Something mysterious is going on in Oosthalen street, in the outskirts of Hooghalen. Residents there have been receiving dozens of bank cards at home for a few months now. These are addressed to unknown names.
“I can’t even pronounce them myself,” says Derk Talens, who has a dairy farm down the street. He has received 22 letters at his address. “We wouldn’t know what to do with them. And why they all end up with us.”
The letters contain bank cards, credit cards and the associated PIN codes. They all come from ING Bank. In total, more than fifty of those letters have been delivered in Oosthalen since October last year.
“I have already received seven letters since Tuesday,” says Bianca Wagt. “And they just keep coming.”
The letters also continue to arrive at her neighbors at Camping Tikvah. “I find this very strange. Who is behind this?” says campsite owner Karin Schaap. “There are criminals going on for the same money. And then they have debts and bailiffs come to my address, while I have nothing to do with it.”
Camp Westerbork Memorial Center is located on the same street and they also received letters there. This would also apply to bank cards, followed a few days later by a letter with the PIN code. A spokesperson reports that they do not know whether it is an error by the bank or a scam.
Several residents have now reported the incident to the police. A spokesperson for the Northern Netherlands Police says they are aware of it, but that it is more a matter for the ING fraud desk. He advises residents to continue reporting it to the bank. “And the advice is to empty the mailbox thoroughly and not to give anything to people who come to pick it up.”
The residents regularly call ING, but say they can’t get any further. Wagt: “We call the bank and they also say that it is strange. The account is then blocked. But the next day there is another one in your mailbox.”
“I think they don’t do enough about this and I think they issue passes to addresses too easily,” says Talens. According to Talens, the bank does not check whether the applicant for the card also lives at the specified address.
ING has announced that it is investigating how this can happen. A spokesperson says that this is ‘obviously not the intention’. They inform residents that they can return the mail as undeliverable.