Odd fraud

We have now had yet another letter from the AA thanking us for renewing someone else's cover. This time to a different variation of my wife's name, and for a completely different person.

From what we can tell they are not charging any of our cards or direct debiting any of our accounts, and the AA are saying they are paid.

I can't think what the fraud is that helps anyone saying it was us paying it (well, not quite the right name).

I am obviously not quite devious enough to work out the angle here!


  1. Is the phone number really the AA's number, or a scammer's number?

    Them: Hello, AA, how can I help you?

    You: You sent me this confusing letter...

    Them: I'm sorry about that. To ensure that we refund you any erroneous charges, please confirm your credit card details.

  2. Definitely AA letters, and the AA (on their normal number) confirmed they sent them. Good point though.

  3. Perhaps attempting to establish a paper trail between their credit cards and your wife - so that when they do the inevitable runner, the card companies pursue your wife?

  4. Maybe, but making up first names is not a good way to do that... Just very strange.

  5. Are you sure it's fraud and not just problems with the AA's computer systems - wouldn't be the first time a company has sent out the wrong letters etc...

  6. I suppose it could be - I initially assumed as much then we get another letter, which seems a tad odd to me.

  7. If fraudsters were all intelligent and competent, I'd not be getting badly written scam e-mails claiming to be from the HEAD OF THE UNTIED NATIONNS IN FRANCE, giving me a UK phone number (in the 070 range) and an address in Africa.

    I suspect, though, that the most likely foulup is AA-side; someone's giving a similar name, and they're getting the address wrong.

  8. I would suspect someone incredibly dimwitted who has been "wronged" by the AA and is trying to get back at them.

    "Oh look I've found the name and address of the director of the AA. Lets take out fake policies in his familys' names"

  9. Ooooh, that's an interesting one, albeit a tad "conspiracy nut" in flavour.

  10. I'd imagine they don't want to put their own details on the payment to avoid getting caught, but mainly to avoid being flagged for any historical fraud on their actual name/address or on the details of the real card fraud victim.

    Or perhaps they tried an old card number of yours but the payment was rejected, but they didn't bother changing the address details when putting in a successful card.

  11. Might be a very low risk way of testing for valid cards? You make a test purchase (to a fictitious address) and see if the transaction goes through.

    You can either proactively check (if you have access to the victims account) or you provide a disposable PAYG number to the AA so they call you if it bounces.

    Is the cover different between letters? Are they the lowest level cover or a mix?

  12. We get them all the time for people that lived here years ago.. I suspect they're on auto renewal and they haven't noticed yet. Funnily enough its always the AA... Their record keeping clearly sucks.

  13. Maybe it's so that the car isn't pulled over by the police for being uninsured. It wouldn't be "insured" for long, but probably long enough for a quick cash-only sale.

  14. This is breakdown cover, not insurance. And is for Mrs Kennard, but with odd first names, so not previous occupants... Very strange.

  15. I think it's probably a money laundering for stolen cards scam. I'd guess the angle would be something like:

    1) Stolen (card) payment details
    2) Dodgy bloke down market/pub offers breakdown cover
    3) Claims to be an agent with the AA
    4) Offers cash payment at low low prices "Special deal" (it's worth making a loss if it's not your money to lose)
    5) Puts through online with any plausible surname match found off google
    6) Offer seemingly genuine policy number to "customer"
    7) Vanish before anyone realises it really was too good to be true, and leaving no way to contact the "customers"

  16. I have a friend who chose to register his AA cover at an alternative address in case his car doesn't start in the morning at his house; therefore bypassing the requirement to pay the extra premium of 'Homestart' option yet keeping completely covered.
    Could be another Kennard looking to use your house's surname as a failsafe in case they checked. More likely its an AA screw up.

  17. Hmm, may be worth checking your credit report, in case someone has managed to borrow money in your name. There are other nasty things fraudsters can do, such as use your house as collateral or start a company using your name, bur I don't know how to check those.

  18. Can you rule out an AA/A&A type issue here?

