Post for unknown person - should I be concerned?

[Clariman]

I have had a couple of items of post to one of our holiday let properties addressed to the same person. The first was marketing material from Legal and General (it says marketing information on the back - I've not opened it) and the second has a return address of the Fox Group in Tunbridge Wells (who appear to do 3rd party marketing) and has "Special Offer for Adult Smokers" on the back.

We are the first and ever owners of the property. I have checked with our agents and there have been no bookings in the last year by anyone of this name, although it is possible they may have been part of a party booked by someone else.

I ignored the first one. The second one has made me wonder what is going on here. Perhaps someone needed to provide an address when they registered for a website and just gave ours rather than their own so they weren't pestered with mail.

However, could anything more sinister be going on? Should I report it to anyone or just return to sender?

C

[Loup321]

It could just be a mistake. I lived in a flat (rented for only 12 months, so a reasonable amount of post to different people), but then I got a letter addressed to me, saying my electricity company was sorry I was leaving. The flat on the floor below had just put my flat number by mistake when opening their utility accounts. It all got sorted out quite quickly. I've also managed to put an incorrect house number of something, and for a while my credit reports showed an additional old address linked to me, but it didn't affect anything (it was pretty clearly a typo).

Your idea about putting an incorrect address so they weren't pestered by marketing seems plausible, but in my experience I seldom get marketing stuff be post (mostly it's email). Sometime, I put aaa.bbb@ccc.com as my email address, so huge apologies if that is anyone's real address.

I don't think I would be worried unless bank statements or similar start coming through.

[AleisterCrowley]

I got one from Age UK, with whom I have a regular donation set up, addressed to a completely different person at my address.
I got in touch and it got sorted- a 'database issue'...perhaps involving Excel copy/paste!
I used to get Tesco clubcard stuff for Flat 18 when I lived in Flat 8 in my old place - clearly a typo/error when they set up the account. Often you put your postcode in and it gives you an address pick list, so easy to hit the wrong one or not read it correctly

It's usually cock-up rather than conspiracy....

[mc2fool]

How about in other houses with the same postcode? With the online forms that ask you for a postcode and then give you a list of properties at the postcode to choose from, it's not too difficult with a slip of the mouse to choose the wrong one.

Also, have you tried googling their name? Might be problematic if it's a common one of course. You could also try searching some public registries, just to see if they're using your address for something nefarious. I recently had someone I'd never heard of register a company, and themselves as director, at my home address. Try sticking their name into: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/

Having said that, given the nature of the post received so far, it does sound like your pestered-with-mail-avoidance theory might be right....

[richfool]

Just mark the envelopes: "Return to Sender - Not Known at this address", and put them in a post box.

[Clariman]

How about in other houses with the same postcode? With the online forms that ask you for a postcode and then give you a list of properties at the postcode to choose from, it's not too difficult with a slip of the mouse to choose the wrong one.

Although this is possible I think it very unlikely. Firstly, the properties in the post code have house names, not numbers, so that pretty much rules out typos. It wouldn't rule out a slip of a mouse on a drop down list, but for reasons given below I think that unlikely.

Also, have you tried googling their name? Might be problematic if it's a common one of course. You could also try searching some public registries, just to see if they're using your address for something nefarious. I recently had someone I'd never heard of register a company, and themselves as director, at my home address. Try sticking their name into: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/.

The surname origins would imply someone with family origins in Bangalore. Most properties in the postcode are holiday lets but some are occupied permanently. I cannot think of anyone who would appear to be of that ethnicity living there permanently or as a holiday let owner. That combined with the street having house names not numbers, make me think it is unlikely to be an accident.

There are no people of that surname registered as directors at company house but there is one person of the same first name and surname on LinkedIn who works in London for a worldwide organisation with job title "director".

[tjh290633]

I sometimes get similar mail, which the envelope says is marketing material, addressed to a lady who is unknown to me or my neighbours. We have been the only occupants of this house since it was built. Our postcode covers a small number of houses, and I know most of the occupants.

Each time I put it back in the post marked "Not known at this address - Return to Sender". It is a well known insurer. I think it is L&G, but it is no longer in my hands. I may have to resort to force majeure.

TJH

[ten0rman]

Funnily enough, we have also had a letter from Legal & General marked on the rear as "Marketing Mail" or similar. I have scribbled on the front "Not known at this address" and shoved it back in the postbox which fortuitously, is just across the road.

The letter was addressed to Mrs K. Knowles. As is my usual practice, I have looked both online and in the "Phone Book" and there are indeed two Knowles's on our estate but neither shown as Mrs K. so it could be genuine. But, never mind, the P.O can sort it out, I've done all I intend to do.

ten0rman

p.s. Just before Christmas, we received a card with a name on we didn't recognise. So, the usual checks, then marked as necessary and chucked into the postbox. As it happens, both our next door neighbour, resident for 2 or 3 years, and the neighbour opposite, resident for many decades, were outside chatting, so I approached the long standing resident: "Do you know a Mrs. .....". The short term neighbour says "That's me!" Clang!

[Watis]

For the last two Christmasses, we at Watis Towers have received a Christmas card, together with an enclosed letter detailing highlights of the sender's year.

Nothing unusual about that, you may think. However, neither Mrs Watis or I know the senders! And, on checking with friends and relatives, neither do they.

My wife and I are correctly named and the address on the envelope is correct.

The senders give their first names but not their address so we cannot even contact them to advise them of their mistake.

I'm afraid this is not much help to Clariman, but I hope it provides a little light relief.

Watis

[csearle]

I...and the second has a return address of the Fox Group in Tunbridge Wells (who appear to do 3rd party marketing)...

