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.

Contact Royal Mail and say there is a wrong redirect to your house. Better they hold that mail than send it to you and you have to send it back.

[quote LondonMiss]@Pottedpalm that’s not as odd as it seems! I had someone pretend to buy my apartment for months to get his children in the local very highly regarded school[/quote]
This was actually a case of the father having given our address to the school to obtain a copy of the child’s school report. The parents must have been living apart. When the head questioned the mother, who picked up the child every day, she said that was the address he had given her too. The school was about 100 miles from us.
We also got communications from utility companies addressed to him.

This was pre data protection legislation; the head rang me back after speaking to the mother.

Disappointed by this thread. When I was a child, I used to completely manipulate pretend to my younger sister that I was a sad postbox and her sweets were the letters that would make me happy.
I thought your post might be about similar childhood high jinx, but sadly not!

I've not read all 7 pages of responses, only 2 so I'm sorry if someone had already mentioned these points.

1. Post Office and Royal Mail are entirely different companies, you but your stamps from the PO but its RM who deliver the post, so you should approach RM to get the redirection stopped.

1. For those who've said that your credit rating isn't affected by other names on your address, they're wrong, if a person is either previously or currently considered to reside at an address, if they have bad credit it can have an impact on anyone else at that address unless you notify all 3 of the main credit reference agencies that you and your husband are the only people living there and they will make a note of this against the address. It would also be useful to make sure that this person had not been added to the electoral roll too.

1. I would ask the neighbour whether they know this person and in what capacity, maybe explain that its not only annoying that you're receiving all this mail for them, which by the way you're sending back to the senders, but that you suspect your address is being used fraudulently and not accidentally as some of the Mail is addressed directly to your house and isn't being redirected. Also let her know that you're going to be reporting it to RM and if this person doesn't stop having stuff sent to your address by the end of this month you'll be notifying the Police too and they can look into the matter. Maybe your neighbour will have a word with this person.

1. OP, you have said that you've received correspondence in the form of pay slips from this person's employer, I would be inclined to contact the HR department of this company and put in an official complaint against this person, stating that they're using your address fraudulently and that maybe the company should ask them for their correct address for their records. If you make a big fuss with the employer it could get this person into quite a bit of trouble.

1. As mentioned in point 3, notify the Police, give them the employer's name and address and ask them to look into the matter, if, as I suspect, there is something dodgy going on, they'll be able to sort it for you.

So if you manage to get hold of this neighbour and she says it's fine, will you then hand all the post over to her for the next 6 months?

This all sounds like fishy caca to me!!
I would go & speak to the neighbour concerned to verify.

@coffeefi

How is this person gaining anything by re-directing their mail to you

I don't understand? They're not putting your address down as their own, they're asking Royal Mail to divert mail? So they're not opening accounts and using your address otherwise they'd be putting your address down in the first place? Iyswim

What can a fraudster achieve?

I would think they are wanting to defraud the person living in the million pound London flat and don't want the redirected mail to lead any authorities to their own addresses so have picked a random house where they hope the householder will hand over the important mail.

Yes this is plausible. If it is a genuine mistake, we should see the redirect suddenly stop and other direct mail stop too as they correct their error.

@Hothammock please report this. Don't pass on mail, don't return to sender, just report it as a possible scam and let the authorities deal with it, or at least the banks and other important organisations you're receiving mail from should be notified.

These people are using an address which they KNOW to be wrong. They have also asked you to forward it all to your neighbour in future too. This means they are not stopping it and fixing their "mistake". They are knowingly sending someone's (and not necessarily their own) mail to a false address.

Don't be an unwitting accomplice.

[quote OhRene]@Hothammock please report this. Don't pass on mail, don't return to sender, just report it as a possible scam and let the authorities deal with it, or at least the banks and other important organisations you're receiving mail from should be notified.

These people are using an address which they KNOW to be wrong. They have also asked you to forward it all to your neighbour in future too. This means they are not stopping it and fixing their "mistake". They are knowingly sending someone's (and not necessarily their own) mail to a false address.

Don't be an unwitting accomplice. [/quote]
THIS. 100%

I have been working my way through the direct mail companies and informing them. Its incredible how difficult it is to get through to anyone. No it's not my account, no I don't have an account number, no i don't want you taking all my personal I.d information to associate with this call and the account etc etc zzzzz

Take the mail to your local delivery office & explain what's happening - including the woman at the door. They will refer it to their Investigation Branch (IB). This sounds so dodgy.

My daughter had letters coming for the previous owner at first she put them back into the post box saying not known at this address. After a while she had Dartford Charge letters and DVLA letters for the previous owner which she found suspicious as the previous owner had been gone for over 2 years so was using her address for his car and the fines were going there. She then had a baliff at the door and had to proof that she lived there and he didn't she had to get a council tax letter and send it to there office. It finally stopped. Please be careful as a previous post has said they could be using your address for fraudelent purposes.

Also I would go along to the royal Mail Sorting Office to ask for there advice.