Mystery letters, some sort of fraud?
November 6, 2016 1:54 PM Subscribe
I live in one of three houses provided by my employer. Over the past month, there have been a spate of letters addressed to people who have never lived in any of these houses, all from car insurance companies. Now we are getting parcels delivered. What is going on?
I live in and manage a row of three isolated houses in rural UK for my employer. Over the past month, myself and my neighbours have received between us about a dozen letters from car insurance companies to a handful of names that don't live here. As we have the records of everyone who has lived here over the past 50 years, we can guarantee that none of the addressees named have ever lived here, and I know that there is no-one in the local area by those names.
all of these letters, I wrote "not at this address - return to sender" and posted them back.
We also received one "sorry you were out" Royal Mail card, again to one of the names, which we ignored, and one parcel from a company I'd never heard of - http://www.ctdi.eu/en/default.html - I phoned and they said just to post it back to them, which I did.
What on earth is going on here? Should I be worried?
I live in and manage a row of three isolated houses in rural UK for my employer. Over the past month, myself and my neighbours have received between us about a dozen letters from car insurance companies to a handful of names that don't live here. As we have the records of everyone who has lived here over the past 50 years, we can guarantee that none of the addressees named have ever lived here, and I know that there is no-one in the local area by those names.
all of these letters, I wrote "not at this address - return to sender" and posted them back.
We also received one "sorry you were out" Royal Mail card, again to one of the names, which we ignored, and one parcel from a company I'd never heard of - http://www.ctdi.eu/en/default.html - I phoned and they said just to post it back to them, which I did.
What on earth is going on here? Should I be worried?
Best answer: Re the letters, maybe someone was gathering quotes for car insurance and gave the companies your address as a way of avoiding getting on their junk-mail lists?
posted by une_heure_pleine at 6:18 PM on November 6, 2016
posted by une_heure_pleine at 6:18 PM on November 6, 2016
I get a lot of calls on my cell phone from car dealerships or businesses following up from online leads. When people type in a random phone number, they type mine in a lot (it has several repeating digits). Therefore, I get the phone version of what you're describing.
Could it be that these houses just have addresses like 1234 Main St or 555 Elm St? Also, the postal service here in the US regularly confuses my address--which is xxxx Blank Street--with the house on the next block at xxxx Blank Place. Could this be another possibility?
posted by rybreadmed at 9:29 PM on November 6, 2016
Could it be that these houses just have addresses like 1234 Main St or 555 Elm St? Also, the postal service here in the US regularly confuses my address--which is xxxx Blank Street--with the house on the next block at xxxx Blank Place. Could this be another possibility?
posted by rybreadmed at 9:29 PM on November 6, 2016
Response by poster: une_heure_pleine this seems like the most likely answer, but doesn't explain why they are now getting parcels delivered to these addresses. Doesn't sound like I need to be worried, but just keep returning them
posted by sarahdal at 11:04 AM on November 8, 2016
posted by sarahdal at 11:04 AM on November 8, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
There's a 99.999999% chance some computer or typist somewhere made an error and thinks people live at your address. That's it.
posted by so fucking future at 4:39 PM on November 6, 2016