As you know I live in TW. Should you have any need for some heavy (ha ha) to rock up on a doorstep here then just unleash me*. C.

*Once I'm out of isolation .

[bungeejumper]

The time you know you've got a secret enemy is when the mailshots are about funeral services, old folks' homes, stairlifts and hernia operations.

I once bought a house from the director of a large and very prominent national brewery, who seemed to have had a curious sense of humour. The first I knew of it was that I was deluged with letters from credit card companies, all offering to lend me money at very low rates, and all of them addressed to Mr I.M.A. Crooke.

Then came the pornographic videos..... I shall never know whether the Bumper Botties compendium was any good, because I didn't have a VCR - and somehow it seemed like a bad idea to borrow my girlfriend's.

BJ

[AleisterCrowley]

For the last two Christmasses, we at Watis Towers have received a Christmas card, together with an enclosed letter detailing highlights of the sender's year.


Watis

Ah, that's probably from Brightncheerful.

[richlist]

As a landlord I often receive mail at the rental properties addressed to people who I have never let to or heard of. I've always assumed it's either a mistake or its someone who my tenants have allowed to move in for a few weeks. Either way, it doesn't matter, if they have a return address I mark them not known at this address & post them if no return address they go in the bin.

[CryptoPlankton]

As a landlord I often receive mail at the rental properties addressed to people who I have never let to or heard of. I've always assumed it's either a mistake or its someone who my tenants have allowed to move in for a few weeks. Either way, it doesn't matter, if they have a return address I mark them not known at this address & post them if no return address they go in the bin.

You should really re-post the ones without a return address too - Royal Mail have a centre where they open such letters to try to identify the sender. Apart from being the morally preferable option, it isn't breaking the law, whilst binning mail potentially is...

[UncleEbenezer]

Sometime, I put aaa.bbb@ccc.com as my email address, so huge apologies if that is anyone's real address.

An @example.com address serves that purpose. Example.com is (and always has been) reserved for illustrative use: you can be sure it's not some poor sod's real address.

Having said that, my first call in situations where an email address is required but not merited is not.me@not.here .

Apropos the OP, I always ignore mail to names that can't be traced. Doing otherwise is unlikely to help: I could point to my previous address (2013-19, rented), where I took the trouble to deliver mail for the previous occupants (a couple) to the Agent in the vain hope they might have a forwarding address. It didn't save me from a scary incident when five(!) police turned up on my doorstep looking for him and weren't accepting that I wasn't him. Nor from a strange though less-scary visit from two ladies looking for her and claiming to be family.

[JohnB]

Psychologists in America sent out Christmas cards to fake names at addresses all across the country. They found that a certain number of people sent back cards, and more were received if the fake name sounded important, like Dr. X. Some kept sending Christmas cards for years....

[richlist]

As a landlord I often receive mail at the rental properties addressed to people who I have never let to or heard of. I've always assumed it's either a mistake or its someone who my tenants have allowed to move in for a few weeks. Either way, it doesn't matter, if they have a return address I mark them not known at this address & post them if no return address they go in the bin.

You should really re-post the ones without a return address too - Royal Mail have a centre where they open such letters to try to identify the sender. Apart from being the morally preferable option, it isn't breaking the law, whilst binning mail potentially is...

I've already made a decision......and I'm not about to change it.
If I don't recognise the name and there isn't a sender's address its going in the BIN.

[Watis]

Psychologists in America sent out Christmas cards to fake names at addresses all across the country. They found that a certain number of people sent back cards, and more were received if the fake name sounded important, like Dr. X. Some kept sending Christmas cards for years....

My other postal anecdote is similar.

Some years ago I received a Christmas card out of the blue from a friend of a friend (FOAF). I hadn't seen the FOAF for maybe ten years.

It seemed only courteous to send him a card in return, but I've never had his address. So I explained to our mutual friend that I'd received a card from the FOAF and could he let me have the FOAF's address so I could send him a card in return.

The mutual friend replied that he thought that very strange. Turned out that the FOAF had asked him for my address a few days earlier, saying that I had sent him a card!

Watis

[CryptoPlankton]

As a landlord I often receive mail at the rental properties addressed to people who I have never let to or heard of. I've always assumed it's either a mistake or its someone who my tenants have allowed to move in for a few weeks. Either way, it doesn't matter, if they have a return address I mark them not known at this address & post them if no return address they go in the bin.

You should really re-post the ones without a return address too - Royal Mail have a centre where they open such letters to try to identify the sender. Apart from being the morally preferable option, it isn't breaking the law, whilst binning mail potentially is...

I've already made a decision......and I'm not about to change it.
If I don't recognise the name and there isn't a sender's address its going in the BIN.

Fair enough, I was just pointing out that the lack of a sender address doesn't mean the end of the possibility of the intended communication being made. If you don't care then I imagine it's unlikely your actions will ever be life changing for anyone, and the chances of ever being sued/prosecuted are probably minuscule.

[Wuzwine]

Hi,

My house has a two word name and no number. There are 2 others with the same first name, one also with the same street and postcode.

I have had post for both the other ones and as I know the bloke in the same postcode, I asked him and he admitted getting the wrong name from a drop down list. He has done it a few times over the years!! Rarer, but as the postie calls here first he sometimes gets one mixed up with mine.

The other house is well over a mile away but a carrier left a large box on my doorstep. Drove it to the correct house.

Is there a house with a similar name in either the post town or especially first part of postcode eg ZZ35 8!!?

I always "Return to Sender" anything I don't recognise whether it has a return addres or not, as I believe they go to Royal Mail in Belfast? to be opened.

I hope most people do that.

Wuz