Odd correspondence and bills showing up at moms. Anyone else have same experience?

Yes! We are currently in a struggle to protect our credit rating from bills that were not submitted to our insurance companies before being presented to us . . . the bills look official but there is no indication that they were ever submitted to the insurance company. I am very concerned about Identity theft and insurance fraud if any information is given to the companies presenting what seems to be fraudulent bills from 'caregiver' organizations that we have not contacted for many months.
Also, we interviewed 3 palliative care firms with the third firm saying it was not time for palliative care but the first firm initiating billing before we accepted thier service . . . we did not like them and did not contract for their service yet they billed the insurance company. How do we stop these predators???

1st thing I would do since you are moving Mom soon anyway is start forwarding her mail to your address or get a PO Box for her mail. Return any mail that still arrives at her address and not in her name with the address crossed off and addressed unknown. Also notify the local Postmaster that this has been happening. Once you move Mom and have cleared out her residence if no one is moving in right away notify the local police and ask them to keep a eye on things because the residence is empty and you are concerned about someone breaking in and squatting. Do you know any of the neighbors? After mother passed it took us about 9 months to get her house ready to sell , mainly because we lived out of state, the neighbors were great one even parked his car there so it looked like someone was coming and going.

I had estranged relatives have mail forwarded to property I own out of town to avoid bill collectors. Worse, one had son who was incarcerated and gave the address so that their address would not show up on public arrest records. It took a personal meeting with the Postmaster and county sheriff office but it has
never happened again.

Cherokee, what an exasperating and frustrating experience that must have been!   I started getting angry just reading it.  There's no excuse for the run-around you got from the utility company.

I'm glad you got action after threatening them.    I think I would have been frustrated, angry, disgusted and fed up, and probably would have said something, "watch the news tonight.  You might be the lead story!"

Just wondering though...does your state have a utility oversight organization?  Ours does, although I don't know how fast it would act if I were in a similar situation.

I hope nothing like this ever happens to you again, or to anyone else for that matter.

I received a letter that I opened before seeing it wasn't for me. Glad I did too. It was to inform the person using my address that the transfer of my electric service to another company would be on a certain date and to give me my new acct. number. I called them and gave them the acct. number and explained I DID NOT request a transfer and didn't want one. I was told I did. Arguing for an hour didn't work. I called my electric provider and explained what was happening. They told me I was pretty much out of luck and to call the other provider. about 4 days and dozens for phone calls later, I heard a utility truck outside my window. He was cutting my electricity off and gave me a bill for over $500 for early termination of my plan. I had been with them for over 40 years!!! I tried to stop him with no luck. I finally called my original provider again and got a supervisor. Again the argument of who did call. She said maybe someone I rented a room to, NO. 3 bedroom house, 1 bath, 1 kitchen, 2 kids and a husband and no renters. OH, well maybe a family member, NO! I told her I wanted my original electrical provider and not someone elses. I finally threatened to hire a lawyer. I got my electric back the next day but, they gave me a new account and I had to setup my average monthly pay plan all over again. The $500 was reduced to about $75 that was the final bill on the old account number. The culprit was finally caught when I talked to our mailman. The woman was hispanic, spoke very limited english and lived 3 blocks south of me. I had the police go talk to her and never received a bill from the other electric company but did get an apology letter from them.
So, report this asap. And the best to you. I still get moms mail at my address and she has been gone nearly 3 years.

Glad you are reporting it...it is fraud it seems, postal at a minimum. The advice here is wise, marking the envelope and putting it back in the mail. Let the senders take further action, you would have no liability I would think, but might want to run it by an elder law attorney...

Usedup1959: Put on the envelope "not at this address" and place back in your mother's mailbox as outgoing mail. Let an elder law attorney handle the legal aspect of this.

Don't open the mail and on the envelope write "not at this address" and place it back in your mail box and put the flag up. If you opened it put it back into another envelope and address it where it came from and I always enclose the original envelope so they know how I received the wrong mail. They will be returned to whomever mailed it and it will be up to them to determine where this person now lives or contact their post office.
I get mail every once in a while from former residents and after I write that on the envelopes and the mail person picks them up it seems I get fewer and fewer each each time I write that "not at this address and put back in the mail box and eventually they quit coming.

You can also find more information at: www.wikihow.com/Stop-Mail-for-Previous-Residents

Immediately contact in phone followed up by confirming written letter to the place mail comes from and state the facts. Tell them to stop sending the mail at once and correct their records. Talk to the post office, perhaps the Better Business Bureau for advice beyond what I stated. Keep a paper trail and records if something happens.

Don't feel bad, we have lived at our house for 40 yrs because we built it. i received stuff for someone never even heard of using my address, it came from an insurance company. its basically junk mail and not much else you can do other than throw it away. For the cell phone bill......i would write on the outside of envelope, refused and return to sender.....this person does not live here. i hope you get things resolved. wishing you luck.

