I've been a victim of identity theft!

[matchmaker]

Fortunately, without any serious consequences. Between Christmas and New Year the postman arrived at my door with two packages from Very. If you don't know what Very is, it's the modern equivalent of the old Littlewoods or Freemans catalogue, but online. You open a credit account with them and order goods. If you don't pay in full you pay them interest at a horrendous APR.

I didn't have an account with them, but the parcels were addressed using my initial and surname only. As my older son has the same initial, but was out at the time I assumed they were for him. I was rapidly disabused of this idea when he got home: "Why the fk would I order a pair of kids Ugg boots and a Dyson electric grooming set?". Fair enough...

It was too late to phone Very so I filed an online report with Police Scotland who to their credit replied very promptly confirming that it indeed looked like a scam.

The next morning I phoned Very, who actually have an identity theft report line It was sorted out very quickly, and it appears that their systems had picked up the scam very quickly and blocked the account. A marker has now been put against me with CIFAS which is a UK wide fraud protection database, in case any other attempts are used to use my details.

The worrying aspect is that it was so easy for someone to use my details. I'm not sure what details were required to set up the account but it has made me very wary!

[Markp1706]

Are you a director on companies house by any chance ? A lot of scammers are using the information of directors listed on the companies house register (which includes year and month of birth) then cross referencing with people’s social media for the exact day. Generally for these type of finance companies all that is required is name, address and date of birth and it gets you credit. I believe companies house are making changes to their systems to stop this kind of fraud going on. Had a very good friend this happened to just over a year ago.

[Colonel Cupcake]

How do the scammers get hold of the items?

[Tommo87]

Markp1706 said:

Are you a director on companies house by any chance ? A lot of scammers are using the information of directors listed on the companies house register (which includes year and month of birth) then cross referencing with people’s social media for the exact day. Generally for these type of finance companies all that is required is name, address and date of birth and it gets you credit. I believe companies house are making changes to their systems to stop this kind of fraud going on. Had a very good friend this happened to just over a year ago.

I was going to say the same thing as someone I know had her details pulled from there to use for an online insurance policy on a car she didn’t own.

[cliffords]

I had the same about 10 years ago. They really went to town on me , multiple mobile phone accounts, Currys etc etc . They really did a big job on me . It took a lot of time to sort out and a bit of money on my part. I think the system for reporting and help from the police was very different then to now .

It was entirely my own doing I put letters and documents in the regular bin without any attempt to shred them . That's how they got me .

I don't do this now .

[Freakuk]

matchmaker said:

Fortunately, without any serious consequences. Between Christmas and New Year the postman arrived at my door with two packages from Very. If you don't know what Very is, it's the modern equivalent of the old Littlewoods or Freemans catalogue, but online.

Technically it is Littlewoods, Very was part of the Shop Direct group, but SD rebranded a few years ago to become the Very Group.

I delivered a few projects for them several years ago....

[bigandclever]

cliffords said:

I don't think they are both alive now

Might come as a shock to Sir Fred

[matchmaker]

Colonel Cupcake said:

How do the scammers get hold of the items?

I understand that they get the first articles delivered to the victims home. They then arrange for future deliveries to be delivered to an instore pickup point and rely on poor ID checking.

[matchmaker]

Tommo87 said:

Markp1706 said:

Are you a director on companies house by any chance ? A lot of scammers are using the information of directors listed on the companies house register (which includes year and month of birth) then cross referencing with people’s social media for the exact day. Generally for these type of finance companies all that is required is name, address and date of birth and it gets you credit. I believe companies house are making changes to their systems to stop this kind of fraud going on. Had a very good friend this happened to just over a year ago.

I was going to say the same thing as someone I know had her details pulled from there to use for an online insurance policy on a car she didn’t own.

No - I'm not but my son was. It's not him, though. I noticed a hard search on my credit file by the parent company of Very. I'm only on the Electoral Roll.