Someone has opened a Monzo account using my address

Help
#1

Hi there,

Someone has opened up a Monzo account using my address (but not my name?)

I called up Monzo and gave them the name on the card and I was told that they couldn’t tell me any more due to data protection and that I would need to contact each of the credit agencies to see if an account had been set up.

This seems like madness, someone can set up an account using my address but the bank who let them do it cannot tell me if in fact I have been scammed, they can see if they have an account against my address but won’t tell me, the owner of the property.

I assume this is a common problem given the lax security, can anyone else with experience of this advise me what to do? I have logged into the credit agency websites and viewed my reports but it may take time for this to appear. It also dawns on me that the credit reports are against my name not my address, how do I check whether someone has taken credit out against my address?

thanks in advance

Replacement card Order
#2

Could it not be as simple as someone made a mistake when signing up and put down the wrong house or flat number?

No-one has taken credit out against your address. As you realise in the last paragraph, credit is take out against a name (a person), not a place.

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#3

thanks for the response,

It could be as simple as that but Monzo weren’t able to provide any assurance at all due to data protection and directed me to checked my credit report for the next while.

I assume when they looked up the name on the card they could see if a mistake was made but as they can’t tell me its my problem,

So, in your view there should be no harm from someone using my address alone? different story if it was my name and address I imagine

#4

Credit isnt automatic, they need to use the bank account for a while and then apply for an overdraft or loan. But the last part of account set up is confirming address by activating the card. Which they can’t do because you have it.
I presume they’ve asked you to check your credit report in case there’s anything else set up with your address. But as far as the Monzo account is concerned there’s nothing more the account holder can do

Not much else they could tell you. You know the name from the card and the address they set it up at was your address

#5

Thanks Rat_au_van. Even if they had told me as much as you had it would have been helpful but they weren’t prepared to do that, it was my problem

appreciate the input

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#6

As Rat_au_van has explained, it’s unlikely to be a real problem. Because you have the card and not the person who opened the account, they are going to be limited in what they can do. Not only that, I would be surprised if Monzo haven’t put any kind of block on the account following your report to mark it as needing further verification.

I am not a lawyer, so can’t promise what I have to say is 100% accurate, but: as I said before, credit is taken out against a person, not an address. There should be no harm to your own credit record.

If credit could be taken out against an address and not a person, it would be a potential nightmare for anyone moving into a house that isn’t a new build!

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#7

Destroy the card. Just in case they decide to call round for it and say they put the wrong address. They might have but if it was me I’d destroy it

#8

I mean, it just sounds like they input the wrong address. Do you have a neighbour on the same street of that name who may have mis-typed the house number?

I’m not one to immediately jump to the conclusion it’s dodgy. That said, it would be more likely if they subsequently turned up asking for the card.

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#9

thanks both, yes, I have destroyed the card

no real harm done it seems, thanks again

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#10

Makes me wonder how well KYC is working . How have monzo verified this persons address? Passport? Driving licence?

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#11

I did query that but the lady on the phone said an address wasn’t necessary if they used a passport for example, seems a bit lax but as per the others it doesn’t seem like they could do anything with it anyway (and most likely it was a mistake)

#12

Sending the card to the person’s address is part of the KYC verification. In this case, the customer is going to be unable to complete it fully.

ETA: not going to reply further on this point as a Monzo staff member has stepped in.

#13

So presumably the proof of residence provided at sign up (passport/drivers licence etc) wasn’t checked properly or was a false instrument?

#14

I can’t go into the specifics, but we have various ways of verifying addresses although (fairly obviously) one of those includes activating the card. If somebody ever knocks on your door (and I’m using the plural you!) saying they had a card delivered there by accident don’t hand it over!

We will take action internally when somebody reports this to us, but obviously I can’t go into what that is :relaxed:

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#15

thanks Dan

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#16

No problem at all, thank you for reporting this to us :relaxed:

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#17

I wonder if this is related to the posts that appear from time to time whereby someone wants their first card sending to a different address, saying they have moved since applying :thinking:

#18

It’ll be interesting to see if a second card turns up!

It’s been a long time since I’ve done it so I can’t remember but when you order your first card, does the “your card is on the way” screen mention the address you’ve had it sent to?

#19

This is interesting!

The thing that bugs me about this sort of thing (and it’s not limited to Monzo) is when people blithely say “because data protection”. It’s lazy and formulaic and doesn’t actually mean anything.

I’d much rather companies said something like “thanks for letting us know, we’ve made a record. Unfortunately as it’s not your account we can’t tell you any more about what we’ll do with the information but it’s useful to us. Here’s what you should do [don’t hand over cards, check your credit reports etc]”

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#20

It is partly data protection, but also partly about not revealing our internal rules to prevent people manipulating them.

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