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?

We had letters coming for a friend of my wife, who sofa surfed, after leaving her boyfriend. On night, debt collectors demanded to be let in (my wife was away on holiday with our daughter at the time). They named the friend and said that she owed over £10,000!

I explained that she'd never lived here, refused them entry and said I'd let a Police officer in. A couple of hours later, a copper turned up and I let him in. There were a few letters going back about a year, he opened them and I said he could look anywhere in the house.

He told the debt collectors that she didn't live here and we weren't liable, as far as he could see. I called the debt collectors the next day and having asked my wife, gave her friend's mobile number - she didn't know her address.

Some of the letters were for other debt collectors, so I called all of them, too. We got taken off all the lists, but letters were coming for months. It was very stressful.

@RushieRoo if he's living on top of cafe, makes more sense. I'm assuming he's done this before with parcels and takeaways, easier for him to find and there's a possibility there's been a lot of confusion in the past with his deliveries.

and yet totally perceptive

I wm planning on living in s camper when children are old enough that I can leave😀for anyone living in the Wavertree area of Liverpool. Can I use your address?

@RushieRoo I couldn’t retrieve my own parcel from the post office despite having ID showing who I was & being able to tell them who the parcel was from because I had nothing with the correct address on to show the parcel was mine. The company sent it to a random address that wasn’t mine, thankfully they weren’t in & it got sent back to the post office, but I couldn’t collect my parcel as the address wasn’t mine.
If any more mail to parcel turn up & he comes to collect tell him he needs proof of delivery address to collect the parcel or you will be returning it. Clearly he is using your address for deliveries & mail so nip it in the bud now before something nasty comes knocking or you get yourself mixed up in some sort of scam you have no knowledge of!

I nearly spat my drink out. Oh bollocks, that sounds like my lazy adult son!

Until I read about the sweeping. Nah. Never.

It happens to us all of the time someone on the next street same door number one digit difference in the postcode. I would ask him it may be that drivers have had difficulty finding his door number but it is very cheeky if it is this.

There's a scam where someone tries to sell your house. They actually do and I think you may eventually get some money back but not your house!

Eh? How on earth does this work?

The house selling scam was carried out by tenants as far as I'm aware. Not sure how many were successful; this was a few years ago.

I'd check the car park and see if there's a van that is there all the time and wonder if he's living in it, so is using your address to get parcels/takeaways.

@HarrietJet

Blip · Today 06:44

There's a scam where someone tries to sell your house. They actually do and I think you may eventually get some money back but not your house!
Eh? How on earth does this work?

Basically they are all variations of identity fraud - so one way is (get some identity of house owner), change locks ("I'm locked out of my house, keys stolen"), get puppet 'tennant'/'owner in, purport to 'sell' to the 'new owner' puppet, change title deeds to puppet name, then contact estate agents and sell on to an innocent person.

It is very sophisticated and about timing. All it needs is a property empty for a period of time to get in, change locks and effect sale. The pre-work is done in advance.

If you are a second home owner, you should make sure your correspondence address with the Land Registry is where you actually are so you get notice of change of ownership. Apparently the Land Registry never previously sent notice at all -assuming you knew as you were doing it - but now following these frauds they do. However, if your address for notice is the empty property, it won't help as it will be intercepted by the puppet occupiers.

There was a TV drama based on these methods:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/inside-chilling-property-scam-sees-26422344

Once they have obtained your identity, they claim the titles to your home and change ownership to their name, enabling them to take out loans secured against the property or even sell it.Once they have obtained your identity, they claim the titles to your home and change ownership to their name, enabling them to take out loans secured against the property or even sell it.

This can happen just when you are away on holiday if you are not just off for a weekend becuase it's about timing.

Other stories of different methods here
https://www.getagent.co.uk/blog/properties/house-sold-without-owner-knowing

In 2019, the Daily Mail reported that Angela Ellis-Jones had lost her four-bed house in South London to a fraudster. She had returned from a three week holiday away to find her letterbox taped up and a metal post box fixed to her door. Despite registering concern with the police, the officers did nothing - and three weeks later, she received a letter from the Land Registry, stating that her property now belonged to someone else.
Like Mike, Angela was a victim of property title fraud, but both scenarios were enabled through different means. In Mike’s case, a duplicate driving licence and bank account were set up in his name to sell the property. In Angela’s, a solicitor verified a person as her when they applied to transfer the property.

Yeah, ok 🙄

We had this too.

Did you ever manage to get to the bottom of this, @RushieRoo? (Can’t sleep and just rediscovered the thread on my watched list)

Any update op? It's been a while.