Thief giving my address!!!

This is known as Address fraud.
Contact Action Fraud: www.actionfraud.police.uk/contact-us

If it's someone locsl, and it probably is, all it means is that she has walked along your street and decide to use your house name and number at random.

Perhaps whoever it is chose your house name and number because it is an English name in an area of Wales where Welsh house names are preferred.

From what I have read about this kind of fraud, addresses are chosen at random, not with malice aforethought.

Marydoll

This is known as Address fraud.
Contact Action Fraud: www.actionfraud.police.uk/contact-us

Thanks. I'd not been aware of them - I'll check that out.

It is indeed an area of Wales where Welsh housenames are preferred by some and I duly received a form from the Council back at the time asking me to reconsider etc and then "ask" if I was still of a mind to. My reply back was "I've already checked there is no nearby house with the same name and it's a perfectly polite normal housename - so I've already changed it/new name plaque already in place. I was notifying you for information - so you could change the necessary records".

I've just checked out the Action Fraud page - and it's to do with cyber security and not letters through the post.

Think it probably doesn't apply to me then - though I do get several emails a week from a thief pretending they are to do with a firm (which may, or may not, be one I actually use). Also the odd phonecall from a thief - pretending to be Amazon or my bank security or the like and hence I answer my (landline) phone with a cautious "hello" and then don't say another word and wait for the person (or automatic message) at the other end to start up - so I can tell if it's a "real" phonecall or a would-be thief.

Just googled the term "address fraud" and a noticeable number of entries come up - off to check them out....

If you haven't already it may be worth registering your house with Land Registry Property Alert. They will tell you if there has been any activity on your address.

check your address with companies house.
there has been widespread setting up false companies, using random addresses, linked to fraudulently obtaining business loans.
as to scam calls on landline, i recommend purchasing BT's call guardian handset(s).
unknown numbers are intercepted, have to announce themselves, and you can then choose whether to accept the call or not.
i've not had any scam or marketing calls since i got it.
and you don't have to be a BT customer.
i bought mine at robert dyas.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67053586

I just put any letters not addressed to me straight back in the post. I put 'not at this address' on the envelope.

I never open them- I thought it was illegal to do so if it isn't addressed to you.

everyone, do a google search on your address.
just in case . . .

and the land registry check !
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001df51

Actually the Land Registry thing is not quite as failsafe as it seems. I did that at the outset in order to protect my house. Come new neighbours in next door house some years after I bought mine and I got an email from LR saying "There is activity on your account" and I knew I wasn't doing anything. I checked - and it turned out the new neighbours had gone off to LR without a word to me and decided to ask them to transfer a bit of my garden from my title plan (made years before I came on the scene) onto their title plan (just being made for the first time) - and they did!!!!!! I employed a solicitor and fought back and the end result was that she said to me "We've reached the end of this stage - and the LR have decided to give them that bit of your garden!" and my response was "Well - it's a wide retaining wall and it needs some VERY expensive work on it at some point. Who will be responsible for paying that bill now?" and I could hear my solicitor burst out laughing and shrugging her shoulders at the end of the phone - as she said "It's on THEIR title plan now". So she told me I could appeal to a higher level of LR and see what happened - but that heavy bill that is coming at some point will go to their house and not mine. I didn't think those neighbours were the worlds brightest buttons and I feel rather incredulous they would basically literally ask for such an expensive bill to be attached to their house instead of mine - and I told them that bill is now theirs and they just looked at me gobsmacked. I'm still gobsmacked that they could want a bit of my garden and go off behind my back to try and get it - as I told them "without even offering to buy it off me".

Right - google search = I'll do that then and see if anything new comes up.

Not sure on legality of opening post - but I think it is actually legal to open letters clearly coming to your house/addressed to your house and you've every reason to believe they are for you (as you are the only one living there and that's been the case for years). I honestly thought it was my letter - as it was coming to my house and was with a letter that really was for me. Just as well - as I'd not have known someone is misusing my address if I hadnt!!!

I'll check out that phone handset - call guardian.

Just had a quick google for my address and nothing came up for my house at all - just a load of photos of the neighbouring house that took my retaining wall (as they bought it with the stated intention of doing it up/then selling it on and it has now been up for sale for rather a long time..........hmmm....). So only a description of the area as being "very desirable" - well it has become so - just as I anticipated it would at some point when I bought my house.

Googled under its last name (ie the one it had when I bought it) and got some entries up - all to the effect it's worth quite a bit more than when I bought it (and that's without them knowing I've basically had it gutted since I did so - as a lot of the housing stock here was in need of major work and many houses here have recently been bought and renovated since I moved here). Basically the houses in my little bit are "going up......" just in this little area....thankfully I got some things right then...

Write 'no such person living at this address', and post it again. No stamps.

The people who come to live in Wales and change the Welsh names of houses to English ones really get me annoyed. Why? Why? If living in Wales try to respect the Welsh heritage and language please!

