HELP

8 replies

fuzzywuzzy · 09/05/2004 11:01

Someone appears to be using my parents address to open accounts. My sister who lives with my parents couldn't open an account with Laredoute, on making loads of phone calls it transpired that we already have an account with the company since 2001!!! However the person has my parents surname right and address and phone number (all details one can obtain from the phone book), but the first intitial is wrong. Sister managed to convince the company nobody in the house with that particular first initial lives their and finally got an account... I am now getting really worried as my sister has said they've been receiving mail for strangers with the same surname (but not first initial) and lots of phone calls from company's too. My question how does one find out if someone has been using your address to open accounts and use your address for credit references and so on, if this is going on for so long I'm pretty sure my parents won't have much of a credit rating left!!! Help how does one go about clearing this mess up???

OP posts:

Soulfly · 09/05/2004 11:12

I don't really know what advice to give you, but we've had a similar thing happen to us. The people that used to live her nearly 3 years ago, still get post to this address, mmostly from loan companys demanding payment. I open them up now, becuase they left me no forwarding addy for them. I rang the companies up and told them they no longer live here. Seems to be ok for now. Can you not return to sender saying that this person doesn't live here and never has? Thats what i would do.HOpe you can sort it out soon.

charliecat · 09/05/2004 11:22

Ages ago there was something about this on watchdog. The actual owners of the house had a nightmare proving they really were the people, I think the fraudsters had managed to take over the peoples identity. Citizens advice, and of course what Soulflys suggested. Good Luck

coppertop · 09/05/2004 11:30

I'd start by applying for a copy of your parents' credit-rating. Hopefully someone will have a link for this. You can use that to see if there are any outstanding debts which have been registered and then approach those companies to explain the situation. The CAB is also a good idea for the whole general issue of identity theft.

WideWebWitch · 09/05/2004 11:37

One of the major consumer credit agencies is Experian or you could try Equifax, looks like they've got an identity theft section What a mare, HTH.

WideWebWitch · 09/05/2004 11:41

Sorry, I gave you the dot com, when you probably want the UK site

gscrym · 09/05/2004 11:47

My friend had this happen to her a few years ago. When she moved to Manchester, she arranged to get her passport and driver license changed. These never showed up but she started to get letters demanding payment for a number of things. She looked further into it and found out that someone had stolen her documents from her mail box (useless outside of house thing). The thieves had opened numerous credit accounts and run up debts.
She was able to prove none of these things were done by her. She also contacted the police who managed to catch the people involved.
I think that once you've got the credit rating and sppoken to whatever agencies are involved then you should talk to the police. If people have been using your parents address then its fraud. Identity theft is becoming more common and it's very distressing. How can you prove who you are if someone else says they're you?

Original poster

fuzzywuzzy · 09/05/2004 12:20

Right I'll start with obtaining a credit report from both experian and equifax, I'll tell sister to start opening the mail and either write back to the company's telling them no such person exists or to ring them. Thanx

OP posts:

eddm · 09/05/2004 13:21

Just a thought about Soulfly's experience with people who used to live at her address: could you forward their post to the estate agents who handled the sale? They will have contact details for the solicitors.
We had lots of post for previous owners at old address, which we stuck back in post marked 'not at this address, return to sender'. Then one envelope turned up and for some reason I was very suspicious. Glad I did open it as it was warning that bailiffs were about to turn up as the person had got a County Court Judgement for non-payment of debts! Called the court; they were very helpful and told me to put it in writing. They put it on their records, or something, and we weren't bothered again.

Flip