I discovered today that I have an account with a company called Additions Direct and, although I don’t owe them any money, there is only £971 of the £1,000 credit limit available. This is because there is an unfulfilled order on the account – for an “X Factor Waistband Amplifier” which, at £25 (and looking like something utterly dreadful), is yet to be shipped – plus £3.95 delivery.
Except that I don’t have an account with them, having not used this company to purchase anything, and having not set up any such account.
Oh dear.
Being so soon after my issues with Barclaycard, which is now pretty much sorted, I have to assume it’s the same person behind that who has set this account up. Presumably, the small order is an initial test order to see if they can get away with it, before blowing the full £1,000 and hoping I’d get chased for the debt.
It’s arguably lucky, then, that I’ve become aware of it before the order has been fulfilled.
Well, sort of.
I rang Additions Direct on their main number in order to get this sorted out, get the account and that initial order cancelled. After spending more than ten minutes waiting to be put through to an operator, I was told they have a specific department for dealing with such things, and I was given a freephone number to ring in order to speak to them. However, I was told that this number was only answered from 8am until 6pm. It was after 6pm that I became aware of this fraudulent account and made the call.
I tried anyway – I rang their freephone number, and got a recorded message repeating that their hours are from 8am until 6pm, so I’m going to have to ring them in the morning.
Meanwhile, they’ll happily receive calls to place orders, etc. – including from potential fraudsters and identity thieves – between the hours of 7am and 11pm.