You should be concerned because many places - like the DMV - will allow use of a utility bill to verify address in order to obtain ID with that address. You need to file a report with the police immediately. Also you need to check with your county that the title for the property has not been transferred to another name. They do that here in Durham because the government offices do not verify and it can be difficult to straighten out. Also you should consider directing your mother's mail to a PO Box. Having bills sent to her address does the con artists no good if they cannot pull them out of the mailbox, so they probably are going through her mailbox.

I placed a credit freeze with all three agencies and I sent a letter to the California Lifeline agency and let them know I think that the address is being used fraudulently.

I also plan on going to Social Security office next week with copies of the POA and see about becoming representative payee.

I feel better with these safeguards in place.

all this caregiving thing has been like trying to roll a ball of jello uphill. It’s taken months and months to resolve problems created by my parents poor choices and by moms resistance to making any choices and changes. Moving her to a facility next week since we finally have most of the issues resolved. She says that we just want to get rid of her and does not understand she is out of money and we can’t take her to our homes.

Just praying that this move is a little relief for all. Us and her included.

Do you have POA? Is yes then go to each of the 3 credit reporting sites and put a freeze on mom's accounts. Then contact the companies directly and tell them about the letters.

1. Alert the post office; see if there is a fraud-scam dept.
2. Mark it returned to sender "Addressee do not live here"
3. Call Police.

The first thing you should do is call the cell phone company and inform them that the address is yours and that you suspect fraud. Then run the credit check through your Mom's credit card or bank, usually a free service. Don't panic, just take one step at a time. Keep us posted.

Sounds as though someone is trying to set up residency or more by using your mom’s address. When my husband and I were relocating to my mom’s and wanted to change residency to her state, we changed our address for some of our bills to her address. Then when we moved, we went to the DMV and using the mail, we were able to register with real ID and our vehicle. Reporting to police and asking next steps as well as reporting to DMV would be my first move. Also contacting Council on Aging and seeing what they think is going on and next step. Pray that you get the “smart one” so you can expedite your efforts. I am hoping that the property is safe but you really need to get on this immediately. Take pictures or make copies of the envelops and also your mom’s mail. You are creating a file and keep a timeline as you go too. I put my timelines on a calendar with whom I call and when and the number I called. I also get the name and what was said. Put in direct quotes as much as you can.

I would most certainly get a credit report run. Talking with the lawyer could be useful as well, but make sure you run the credit reports. Please don't be too anxious, just take one logical step at a time.

You can run credits checks for free. I think you may be allowed one free one a year. Your Credit Card may allow it.

For a small fee you can run a background check yourself. I use BeenVerified.

File a police report. Seriously.

You are on the right track to notify the authorities. Otherwise, I would "write return to sender and no such person at this address" and return in mail.

Since you are moving your mom soon, enlist her neighbors to keep an eye on her place and notify you of anything suspicious.

Years ago while living in MA, I had to have surgery at a major Boston hospital. My Dad and stepmom came up from FL to help me post-op. After a couple of weeks, they returned. They called to tell me that a bill from the hospital with my name and their address had arrived. Within a month, they were receiving my nursing journals, and much of my mail. Not with the yellow 'change of address' sticker, but typed in as though I lived there.

I contacted the head of the IT dept at the hospital to tell her that the only way my name and their address in FL could be connected was that I had listed them as emergency contacts prior to my surgery. Therefore, either she had an employee selling names and addresses or the system had been hacked! Dead silence on the phone. I had to ask if she was still there. Horrified was her response. She said she needed time to run a security check and would get back to me. Supposedly, all was clear. Personally, I have my doubts.

I contacted all of my journals, etc to ask where they got the change of address. No one knew! It took me over a year to straighten it out.

Ask for the Post Master of the regional area, credit reports and put fraud alerts on all credit cards. Monitor everything. Ignore the "it's a felony to open someone else's mail" advise!

Twice in my life I've had mail delivered where the envelope was slit then taped. The first time was in nursing school in Boston. As we were all poor, parents often sent us a few dollars (hey, it was in the 60's!). I walked up to the post office and spoke to the Post Office Manager with the envelope. He contacted me a few weeks later. It turned out that one of his employees had a ring with a sharp pin on the underside, had his shirt unbuttoned. When he saw mail to our dorm, he figured it was money. He'd slit the envelope, take the money, reseal. They got him on tape and charged him!!!

Take this very seriously.

We have Credit Karma, part of our TurboTax package, ProtectMyID through AAA, and another one through the federal government. These all alert me if there is anything happening with our accounts. And as others have said, get one or all three of the credit reporting agencies' reports (maybe stagger them every four months as you get one free* from each agency each year), and contact every credit card to flag for any suspicious activity. I would go in-person to the cell phone company and show them exactly what you've received. And yes, do file the police report.

