sent a letter "to the occupier" about what has been set up and if it wasn't true, to get in touch. It's odd you didn't receive this.

Take the Bank ones to the bank and tell them you think someone is committing fraud, You can actually call them and speak to the Fraud Unit if you want to, they should stop the persons cards, till they change the address, as they should have email and phone numbers for the accounts.

We had some issues with a person getting mail sent to our house - official stuff like council tax, water bills etc. We contacted the institutions and told them that they had been given the wrong address and they should get in touch with the individual by other means. Absolutely no chance it was an innocent error.

However we reported it to the police and on their recommendation Action Fraud, and they were not at all interested. So that was that.

If I was you , I would tale the matter straight to the police. Someone using your address with consent is fraud. And you need to make a big issue out of it at the post office and the electoral register office. I'm sorry but no one uses my address for any purpose

@Longsleepneeded

I work for Royal Mail. Definatly dodgy!! Go to your local sorting office and report it. Take all the mail back to them, they will pass on all the details to the relevant authorities to investigate.

This

In the back of my mind I have heard of this before and it is some kind of scam

Just FYI this is something people do for housing benefit fraud. Please cover yourself. Unfortunately being a nice neighbour can bite you.

Is the redirected address close enough to you that you could call round? It’s possible it’s not them that redirected the mail.

Someone once set up mail holding on dh post. It’s a service if you are on holiday and don’t want mail on the mat. The reason they had done this was because they were trying to get shares he owned transferred to them and another address. Because he wouldn’t get the letters telling him they were doing this they hoped to get the transfer done in the window when there was no post.

It didn’t happen because I spoke to the postman and said it was odd that dh had got no post recently but I had. He told me about the hold but said people sometimes do it when getting divorced before they have a forwarding address sorted. The shares people were also a bit suspicious about the request so called him at work.

This maybe similar - they just send the mail somewhere else. They have told you it has been done by mistake and expect someone to collect it. In fact they just don’t want the actual recipients to receive the post.

Return anything official looking quickly to sender. Then if it’s a letter saying following your instructions we are moving your pension or whatever to someone else - they will get the letter back and not make the transfer without extra confirmation.

Totally dodgy... dont hand it over... if its a mistake im sure they can fix it themselves. Protect home from fraud too.

Photograph a batch of the envelopes and submit to Action Fraud. Then write Not Known at This Address on them and drop them in the post box.

@Hothammock - sending general post to your house confirms its dodgy...

I got a bailiff at the door after previous tenants didn’t pay their council tax bill... 9 years later (!) we still get phonecalls from strange people trying to talk to them! We don’t even live in the same house.

Hope you get it sorted.

Doesn't sound right, I wouldn't hand over any mail I would take it to royal mail and say you don't know the person

been there done that, only it wasn't a redirect, it was an ex tenant (we lived abroad for a short while and rented out our house) who continued to give our address. When his building society and bank statements started turning up, it was around the time that a woman who was IIRC a journalist, had her flat sold by her tenant. part of the scam was that he produced documents sent to him at the address of the flat. I know its breaking the law but I opened a bank letter and a building society letter and phoned the companies concerned to explain the situation....which yes I know is illegal. It worked though and the official stuff stopped coming. If anything is delivered while you are there then you can refuse it and yes go and speak to the post office.

Someone gave my address as theirs to DVLA and I thought making them return to sender would be fine. But then a bailiff turned up looking for them. I ended up having to send a letter to the DVLA to stop them coming.

Ring Royal Mail and explain situation.
For all you know the anonymous female might be using your address and indeed, the 'relatives' address for fraudulent purposes. I would NOT, under any circumstances, pass on any more mail and would strongly advise Royal Mail by phone and via email, that no-one of that name lives at your address and the redirection address was incorrect. Tell them the whole story and that it seems odd to you. You do not want any more of that mail to your address.
Be aware that Royal Mail deliver to the ADDRESS, regardless of the name on the letter but insist that you will make a fuss if they do not stop delivery of that mail.

Stop being a fool and report this! We had an ex-tenant do this and got the police at our door for unpaid traffic fines (Scotland). Luckily we had proof of trying to sort it and our tenancy agreement.

A friend of ours bought a house (England). They kept getting post for the former owner's son, redirected it, reported it. The bloke turned up at the house all angry, he'd wanted them to act as a post drop so he could come and pick up the post and 'have a look round, see what you've done to the place, it was my childhood home.' Erm, no, it's OUR house now, you sold it to us and took the money for it, we reported, jog on.