To obliterate your address on packaging

Can people do stuff with your address?

Scammers can use your old or your new address as proof of residence to obtain a driver's license or open an insurance policy. They can also commit identity theft with a change-of-address scam, a type of fraud that directs your mail straight to the scammer's mailbox.

A driver’s licence would be sent to the false address used on the application so how would the fraudster get their hands on the licence?

I agree that applying for vehicle insurance using a false address is very easy. It’s why ghost-brokering is a known scam - usually selling cheap insurance to young drivers, but the policy is cancelled within days. The housholder just has the inconvenience of the cancellation paperwork that comes to their address. Why insurers only do ID checks after the policy has been issued is a mystery.

You can’t apply for post redirection at a Post Office without showing ID for each name on the application form: either bank or credit cards, passports, photo drivers’ licences and recent utility bills, bank, credit card or mortgage statements.

If you apply by post, you can only pay using two different cheques each one showing the applicants’ names and the utility bill or statements.

if you apply online, you have to provide a bank card with the same name as the person allegedly applying for the change of address, birth date, access to financial documents and answer security questions.

The Post Office send an acknowledging security letter to the householder’s address so they will be alerted to the scam.

In other words, it’s unlikely anyone could get away with this just by getting someone’s name and address from their recycling.

Anything with my details on goes in my compost bin, but any labels that I can't remove I give a rub with a wet metal dish scourer. They just disintegrate. Costs nothing.

lemsip they can do that without having to steal your address. All they need to do is walk down a street and choose a number.

There has been a considerable kerfuffle recently about companies being set up for nefarious purposes. No addresses have been stolen. The fraudsters just choose a road and postcode with a pin and then allocate a number. Should we remove all street names and house numbers?

The address labels don't bother me. My name and address are freely available from a number of sources. I only shred things with other details on as well - account numbers, other personal info or if there are any bar/qr codes that might contain extra info.