Someone taking out credit cards in my name!

[Ivor Bigun]

Wow!

Unbelieveable. In less than a week I have been notified of two fradulent attempts to open up credit cards(one which succeeded but got forwarded to me) and again today a Halifax Bank account.

I've not been scammed but I closed an endowment policy. I was at work and didn't have the policy number.
All I was asked for was a date of birth and address.
he guy said "this verbal instruction is final are you sure?"
I say "Yes" and then he says "The money will be credited to your account in 10 days"

I';m not going to outline the obvious but..........If anyone has moved house and not sorted out the addresses - they are easy meat to the fraudster in the know.

MF, its probably why you've been targetted - you're in that situation?

Tip - If you're worried about a DD (Direct Debit) going out of credit cards - report card as lost / stolen. By doing so, any DDs are removed.
Why? You can't "cancel" a DD from a credit card.
The new card will have a different number.

[thunderlizard]

I can appreciate why company directors' details are in the public domain.

The stupid thing is organisations using date of birth and mother's maiden name as security details when they were never supposed to be secret in the first place and have always been easy to suss out.

[adestor]

It is possible to get your personal information hidden - I think being scammed is a justafiable reason to do so. You should call up Companies House, explain the situation and they should do it.

Hmm, maybe I should do as well.

[Smurficus]

I would contact the main credit agencies, they put a password on file when the guy who bought my house went on a shopping spree in my name. Four years on, I got a call yesterday in Homebase while applying for credit

Main problem wasn't the money, its taken years to rebuild my rating.

[MarillionFan]

Up to 3 credit cards and one back now so far last week.

No my mail was redirected for the last year, but I had problems with my LTD company. Even though I changed as much as I could some of my corporation tax letters went to the old property. Four weeks ago the mail redirect stopped after a year.

I spoke to the lady who bought the house. She doesnt live there, it's still empty and on the whole she had forwarded them. A few weeks back she started popping stuff back in the post saying return to sender.

Then it appears sainsburys sent out a mail shot with some details in it. Needless to say, I never got it and super whizz bang i'm getting hit from all directions. The only 'suspect' is the plumber Mrs Lady gave her key and alarm number to. Well as all the credit cards etc are going to the old address, it doesnt really take a genius to know that some plumber that lives locally is about to have a really pissed off Fan of Marillion come round and batter the ****** around his house with a baseball bat!

[super]

How does one go about getting stuff like this stopped? Are the police any use?

No, the police are no use at all. They do not understand the law in this area.

When this happened to me I reported it to the police by phone and asked for a crime reference number. They refused, saying that it was not a crime.

I took it to a police complaint making clear that the Home Office web site clearly says "identity theft is a crime and you should report it to the police". They closed my complaint saying that it is not a crime.

They also told me that I was not the victim, the card issuer is the victim and therefore I have no right to make a complaint or report a crime.

I tried to use the Data Protection Act and do a Section 8 Subject Access Request on the card issuer to get a copy of the application submitted by the fraudster, thinking that if I could see the details, something may click and I could work out who was doing it.

Answer: as the application was not made by me, I am not entitled to see it under the DPA.

Took it to the Information Commissioner's Office citing breach of Section 8 of DPA. Result: they sided with the card issuer in case I went round to the fraudster and took vigilante revenge on him.

This country drives me mad.

[EternalOptimist]

It's no consolation to MF, and would not have helped anyways, but this is what I did when I last moved.
Bought the new owner a couple of bottles of wine and gave them twelve big stamped addressed envelopes. Every month they stuffed all my mail in and put it in the post

[expat]

"You're not the victim", except that your credit rating is ruined?

DOB, worse: if someone has obtained your credit card and tries to buy something online, they may get stymied by Verified by Visa. But wait: if they don't know the password, they can request a new one. All they need is the card details plus your DOB, and they get it right away.

The card issuers maintain that Verified by Visa makes transactions secure, so such a transaction must have been done with your co-operation. Your loss, therefore.