*You do not have to pay for your annual credit report. If you go to a website that has a charge, then you are on the wrong website. From Mary Hunt, EverydayCheapskate.com -- "get a free physical copy of your credit report (annualcreditreport.com, the only source for free credit reports, as authorized by federal law) to see exactly what’s on it."

Postman here said if it clearly has your address, whether it is mail or packages, and you did not solicit, you can open to determine source.

I would definitely look into this further. Freeze all three credit bureaus.

I can tell you an interesting thing that happened to my mom and dad. It’s pretty funny! Many years ago, I was visiting my mom and dad in their home. Someone at my dad’s work was having his mail sent to to my parents home.

This man said he was planning a ‘big surprise’ trip for his wife and in order to make sure that she didn’t find out about it, he needed the mail sent elsewhere. So, my dad told him it was okay to use their address.

So, different travel literature and letters addressed to this man, started arriving at my parents house. My mom placed them in a neat stack on the living room end table for him to pick up. The letters didn’t have a return address and they were in regular envelopes, not business stationery.

My mom thought it was weird and she had a funny feeling about it.
She got really curious, but did not want to open someone else’s mail.

Well, my oldest brother was visiting them one afternoon. Mom couldn’t shake the feeling that she had about those letters. So, my crazy brother opened one the letters. They were from a woman that my dad’s coworker was having an affair with. He took the letter into the kitchen to show my mom.

My dad was ‘true blue’ with my mom, and she was faithful to him. Daddy was the guy who went straight home after work. He never stopped off for a drink. Mom was always home with dinner cooked, and so on.

Anyway, it rubbed mom the wrong way that this man lied to my father, saying he was planning a trip for his wife for their anniversary, when in reality, he was planning a romantic get away with his lady friend. Well, my brother tells mom not to worry about a thing! LOL

When dad’s coworker arrived at my parents house to pick up the mail, my brother stepped out on the porch. He told the man never to use my parents address again. Mom said that there was shouting back and forth, but she heard my brother say, “Okay, but if you are angry about me ‘accidentally’ opening your mail, I suppose that I will have to tell your wife about your ‘surprise trip’ for your anniversary!”

The man left the porch and mom and dad never got any more mail addressed to this man ever again. I wonder if the man found another address to use. Hahaha 🤣 Or, if he decided to end the affair after my brother’s talk with him about ruining his surprise.

I started getting weird stuff at Moms after her death. Perfume, contact lenses and a tote from the New Yorker paper telling me thank u. First time I called the company. They sent me a return tag. Second one I took to the post office. They returned it. Both had first class mail and each a different name. Wasn't cheap to mail them to Moms address. Last one was the tote. Girl at PO told me if I didn't order it, I could keep it. So I did. Never got a billing for any of the stuff. I sold the house at that point so will never know if new owner got anything. Weird thing was, this all started when I agreed to new owners offer. I thought maybe he gave out his new address but all the names were different.

I did have trouble at work. We had been a private residence before we took over as an office years before this incident. Our address was 14 Broadway, town, State zip 00000. We kept getting a bill for a private person, 14 Broad St, our town, 00023. The zip was for a small town next to us. I looked the person up and they actually lived in the small town on that street at that zip. So I wrote on the envelope, wrong town, correct zip. We continued to get them. I called the billing Company, couldn't talk to me I wasn't the customer. I told the mailman. I eventually took the bill to the PO and thats when the problem was taken care of.

Get on the credit reporting agencies, check her accounts, then lock your mom's credit TODAY. Someone is using her information, and locking her credit will prevent anyone from opening any accounts in her name.

Also send each credit agency a registered letter saying your mother has not opened any accounts, nor is anyone authorized to use her address for accounts other than her. Locking her credit will already stop any new accounts, but you should mention that phone bill specifically, too, as not being hers.

Finally, make a police report so they know someone is committing fraud with your mom's address. It's important to have that on record.

The cell phone bill is concerning. Have you called the company to clarify what’s going on? Do you live near her house to see if anyone is is in it? Have the police check it for squatters. Once they have bills come to an address & they live there you may need to evict to get the out. I’d also check for title fraud to make sure that isn’t happening. Good luck!

Usedup, for decades I've received mail for 2 people with the same last name as mine, but who have never lived here.   Calling the soliciting mailer does no good; others send mail anyway.

The cell phone bill could be troubling, and could be that someone else is in fact using your mother's address.   Good idea to file fraud reports.

As to running a credit check, you can contact Equifax, Transunion, or Experian, and not only request a credit report, but you can ask that fraud alerts be added to your mother's files.  That's what I would do.

We’ve certainly received mail at our address that wasn’t for us, including bills. I throw them in my recycling bin and think no more about it. Nothing bad has ever happened