28 May I received someone else’s mail from a bank. What should I do?

Q. I received mail at my address with someone else’s name on it from a bank. This is not the first time and I would like your advice on what I should do. I’m not sure if this is an attempt at identity theft. I recognize the name. It is a person who lives in Minnesota related to my ex-wife and she is no longer in contact with him. I’m not sure how I should proceed.
— Concerned

A. Ugh.

The Bamboozled column wrote about this issue before, and it ends up putting the person who owns the home — you — in a tight spot.

You should take the mail to a local bank branch and explain the situation. Chances are, they will tell you they cannot divulge any information for customer privacy purposes. In the case we wrote about, a bank employee tried to call the person using the phone number on the account, but they could not get through.

The bank then offered to stop sending the statements to the home, but because it would not remove the address from the account, that wouldn’t have helped.

The statements kept coming, and eventually, a bank manager said they’d ask a supervisor to suspend the account — a way to force the account owner to call in eventually.

She filed a police report, and police called the bank. But the bank said there was nothing it could do because crazy as it sounds, it’s not illegal to use someone’s address unless it’s with the intent to use it for fraudulent purposes.

So the homeowner asked Bamboozled to help, and we contacted the bank.

It somehow — we don’t know how — figured out how to update the address on the account and it gave the homeowner a free year of identity theft protection.

The bank eventually said it was “an isolated internal error resulted in the wrong address being inserted in the bank’s computer system.”
So what should you do? If you don’t feel like you can reach out to the person, start with the bank. But you should also get a police report, especially because you said you’re concerned about identity theft.

If the bank and the police can’t get it cleared up, send an email to Bamboozled at kpricemueller@njadvancemedia.com.

Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com.

This story was originally published in May 2025.

NJMoneyHelp.com presents certain general financial planning principles and advice, but should never be viewed as a substitute for obtaining advice from a personal professional advisor who understands your unique individual circumstances.