Next Courier Intercept Scam (Next as in the shop)

A few bullets for a scam that was tried on my RL home address.

6th of February we received 3 catalogues from Next a shopping chain in the UK that sells predominately clothes but also has a home furnishings section. Addressed to a Mr A Ogundogba thought nothing more of it. (there are only 2 Mr A Ogundogbas in the UK both Kent/London area)

2 weeks later our 75 year old widowed neighbour asked if we had received catalogues from Next as she had but she also received a letter confirming a Next account had been set up for Mr A Mohammed.

Doh the penny dropped it was a courier intercept scam. I think they chose our houses as we are detached and everyone lives at the rear as it is South facing.

A couple of phone calls with Next and it transpires our house and our 2 next door neighbours had been targeted.

Not 419 but we need to be aware of this type of scam.

An interesting post and it's useful to know about new scams as they develop.

There are quite a few different scams that utilise couriers in various ways. Apart from that it is disturbing that some companies appear to be somewhat lax in their security procedures. I note that credit reference checks are supposed to be made in this case, which makes it difficult to understand why this didn't cause this account application to be rejected, and I can't understand why you got 3 catalogues.

In the past few years one foreign payday loan company that operated in the UK lost a million pounds and went bust through having incredibly lax procedures and I think too many companies rely on simply passing debts to recovery agents, seemingly not understanding that without having properly identified their customer, they have no case.

You did exactly the right thing to get the matter closed, as I'm sure you know, but personally any catalogue I receive that I hadn't ordered would go straight in the bin without further thought.

Simply because someone uses my name and/or address doesn't put me under any legal obligation.

Catalogues did go straight in the recycling bin after the wife had flicked through them. The 3 catalogues where Spring & Summer Collection, Childrens Collection and Home furnishings. 2 of the catalogues were about 2” thick and hardbacks so not cheap to produce.