Rose_P

This is such a big forum, that it seems worthwhile to mention this to see if anyone else has had a similar
experience. I'm not sure when it started, but I think it was about the time we moved almost 4 years ago. We started getting junk mail and later even occasional telemarketing calls for a person with our very rare last name and a bogus first name, "Amy".

As far as we know there is no Amy anywhere with our last name. In fact, it's safe to say we know of all the families in the US and some in Finland who have this last name. They are related to my husband by only a few degrees of separation. The ones who are not ourselves and our kids and grandkids are distant cousins, descended from DH's grandfather's brother. There are not too many families that would have such an unusual situation. Clearly, if your name is Smith, and you started getting mail for a John Smith when there is no John in your family, you might think it odd, but it wouldn't set off alarm bells.

In any case, Amy gets lots of offers for various kinds of insurance and such. It just dawned on me that maybe in addition to creating bogus accounts in actual customers' names, Wells Fargo or some other entity may have created bogus family members, or there could be a post office box for Amy that is actually being used for some kind of nefarious purpose. The most likely scenario, it seems to me, is that someone was paid by the name for contact information for advertisers, and they just made one up. The name obviously started appearing on some shared lists because the amount of junk mail for Amy seems to be increasing. Amy even appears, living at our address, if we google ourselves. So far she isn't having a lot of impact on us, doesn't take up any closet space, or eat much (other than ice cream, which quickly disappears). Maybe she's the one who's always hiding my favorite ruler and best scissors.

Should we report this to the Texas Attorney General's office? We have no evidence of actual illegal activity, just a puzzling situation. Has anyone else experienced the sudden arrival of an invisible family member?

quiltsRfun

Have you checked your credit report to see if it's been compromised?

Jingle

Maybe the name Amy is made up using your last name, as in phishing. Just to see if maybe it is a real person, but, just made up.

jokir44

Contact your post office and they will stop delivery. It will take a while and if a new person is running the route they will mess up. It took 2-3 months to get it straightened out at my address.

nativetexan

it wouldn't hurt to try to report it. especially if "it" ever becomes a problem. lots of weird people out there.
when my husband passed away, i saw comments online on his obituary from people he never knew. Trolls? most likely.

IceLeopard

That is strange, but as long as you don't start getting collection agencies calling you because Amy isn't paying her bills, I'd ignore it.

(We got collection calls for "Susan Constant" for several years. She was putting our phone number down on loan applications, etc. We'd had that number for 15 years at that point, so it wasn't a case of her using an old number.)

SillySusan

My daughter had a problem of someone using her name. Apparently the person ran up bills all over the place and DD got calls and letters from collectors. DD explained that she wasn't the person they were looking for, but many of them refused to believe her and kept calling for months... until they either found the real person or just gave up.

Anniedeb

No, but for years we got tons of mail for a "Darcy" with our last name. The funny thing is I purposely made up the name, to see if the "we don't sell our mailing lists" was true or not. It started with one then two, and grew to the point she was listed at our address in one phone book! We still get a piece or two, but now I always mark it "return to sender, deceased". Your case is different though. I think I'd report it, and check my credit report just to be sure.

elnan

About 7 or 8 years ago, a relative ordered a gift basket for us and used both of our first names, which the business ran together and showed as a first name. It took about two years before we began to get catalogs from other businesses using that scrambled first name. As you stated, the businesses say they do not sell lists, Ha, Ha. Years before that we were getting mail addressed to an unknown person where my husbands scrawl had been misread. We would get mail to Mr. and Mrs. Hernadet, then laugh about it. We always knew where that name began. It never occured to either of us that these ghost relatives would follow us around.

quiltingcandy

My parents never lived with us - but for some reason we get mail for both of them My dad passed in 2000 and my mom in 2009. I used to try and send it back but finally stopped wasting my time. What is bizarre - we never got any mail for my DH's parents and they have the same last name as us.
We have no idea who lived here before us, my DH & I have been in this house for 29 years and we still get a boating magazine for someone with a name we don't recognize. At first I contacted the magazine to tell them they had the wrong address - they obviously don't care because they keep coming.