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A gang of scammers attempted to defraud an entire street in a brazen attempt to con their way into thousands of pounds.
People living on one small road in Warrington, Cheshire, were bombarded with letters and bank cards registered to their properties.
The deluge of correspondence, which continued for weeks, saw 12 addresses targeted as part of scam, with residents left fearing for their homes and livelihoods.
One of those targeted, Paul Harrison, revealed he was becoming ‘increasingly worried’ his identity was being stolen when mysterious letters and bank cards came flying through his letter box in January.
Mr Harrison, who has lived on the street for 22 years, said the letters that came to his home were addressed to a person neither him or his wife had ever heard of.
The first letter was from HSBC and ‘clearly had a bank card in it’, he said.
He took the suspicious post to his nearest HSBC branch and was told to return it to the sender.
However, another similar letter arrived at his house just a few days later which prompted him to contact the bank’s fraud department.
After talking to them, he believed the issue had been resolved, but the letters continued to come.
His worries grew massively when seven letters, a bank card, a pin, overdraft limit warnings and a warning an outstanding debt might be referred to a credit reference agency were posted through his letterbox.
Mr Harrison then spoke to his neighbour Tracy Heaton who revealed she had also received similar post – eight letters addressed to two men who had never lived at her property.
Paul Harrison (pictured), from Warrington, grew ‘increasingly worried’ his identity was being stolen when mysterious letters and bank cards came flying through his letter box in January
Residents in Cheshire discovered their addresses were being used for fraud after scammers targeted their entire street
Ms Heaton worried her home address was being used by a fraudster, adding: ‘I was very concerned about the implications on myself and credit rating.’
She contacted HSBC on multiple occasions, but said she felt ‘fobbed off’, claiming the bank was ‘not taking the appropriate action to stop it’.
In a state of desperation, Ms Heaton reached out to BBC One’s Rip Of Britain programme for help.
The show’s team found at least 12 homes on the street had been targeted with bogus accounts which had all been set up on the same day using common Hungarian names.
The names could possibly belong to people who had their identities stolen or they may have been ‘bought’ by money laundering criminals which would allow the identities of those people to be used to open bank accounts under their names.
Money launderers are known to split large numbers of cash and transfer it to a handful of new bank accounts as a tactic to avoid law enforcement detection.
The sum of money involved in the operation on Mr Harrison and Ms Heaton’s street is unknown and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing from them of any other residents.
Mr Harrison then spoke to his neighbour Tracy Heaton (pictured) who revealed she had also received similar post – eight letters addressed to two men who had never lived at her property
Mr Harrison, who has lived on the street for 22 years, said the letters that came to his home were addressed to a person neither him or his wife had ever heard of
Letters from HSBC with credit cards under unknown names inside were also sent to addresses on the street
A spokesperson for HSBC said it carries out ‘physical and digital checks when an account application is received’ and it always aims to investigate and take appropriate action in a timely manner when fraud is reported or suspected.
The bank apologised to Mr Harrison and Ms Heaton and said its response was not up to the standard ‘customers should expect’.
It added it had performed a review and taken action to ensure this does not happen again.
HSBC also confirmed the fraudulent accounts on the Warrington street had all now been closed.
The bank also urged anyone who receives a letter addressed to someone who does not live at their property to return it by post or take it to a local branch or banking hub.
