My bank statement has been opened my someone else

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

DH and I looked at the post this morning and realised our bank statement had already been opened. Definitely opened, as someone had given themselves a paper cut doing it, as there was a bit of blood on the envelope, as well as a wee bit on the statement itself.

Have rung the bank, who advised that there's not much someone could do to be fraudulent as they'd need all the security details that only DH and I know and also for things like online banking they'd need card number and security number from it.

But I seem to recall Jeremy Clarkson having a problem where someone set up a direct debit from his account - 500 quid or something each month when he poo-poohed the idea of ID theft and published his sort code and bank account number in the paper for all to see.

Also did a quick google search and saw a case where someone had got a new mobile phone using someone's bank account number and sort code only. The phone had been sent elsewhere but the bills were coming to his address.

Could anyone tell me if anyone's likely to use our bank details fraudulently? What should I be looking out for, other than wierd things appearing on our account (which I already check online most days anyway)

Thanks

could be anything, we often get mail delivered to the wrong house.

I've had dodgy direct debits done, you just call the bank and cancel them and get the money refunded (it's called the d/debit guarantee), the only reason Clarkson didn't was cos he felt bad because it was a d/d to a charity - somebody was taking the piss when he said id theft wasn't a problem. You can't do much with the bank details.

Identity theft woud be a potential - the bank statement could be used to open accounts with other banks, obtain credit, etc., but it's unlikely. There's not much you can do about that really.

If I was going to use a bank statement to defraud someone, I wouldn't have forwarded it on to them afterwards

SomeGuy, the bank we use is not used by THAT many people I don't think - the name of it is all over the envelope so I don't think it could have gone to the wrong address without the person realising it wasn't meant for them.

Daisymoo, there's always the possibility that they didn't want to arouse suspicion by the bank statement not turning up at all and running the risk of someone extra vigilant looking into why it hadn't arrived. (not that I'd have noticed if it hadn't turned up - I look at our account online almost daily anyway so am not exactly desperately waiting for the paper statement to turn up as it's out of date byt he time it arrives!)

Or, if someone dodgy at the sorting office is doing this, then surely they're more likely to get found out if mail goes missing in the post - could be investigated by Royal Mail and traced back to 'em somehow. So I reckon they'd try to make sure that it got to the destination. Pretty stupid of them to leave traces of blood all over it - if only if there was a highstreet CSI kind of test to discover whose blood it was!

Think I'm overanalysing this......I'll just keep a close eye and report owt dodgy ASAP. Just slightly paranoid as earlier this year I had someone seemingly photograph me through my bedroom window - now this "interception" of my mail! In my more paranoid moments I think I'm being investigated by some PI! Must be a pretty crap one if they've opened the statement in such an obvious way!

Oh well.
Thanks for your replies!