What to do when someone orders junkmail on your behalf without consent

[nick.taylor 10]

I have been receiving catalogues addressed to me that I haven't signed up for:

• H&M catalogue
  
• Christianity Magazine
  
• Marks and Spencer catalogue
  

 

I am not normally a suspicious person, but in this case I suspect that somebody may have signed me up for these (possibly as a prank. I don't know), as they all arrived this weekend, and I am certain that both H&M and M&S require you to fill out a form before they will send out a catalogue. I have no idea about Christianity Magazine though, as I had never heard of them before yesterday, but they do want a subscription payment from me.

 

I'd presume that I would have been signed up via the internet, and since all activity is traceable by IP address via the ISP, the person responsible should be fairly straight-forward to discover.

 

Does anyone have any experience of this type of thing?

 

Should I inform the police?

 

I simply want it to stop, and if someone is disclosing my private details to companies without my consent then I think that their behaviour needs to be addressed.

 

I presume that signing forms on the behalf of others against their wishes is illegal in some way.

 

Is there anything I can do?

Edited October 9, 2013 by nick.taylor

[Mecky 10]

There are three options as I see it:

 

1) Someone has sold on your details for profit and you're receiving speculative spam.

 

2) Someone is using your address for fraud.

 

3) Someone is having a laugh, a practical joke.

[L00b 441]

The Christianity one is odd, for sure...but in view of the H&M and M&S catalogues, in this day and age, I'd get paranoid quick about this:

2) Someone is using your address for fraud.

Someone, possibly with the same name as you, may have opened an account with these retailers, at your address and with genuine or stolen bank/card details. A bit like cloning cars, a case of cloning a shopper (or, more to the point, piggybacking a credit rating).

 

Not sure how exactly, but I have a relation who sufferred from this very situation (same name but blacklisted/fraudulent accounts opened at her address). It took her months to get it all stopped and her situation (esp.credit rating) restored.

 

Everytime we receive anything 'odd' like this (not in the name of the previous owner (who was the first-ever owner of the house as newbuilt) nor in our name), I have no compunction whatsoever in opening the envelope right away and contacting the sender for getting to the bottom of it (who gave the address, when, in what circumstances, what for, etc.)

 

Contact the police and get a reference as well, might prove useful in case you need to claim on any anti-ID theft insurance you may have, and/or prove to the bank/cc/ins. company that you took action right away, etc.

Edited October 9, 2013 by L00b

[boyfriday 21]

There are three options as I see it:

 

1) Someone has sold on your details for profit and you're receiving speculative spam.

 

2) Someone is using your address for fraud.

 

3) Someone is having a laugh, a practical joke.

 

My money's on "1" and most probably through the OP buying something online and not checking the 'tick if you do not wish to receive details of offers from carefully selected third parties' box

[truman 10]

The Christianity one is odd, for sure...but in view of the H&M and M&S catalogues, in this day and age, I'd get paranoid quick about this:

Someone, possibly with the same name as you, may have opened an account with these retailers, at your address and with genuine or stolen bank/card details. A bit like cloning cars, a case of cloning a shopper (or, more to the point, piggybacking a credit rating).

 

Not sure how exactly, but I have a relation who sufferred from this very situation (same name but blacklisted/fraudulent accounts opened at her address). It took her months to get it all stopped and her situation (esp.credit rating) restored.

 

Everytime we receive anything 'odd' like this (not in the name of the previous owner (who was the first-ever owner of the house as newbuilt) nor in our name), I have no compunction whatsoever in opening the envelope right away and contacting the sender for getting to the bottom of it (who gave the address, when, in what circumstances, what for, etc.)

 

Contact the police and get a reference as well, might prove useful in case you need to claim on any anti-ID theft insurance you may have, and/or prove to the bank/cc/ins. company that you took action right away, etc.

 

If the OP's address had been used for fraud then as well as the catalogues wouldn't they have had a welcome pack or at least something acknowledging their acceptance?

[L00b 441]

If the OP's address had been used for fraud then as well as the catalogues wouldn't they have had a welcome pack or at least something acknowledging their acceptance?

Dunno, depends on H&M/M&S standard customer procedure I guess. We don't shop at H&M, and Mrs L00b handles anything M&S/NEXT.

[nick.taylor 10]

contacting the sender for getting to the bottom of it

• who gave the address
  
• when
  
• in what circumstances
  
• what for
  

 

Contact the police (0114 2202020) to get a reference, which might prove useful in case you need to

• claim on any anti-ID theft insurance you may have
  
• prove to the bank/cc/ins. company that you took action right away
  

 

Wow, thanks L00b.