We used to get letters to an unknown person from shops like Waitrose and John Lewis. Supposedly someone trying to get credit/accounts at shops. We sent the letters back with a covering letter saying that the addressee was unknown at this address and our address should be removed. Never heard anything from them again in each case.

I had similar I found the person's address on 192.com and for the next year everytime a letter was sent I opened it contacted the company and gave them the address. They soon stopped. I did have to pay a couple of quid to get access to the records on 192. But it was worth it because even though I'd logged it with action fraud (yes they do deal with address fraud, just aren't as vocal about it) and also with the credit companies and eve. The police all were very complacent. Although they opened disputes they wouldn't remove it from my experian because they needed her to confirm she didn't live here supposedly. It was only removed by Experian when it was taken to the ombudsman as a dispute and they eventually agreed that the onus was on them to prove she lived here not me.

For Fael -- and that really self-centred "The people who come to live in Wales and change the Welsh names of houses to English ones really get me annoyed. Why? Why? If living in Wales try to respect the Welsh heritage and language please!".

The Welsh language that cannot cope with "computer", "bus" or "internet"? Well worth saving then. I occasionally hit that Welsh language TV channel by mistake, always quite amusing for a few seconds.

Are you planning to contact ALL the WELSH folk who've come to England and put up a WELSH house name?! Not very respectful of them, was it?!

MamaB247 - Thanks. I've just tried directory enquiries and they tell me there's no-one of that name here in this town - though I'm guessing she's pretty young and probably doesn't have a landline phone. If I get any more letters for her then I'll check out Action Fraud again then. I have done a "dissasociation form" with Experian and fingers crossed. I thought they would HAVE to take my word for it - and it's disconcerting you had to chase them about it. I'm guessing the fact they've had the ombudsman on their back thanks to yourself should equal they won't try to say the onus is on the householder these days. It's easy enough to prove I live here and no-one else does - because I've been here over 10 years and I'm on the electoral register and obviously no-one else is on the register for my address during that time.

I think my best bet is to see if any more letters turn up here addressed to this woman and if I find she's making a habit of mis-using my address then have a further think on about dealing with her. From here on in - I'm going to check the address carefully of letters coming through my door to ensure it is my address. If it is my address okay - then I will open them and check them out - even if I can see it's not my name. After all - they are not going to be the previous owner after all this time (as Christmas cards for a last owner tend to stop in my experience by a couple of years into one's own ownership and they must all know/guess she's dead by now given her age). Having been the only one living here for over 10 years and I can readily prove the names of the previous owners from Year Dot for this house - then any other name that crops up is distinctly suspect.

I've put that name into Facebook to see if it comes up and there's 5 people in this country with that name that are FB members and they're all noticeably younger than me. One of them was born and bred in Wales at that and there's lots of photos of her on there and she is pretty young and looks #ahem not the world's brightest button I'd say and I'm wondering if it's her. But guess I'm best off leaving that in abeyance and not contacting any of those 5 to say "Just thought I'd let you know someone giving your name is misusing my address....". I think I'm probably best not doing any FB contact with what-may or may not be her.

When my "protective registration" thing I'd done with Land Registry didn't work - as they let next door neighbour still steal a bit of my garden!!! then I had a solicitor put in a further layer of protection around my house (summat along the lines of having to prove they are me to have any sort of say at all about my house).

So this being one of those small towns that would get described as "close knit" I've asked two local people I'm friends with and that know loads of people if the name concerned means anything to them and they have never heard of her.

It was easier when a woman with a Chinese name misused my address in my last house back in the city I'm from. I could see it was one of a pair of troublesome Chinese lodgers I'd had in briefly and she owed money to a firm here and I just contacted the firm and obviously they were going to readily accept she was nothing to do with me - me with my British surname and her with a Chinese surname and I told them her address back in her home country of Hong Kong, that she'd turned out to be a bad 'un and wished them good luck chasing her up and that was the last I heard of that.

So I think I've done what I can for now....

Scammers are a damn nuisance!

DrWatson

For Fael -- and that really self-centred "The people who come to live in Wales and change the Welsh names of houses to English ones really get me annoyed. Why? Why? If living in Wales try to respect the Welsh heritage and language please!".

The Welsh language that cannot cope with "computer", "bus" or "internet"? Well worth saving then. I occasionally hit that Welsh language TV channel by mistake, always quite amusing for a few seconds.

Are you planning to contact ALL the WELSH folk who've come to England and put up a WELSH house name?! Not very respectful of them, was it?!

Gosh Dr Watson do you not like the language of the bards? Why should the Welsh not prefer to have their language used in their country? How do you feel about non-English house names in England? Shangri-la, anyone? Mon repose?

Errr....can I ask people (of any viewpoint on this) to not veer off topic onto "Welsh or otherwise". Living in West Wales - there is plenty of that going on in this area anyway and I'd prefer to keep the whole "Welsh/English/British" debate out of this...as, since moving here, I've found just how heated that can get (ie very.....).

As others have said ‘not known at this address’ written on it and reposted as it is.