Winter or Summer

A day of mixed emotions as some vile person has managed to buy not 1 but 3 mobile phone contracts in my name! I only found out when the contracts arrived in the post. Luckily they didn't have my bank account number. So a long time on the phone trying to sort it all out. It's with the fraud department of the phone companies now. I've also reported to the police's anti fraud squad.

Apparently people find peoples names and address on the electrol roll as it is a public record and look at other public records for dates of birth! Then they go to a website that gives away false bank details for fun (!). With all this information they go into phone shops, buy expensive contracts with the details and walk out with the phones! Then when the direct debit fails guess who the debt collectors go after? The poor person whose details they stole.

Hopefully I've caught it early. They only bought the phones Tuesday and now I've notified the companies but it can take 30 days to sort out (they have to investigate). I've learnt so much in the past day. Now I have registered on a site which tells companies to check my details carefully to ensure it is me, it makes them give more stringent checks. Fingers crossed.