 

I'll be doing these.

 

---------- Post added 09-10-2013 at 12:19 ----------

 

If the OP's address had been used for fraud then as well as the catalogues wouldn't they have had a welcome pack or at least something acknowledging their acceptance?

 

The H&M catalogue actually has 'Welcome Mr Taylor' printed in full colour on the front cover.

 

---------- Post added 09-10-2013 at 12:27 ----------

 

My money's on "1" and most probably through the OP buying something online and not checking the 'tick if you do not wish to receive details of offers from carefully selected third parties' box

 

I'm very careful about check-boxes.

 

When I first moved to Sheffield I had the misfortune to land a job at a place called Data and Media Research (DMRi) who specialise in data-gathering websites. The information they gather is assembled into comma-delimited-files and sales staff sell it on to whoever will pay for it. I was contracted as a web-developer there. I'm glad I don't work for them anymore.

 

I even read terms and conditions before signing up to anything.

 

As a result, I use very few online services.

 

It's very important to me that the internet can be used safely, especially since I will have my own children in the future and want the same for them.

 

This is my motivation, and I am seeing this through to the end. If it turns out that I am indeed the victim of a fraud-attack then I hope to see the perpetrators incarcerated

Edited October 9, 2013 by nick.taylor

[Mecky 10]

The Christianity one is odd, for sure...but in view of the H&M and M&S catalogues, in this day and age, I'd get paranoid quick about this:

Someone, possibly with the same name as you, may have opened an account with these retailers, at your address and with genuine or stolen bank/card details. A bit like cloning cars, a case of cloning a shopper (or, more to the point, piggybacking a credit rating).

 

Not sure how exactly, but I have a relation who sufferred from this very situation (same name but blacklisted/fraudulent accounts opened at her address). It took her months to get it all stopped and her situation (esp.credit rating) restored.

 

Everytime we receive anything 'odd' like this (not in the name of the previous owner (who was the first-ever owner of the house as newbuilt) nor in our name), I have no compunction whatsoever in opening the envelope right away and contacting the sender for getting to the bottom of it (who gave the address, when, in what circumstances, what for, etc.)

 

Contact the police and get a reference as well, might prove useful in case you need to claim on any anti-ID theft insurance you may have, and/or prove to the bank/cc/ins. company that you took action right away, etc.

 

I sometimes think my address is being used for fraud because over the last year I've had mail addressed to at least 4 other people than myself. I wonder if the property is on the credit clacklist

[L00b 441]

I sometimes think my address is being used for fraud because over the last year I've had mail addressed to at least 4 other people than myself.

You should investigate with the senders, then ask for your address to be removed from their database/systems (which you are entitled to, under the DPA) once you have the info you need/can get.

I wonder if the property is on the credit checklist

AFAIK all properties are on several forms of commercial lists (finance, insurance, utilities, etc.), both associated with and independently of their owners/occupiers. Heard many a sorry tale about tenants moving into a property vacated by a previous tenant with a bad financial/insurance/utilities etc. reputation/score.

[geared 315]

I'd presume that I would have been signed up via the internet, and since all activity is traceable by IP address via the ISP, the person responsible should be fairly straight-forward to discover.

 

Not really.

 

You'd need the server log from the catalogue company, if they still have it.

You need a court order for that

 

You'd need to identify the ISP and identify the user account behind the ISP

You need a court order for that

 

You'd need to positivly identify which person in the house, office, internet cafe the IP address belongs to actually signed you up.

This is often impossible

 

Also worth mentioning you have no right to ask for any of this information, and no court in the land would even bother to see your case.

[mrs grissom 10]

We had a similar thing happen to us some years ago . We had loads and loads of magazines and catalogues delivered to us that we hadn't signed for. Everything you can imagine . It wasn't anyone committing fraud in our name , just a very sad person doing it for whatever reason known only to themselves as we'd never had a problem with them . We had a pretty shrewd idea wh it was due to the subjects of some of the mags ( religious , bird spotting etc) and we knew they had gone through a very , very difficult time in their personal life . We decided against reporting them to the police , but asked them round for coffee one day and casually brought the subject up . No accusations or hints we thought it was them . Just let them know how upsetting we were finding it all ans how miserable it was making us . They didn't bat an eyelid but strangely enough , the mailings stopped soon after . Maybe a coincidence , but ?