Mail addressed to person I don't recognize

[BrilloPad]

We have lived in same house for 7.5 years. For first 5 years we got the odd piece of mail delivered for people who used to live here. A couple of times we have had mail for neighbours.

Recently we have had 3 or 4 items for a "Jake Parker". Laser eye surgery enquiry, Jersey holiday brochure, couple of others. Certainly its not a neighbour. 192 search reveals nothing in the area. Mrs BP will call up to organizations today - she is a bit concerned - though they will probably tell her nothing.

I am thinking of doing an experian credit check - but you have to give a name - which might then make the name more official?

I am tempted just to ignore it - anyone any other suggestions?

[garethevans1986]

Just a point to note, it's illegal in this country to open mail addressed to somebody else, regardless of address.

We've had a few through to our house for other people that have look like "final demand" letters so we've opened then and phoned the company to tell them they don't live here and haven't for the past x years.

GE

[fullyautomatix]

This looks like identity theft to me.

[BlasterBates]

Probably best to take them to the Post Office and tell them it's a wrong address.

That's what I did. I was getting stuff sent to me in a similar name some of it was stuff ordered on the internet, with a bill, so I just took it to the Post Office and told them it was a wrong address. Should just then get returned to whoever is being conned.

[kaiser78]

Just do return to sender no ?

[garethevans1986]

Very little point doing return to sender....just bin it or open it and phone them.

GE

[Paddy]

Just a point to note, it's illegal in this country to open mail addressed to somebody else, regardless of address.

We've had a few through to our house for other people that have look like "final demand" letters so we've opened then and phoned the company to tell them they don't live here and haven't for the past x years.

GE

Had some of those from bailiffs called “Philips”, they were debt collecting for several unpaid fines for a Mr X made by courts near Liverpool about 250 miles away.

The c***s at Philips tried to make out that they were part of the court, they wanted me to send proof such as council tax bills in order to prove that I was not Mr X. They even threatened forced entry to take my goods and they said “you will have to prove that you are not Mr X in order to get the goods back once we take them”. They stopped writing after I sent them a letter threatening an injunction against them.

[norrahe]

Put return to sender on it, make sure you put on the front that the person in question does not live at said address.

It may be illegal to open the mail but sometimes it is in your best interest to do so and ring the organisation sending the letter.

I kept receiving stuff from banks and credit card companies from a previous owner of my house, this was going on for years and I had been sending them back return to send with no avail. I finally opened one up and found that the previous owner had taken out loans and maxed his credit credit cards and had defaulted on them.

Only when they got debt recovery companies involved did they stop sending us letters and left us alone. As I rang up the companies and pointed out they might want to check who actually had been residing in the property for the last 4 years!

[Scoobos]

Be careful, I've seen a very similar thing happen to a family member of mine.

In their case, someone waited at their door and picked up one of these letters - and then used it as identity to ship some illegal packages via UPS , with that address as the sender.

I don't know the precise details, but they were elderly and ended up caught up in a massive crime that interpol were even involved with.

I'd tell the police, just to report it and have a written record of your concern - and as everyone else has said send it marked clearly "RTS - Person NEVER at this address".

It gets back to the senders, as they have to pay for redelivery and usually also cleanse their database (to avoid wasting any future money on mailers etc).

[northernladyuk]

We have lived in same house for 7.5 years. For first 5 years we got the odd piece of mail delivered for people who used to live here. A couple of times we have had mail for neighbours.

Recently we have had 3 or 4 items for a "Jake Parker". Laser eye surgery enquiry, Jersey holiday brochure, couple of others. Certainly its not a neighbour. 192 search reveals nothing in the area. Mrs BP will call up to organizations today - she is a bit concerned - though they will probably tell her nothing.

I am thinking of doing an experian credit check - but you have to give a name - which might then make the name more official?

I am tempted just to ignore it - anyone any other suggestions?

I knew a lad called Jake Parker, who was having his surgery about the same time as me. It can take a long time for name changes to filter through company systems. If she has the correct documentation to hand, Mrs BP should be able to get it sorted - no need to be concerned at all.