Imagine coming home to find your mailbox has been broken into. At first glance it seems as if someone simply went through the contents of your mailbox. In fact, this could be the final stage of a more complex order fraud. In this case, criminals use your address to order goods and then steal the collection slip from your mailbox in order to remove the corresponding package from the collection station. However, if you ever find yourself in this situation, don't worry: the subsequent invoices and reminders are not your responsibility!
Detecting the fraud
In many cases of order fraud, victims only become aware of it when they receive packages they never ordered or when they encounter invoices and reminders for orders they are unaware of. The perpetrators are now increasingly targeting the collection slips that allow access to the respective parcel collection station. A broken mailbox is often the first indication that something is wrong. In most cases, victims only realize that they have become the target of such fraud when the invoices and reminders arrive. Here's what you can do if someone has ordered goods on your behalf.
Process of the fraud
The fraudsters use the addresses of strangers to place online orders. You choose the “purchase on account” option so you don’t have to pay anything in advance. Once the goods are shipped, the perpetrators will receive notifications to their own email addresses. You therefore know exactly when a package will arrive and whether it has been left at a collection point. After the package has been left at the pickup station, the fraudsters break into the victim's mailbox, take the pickup slip and collect the package. At this point the fraud is successfully completed for the perpetrators.
At first, the victims only notice the mailbox being broken into. Later, invoices arrive from the online shops, which assume that the victim has ordered the goods and has not yet paid for them.
The responsibility of the victims
If you become a victim of such fraud, you are not obliged to pay the outstanding invoices. Nevertheless, it is important to inform the affected online shops about the fraud so that they can stop the outstanding claims. Some shops accept a simple statement, while others require an affidavit or a police report.
How to protect yourself
Some victims are repeatedly targeted by order fraud. The companies or payment service providers could request a new report for each fraudulent order in order to stop the claims. This can be very time consuming for the victims. In such cases, we recommend filing a general report against unknown persons for repeated order fraud. For future fraudulent orders, this report may be presented to companies and should result in the claims being dropped.
Source: Watchlist-Internet
Also read from the consumer advice center: What to do if criminals shop in your name?
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