The truth is more prosaic.

[baratron]

Mystery bear is no longer a mystery. It's a clear case of identity theft, or fraud.

Some asswipe has ordered £278.30 worth of crap using my name and address details, and £277.28 worth of crap using Richard's. To get around the company's requirement that the first shipment must go to the same name and address that you've registered with, they sent us the ugly soft toys. And then the rest of the stuff has gone to them. The stuff ordered in Richard's name is especially hilarious, including 2 Chelsea shirts and 1 Man United shirt - allegedly ordered by one of the most anti-football men I've ever met!

You'd have thought that in a world full of identity theft and online fraud that the company would wait for payment for the first shipment before allowing a person to order any more stuff! Apparently not. Also, I didn't actually realise that it was possible to buy items online using credit set up with the seller, rather than using a credit card issued by a bank. That seems rather anachronistic, considering.

Grrr.

Apparently the address where all these £59 Fred Perry, Ben Sherman and Hilfiger shirts have gone is an address that the company "is currently investigating". If this turns out to be part of a mass fraud, I hope the bastards get what they deserve, which must at least include confiscation of the stolen nasty clothes and an exchange for fashionable prison wear :P

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Crumbs. I hate when anything like that happens. Did you report it to the police? Did they care?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Not sure that I have sufficient details to report it to the police. The company (which is called Very - what sort of name is that?) didn't tell me where the items were sent, only that they all went to one address that is already known to them. I presume at some point they will prosecute, but who knows, really?

Just grumpy about the whole thing.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

So this wasn't on your credit card but someone obtained credit by pretending to be you?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

No, it's like... instore credit. But for a store that only exists online and does not have physical locations.

I've been comparing this to what Richard needed to produce when we bought our beds on interest-free credit in Bentalls. I'm sure he had to produce proof of the bank account that would be used to pay the bill.

[brooksmoses]

Yeah, this sounds like a case of "store has stupidly lax rules, gets themselves burnt as a result."

I have a similar curiousity about the time someone tried ineptly to steal my identity, and got my first and last name swapped, and just made up a social security number. I got several calls saying that this nonexistent person had their car loan application approved.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Yep - that is what I meant. We are talking the same thing.

That is so horrible. It is freaky that they did an id theft of you and richard at the same time.

[lovingboth]

You make it easy for people to defraud you and, gosh, some people do just that.

[taimatsu]

I think you possibly can report it to the police. Have your actual bank details been used?

This happened to me once in a similar way, although it was for physical store credit stuff, so nothing was sent to me. My address was used but not my bank details. I was able to find out some details about the linked bank account (because letters were sent to me about the store cards) and contacted the bank in question.

[ailbhe]

Gawd, how horrible. Do I understand that your actual bank balance is not affected, at least?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

The scammers only had our names & address, nothing else. That's part of what shocks me so much about the online sales company - how can you give out credit just based on a person's name and address? Shouldn't you at least be asking for a bank account to correlate with it?

It's annoying and stressful, but no actual harm has been done to us - unless somebody cocks something up and our credit ratings get affected. Even that isn't the end of the world. ("Oh noes, my credit rating has gone down!").

[lovingboth]

Very is the new name for one of those 'free 20 week credit' catalogues. Their target audience typically would not pass most places' credit checks.

[nitoda]

Glad it hasn't affected your bank balance anyway. Hope the scammers get their come-uppance.

[hiddenpaw.livejournal.com]

OK, Now I'm paranoid about this. What company in their right mind would offer such credit with such lax security protocols and presumably no credit check or prior payment?

Have the company claiming to be investigating the fraud managed to get any details out of you other than your name and address (i.e. what they already have)? I just worry the scam investigation may be a scam.

[bfo.livejournal.com]

something similar happened to Bruce, he got a stop put against his name for any credit to be taken out for him without his approval, can't remember what he has to do to approve it but it means they contact him.