Is this a bit weird? - I think someone is using my address

[RushieRoo]

A couple of months ago we received a letter addressed to someone not known us. Didn’t think much of it and assumed it must’ve been for a previous occupant.

Then DH took in a parcel delivery. He thought it was for me but once he had it inside he realised although the parcel had our address on it was for someone else - the same person we previously received mail for.

Later someone knocked on the door and said we had his parcel. As I handed it over I recognised him as someone I have seen a couple of times standing near my house in a dressing gown and slippers.

Then yesterday we saw the same guy stood outside our house. A car pulled up and gave the guy a takeaway. Do you think he ordered takeaway to our address then intercepted it? Why is he using our address?

If it's a scam to get a loan, why would he order takeaways?

Luther!!! 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯

This happened to me. A couple moved in opposite me and called at mine to say " we are really sorry, we've put the wrong address (mine) on some documents, we will come and collect our post on a regular basis". Naive me said "don't worry I'll drop it over". Some months later they hadn't corrected the error and debt collectors were knocking on my door.

If you know his name, can you look him up on FB? I'd ask around and see if anyone knows who he is.

Or get a friend/family member to sneakily follow him from a distance, just to see where he goes. I know you said you don't want to, but if I had someone with me, I'd feel safe enough. The curiosity would kill me tbh!

*Er, I meant get the friend to go with me while I tail him. I wouldn't send someone out on their own to do my dirty work. 😅

During COVID it became apparent some travellers had been using my friend's address, although more to claim a place in the good school nearby than for parcel delivery. I guess it's easy to just say you want email communication for everything.

We received some post to
our address which wasn't for us.No return address so we opened it and it was children’s’ school reports. Rang the school and the head said it was the address for the father which the mother had provided. Head checked with the mother and she confirmed that was where she believed her ex was living. School was some 60 or so miles from us. Couldn't have been a previous owner as we were the first and only occupants of a converted barn. No nearby houses. No house numbers, only names. Ex had no idea that he gave a false address.

If the postie is handing him mail meant for your house.... he could have some of your actual mail.

Is it a regular postie - if so you do need to reiterate that all post must go through your door and not given to some random person!

I agree with this: make him realise you’re not an easy target. I’d also be keen to let him know you’re suspicious, in a subtle way perhaps. Eg Next time I saw him, I’d ask him why he had a parcel, takeaway etc. delivered to your house. Doesn’t need to be confrontational; your tone could be curious/bemused. I’d also say the parcel company who dealt with picking it up advised you to report the incident to a fraud line or something. Sounds like an opportunist who was hoping to target someone he thought wouldn’t be on the ball at stopping the bastard in his tracks. It is so rife nowadays: I am contacted almost daily by a fraudster despite blocking aggressively 😂 and my husband has credit cards applied for in his name and even delivered to the communal area in our block. So sorry if I’m being more cynical than those thinking he lives in a van.

I'd definitely be concerned about this- do you have ring doorbell so you can track how many times he pretends to be outside "his" (your) house to catch the postman? I'd save his pics off in case this develops because it won't be for any good reason, especially as you don't seem to have other houses near you and it's repeated so can't be a one off mistake.

We had someone try to commit fraud using catalogue companies in our previous house. It was honestly a nightmare as parcel companies would leave the parcel outside the house so we couldn't refuse it. But we ended up with around 10 parcels stacked up for ages before the company came and collected them. This was a different type of scam though whereby they send a ton of low value stuff over time to an address to builde up the history they are at that address, then once they have enough credit history with the catalogue they suddenly divert a number of expensive items to another address. Obviously the bill comes to the original address.

If he's anything like my boyfriend he has moved but has the address on autofill on his phone. The people in my old flat have reci3ved my mother's day gift and a deliveroo of 4 beers and some food at 1am on a Saturday night.

Oops didn't mean to quote that! It made me chuckle though 🤣

Ooh. Like ‘the treatment’ by mo Hayder.

I can't work out how ordering a takeaway and health foods would work for proof of address for school admissions

My children's schools were never full so not an issue for me but surely they dint rely on the local takeaway do they?

Of course not. Nor Amazon deliveries, or even John Lewis deliveries; just utility bills.

My guys, credit files are registered against people not addresses. So unless he's also using OP/OP's husband's name and personal details it's not going to cause any issue with that.

I've got no idea why people do this. We moved 18 months ago and the woman and her daughter that used to live her are still using our address for their doctor's mail, for the DVLA, all sorts. I've notified them all - particularly after having CID and bailiffs come knocking - but ultimately there's not a lot I can do.

And no, it's categorically not showing anything against our credit files. I have alerts set up and nothing untoward is happening.

We get tonnes of mail to our address.

We get DVLA reminders and handwritten letters/christmas/birthday cards to someone who apparently never lived here (doesn't feels creepy but more sad, obviously lots of people are reaching out to him or looking for him but he doesn't actually live here).

We use to get TONNES of debt collection letters to a woman who never lived here, eventually baliff showed up. I simply said 'she doesnt live here and no one even knows who she is' and they literally just said 'sorry' and left. They took my word for it (maybe they knew I wasn't her, like they had seen a photo or something) but the letters mostly stopped and the bailiffs never came back. I think as our house had stood empty for a long time a scammer had just used the address to commit fraud.

We constantly get Amazon packages for Susan... shes a nice woman who lives on a street with a similar name (think 5 North Road vs 5 North Avenue) on the other side of town. For some reason I get her packages and she gets mine (I rarely buy on Amazon though) no matter how often we correct them. Definitely not a scam just a confused delivery driver.

We also get all kinds of weird and wonderful one off things too.

I would just refuse any packages and report it to the police if you are worried its a scam so you have a record of it.

I would suggest the dressing gown and slippers is a red herring and he's using this outfit to make it look plausible that he's the homeowner. Ditto the sweeping. The fact he comes from the direction of the car park means he could be coming from anywhere.

The parcel and letter I get could be part of a scam, but weird about ordering and intercepting the takeaway.

I would be tempted to look in a parcel to see what exactly is being delivered to you. Could it be drugs? or like some one suggested a parcel he doesn't want his wife to see?

I’d say this.

happeejd to my family member. Kept receiving parcels in different name but their address. Neighbour 2 doors down would apologise and be like “oh sorry, didn’t mean to do that” but turns out it’s some kind of credit card fraud. So be careful

I wonder how the scam works then

Wouldn't he then be trying to get IN the house?

A dementia sufferer who orders take aways and parcels, then toddles off when he gets them seems a bloody stupid pretty far-fetched idea

I've always found a receipt from Just Eat to be a great official ID document when my passport has expired

🙄

So I accidentally sent a gift for a friend to her neighbours address.

You're suggesting there is a GDPR officer at every company that should be checking each order to make sure the name matches the address??

I can't be understanding you right cos no-one would think that

I'm glad I'm not the only one puzzled by the link between takeaways and proof of address 😂