A friend bought and moved into a house in May. She told me that a woman came to her door yesterday and said that she used to live there and she has an id that is coming in the mail and wanted to leave her phone number so my friend could call her when the id arrived. The house was apparently empty for about six months before my friend bought it (a flipper was renovating it), but before that, the same family had lived there for more than 20 years.
This might be legit, but it sounds really weird. Anybody have any thoughts on what might be going on here?
Six months empty? What kind of ID takes six months to arrive? Even passports take only a month or two.
Sounds like they plan to do something dodgy with the ID. And it will have your address on it.
I’d talk to the local cops.
Back in college when my…uh…friends were getting fake IDs (actually real IDs from the DMV, obtained with fake birth certificates), they always used a friend’s address. If something goes wrong, at least make it a little harder for the cops to locate the owner of the fake ID. I feel pretty confident that the same thing is happening here.
Talking to the cops won’t do much good right now. If an ID does actually arrive, I’d contact the issuing authority, let them know the person doesn’t live here but had stopped by recently, and then they can deal with it in whatever way they see fit.
If it were me, I would probably just keep whatever fake ID arrived. You never know when that type of thing might be useful.
No need to inform this woman - or anyone else - of anything.
I think the easiest thing to do would be to write RETURN TO SENDER/ADDRESSEE MOVED NO FORWARDING ADDRESS on the envelope and put in a (real, not your) mailbox. Don’t call her and if she contacts you again tell her it never showed up.
It could be real and just easier for her to get a new ID this way than to try and convince someone to send it to her current address that they don’t have on file. But it seems strange since she’s had 6 months to clear it up.
My WAG is that she’s been using the address for this abandoned house for the last 6 months…I wouldn’t be surprised if more stuff for her shows up (unless it’s just her go to address for random black market/dark web type stuff).
However, I’d still return it if you feel at all odd about it. Best to do that instead of worrying that she’s getting mail delivered there and is going to try to claim squatter’s rights, which would require you to evict her.
I mean, that’s probably what I’d do to, but I got raked over the coals about 15 years ago when I mentioned on this board that I tossed all the previous homeowner’s junk mail that continued to show up for years. I sure they’re very concerned about the local Dodge dealership advertising truck month.
Just mark it “Return to sender, not at this address” and put it back in the mail.
Not your friends problem.
I just want to say that it may not be any kind of scam, at all. The OP did not say what kind of ID it is, but I suspect it is a state-issued photo ID, like the ones you need to be able to vote if you don’t have (or want) a drivers license. With the Real ID rules they have in place, depending the state, if your previous ID expires it can be difficult to renew it. That is, to change your address, all you have to do is show your valid ID and proof of your new address. If it expires, however, you have to do the whole birth certificate, original SS card, as well as proof of residence. They probably can renew the expired ID by simply paying the renewal fee and have them mail it to her. Of course, they can only mail it to the address they have on file, which would explain the whole thing.
Obviously, the OP’s friend is under no obligation to help this woman (and I am not sure I would if I found myself in the same situation), but not helping may prevent her from being able to vote (along with a lot of other hassles) in November, particularly if she has to get a replacement birth certificate and SS card. Those can take a while to get. Since this woman really needs to get all this straightened out, with or without the OP’s friend helping her out, I would probably mark it “Not at this address” and return it to the Post Office, and just deny knowing anything about it if the lady was to come back later.
If an ID does indeed show up, I’d be nosy enough to open the envelope and check. If it was indeed something needed for voting, I’d call her. If it was a fake ID, I’d return it (or just toss it) and tell her it never came.
Though the more I think of it, if your friend doesn’t call her, the Random Woman 'll assume it didn’t come and she’ll never hear from her again.
(But my question for the Devious Doper Community is “Ok, gang, any way the OP and her friend can make millions off this Random Woman?”)
This. At best, there is weird incompetence happening here, at worst, some sort of ID fraud that could reflect badly on the actual resident of the address. It could actually be that this person has some intent to defraud your friend in some way (I can’t quite work out the details of that, but it’s probably possible - especially if it’s a package that requires a signature - your friend signs for something valuable, but isn’t getting to keep that thing; the interloper takes it and disappears; the sender wants payment - they’re probably going to lean on the person who signed)
If I were the friend, I might ask the ‘former resident’ for a lot more details and ask some pretty pointed questions.
Then I could decide if the story seemed legit, and how to handle it from there.
using thick magic-marker … cross out the address … write “R.T.S.” above the address … take pic with cell-phone … deposit envelope at post-office. if she comes back … tell her the post-office recommended sending rts.
Not millions, but the obvious one would be to demand payment to release the delivered item, but assuming there is something shady going on here, I think it’s better not to create any kind of connection, debt, grudge, etc.
It could just be someone using the address because the house was empty. It could be something essentially innocent, just a homeless person trying to make their way up in the world, but it is most likely something illegal if it actually has to do with the mail at all. This also could be the start of a larger con, a new homeowner is the target of legitimate salespeople already, companies that provide home services keep an eye on all home purchases, no reason more nefarious operators wouldn’t as well.
Your friend should do a return to sender. This sounds like a scam of some sort. If legit, the woman can call the organization and have them update her address. Even if not a scam, the ID should not have the friend’s address on it. That ID should really be destroyed. The woman might use the ID to fill out forms or whatever and the bills could end up going to your friend’s house. If your friend calls the woman back, have her use anonymous call block so that this woman doesn’t get your friend’s phone number.
I wonder if this was a squatter’s scam? Find an empty house, get an ID which has that address, and then she can say she lives there.
Huh. Did not figure you for a subversive. 
I appreciate all the responses. I personally side with the return to sender advice. My friend talked to a neighbor yesterday who said the name the woman gave (he didn’t see woman when she was talking to my friend) is the name of someone who lived at the house before. So, my friend has the same thought as excavating_for_a_mind that this is a renewal and the woman didn’t want to jump through the hoops of updating her information. I hope she’s right. If not, I’ll come back in a couple of months and update this thread with the actual scam that was perpetrated and how much my friend’s bail was.
I forgot to mention that in my post that I said it should be taken to a real mailbox (not the one in front of your house) so she can’t grab it out of your mail if she sees it in there.
But I’d still stick with claiming you didn’t get it, not telling her you sent it back. OP’s friend could, if pressed to say anything, say that since their change of address went through all the mail for other people stopped showing up. Seems believable to me.
Assuming she has no reason not to believe the neighbor, maybe I wouldn’t have a problem with her doing this ‘just this once’ and hoping/assuming she gets her address updated wherever it needs to be updated so it doesn’t become a habit.
That fact that she went to the door (instead of snooping through the mail) and gave your friend her contact info does suggest that this is less sketchy than it appears. Not that she couldn’t be using the fake name on the fake ID and a burner phone, but I have to think if I was having dark web/illegal things mailed to an abandoned address that now has people living there, I’d call it a lost cause and not risk identifying myself to the new homeowners.
Not me. I don’t want somebody who’s not living in my house using an ID with my address on it. Even if there’s no ill intent (of which there’s no guarantee), if this person were to run into certain kinds of trouble, who knows who might show up at your door?
Like the SWAT team? The son of the people who lived in our house before was a no-goodnik, and when my wife was across the street with our dog the SWAT team rolled up, guns at the ready. Even though we had been there a decade he was still using the address. She let them check the house and they were on their way.
As for delayed junk mail, we’re still getting some mail from the former resident 25 years later. Some of these companies never give up.