Update: Lloyd, a Sprint “Customer Experience” Manager, wrote in to let us know that the bill below is indeed legitimate:
The bill in question is not fake and is in fact from a third-party vendor that Sprint has hired to help us with billing wireline charges to a customer who does not have an account with Sprint or to a customer whose local exchange carrier does not have a billing agreement with Sprint.
Although this explains the off-brand look of the invoice, we think Sprint—or perhaps their third-party vendor—should take greater pains to make the billing more seamless. This invoice is sort of like the American Express verification call that sounded remarkably like a social engineering scam—in both cases there were several things that we (and our OPs) interpreted as red flags, and they could have probably been explained away with better communication on the company’s side.
From the original post:
Roderick writes,
My mother received a fake phone bill today. A few interesting notes:
- The number listed was not hers
- The collect call received was never made
- The P.O. box and 800 number are not in Sprint’s database
- The bill stated that the charges would not show up on any other bill.
I suppose that last bit is supposed to snare people who realize that their “Sprint” bill went from vibrant yellow and black to white with a blue table. I was going to wait until the bill was scanned to send this email, but I wanted to make sure that the info went out A.S.A.P.
The guy’s address is listed as:
Sprint
PO Box 600670
Jacksonville FL 32260-0670From the letter:
THE FOLLOWING CALLS WERE COMPLETED USING SPRINT’S NETWORK.
THE CHARGES FOR THESE CALLS WILL NOT BE ON ANY OTHER TELEPHONE
COMPANY BILL. AMOUNTS DUE MAY BE REFERRED TO A COLLECTION
AGENCY IF NOT PAID. PLEASE PAY UPON RECEIPT. THANK YOU.
(Photo: RBerteig)
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So the Nigerians are stepping it up to include mail fraud too?
@Drew5764:
I’m wondering if it is a guy is looking for funds to help pay his defense fund for lawsuits recently? Jacksonville is home of some famous questionable sellers.
@FrugalFreak
robably an AIG executive. You know, since he had to give his multi-million dollar bonus back, guess he figured he’d get his tax-payer funded bonus one way or the other. 
@Drew5764:
Just replying to you so this is at the top of the page, first comment;
[800notes.com]
Looks like these guys have already been called out according to 800notes;
“Transaction Networks, Inc. is a billing company for the telecommunications industry. TNI sends out invoices on calls that are unable to be billed on the consumer’s regular phone bill.”
They have “an unsatisfactory record with the Better Business Bureau due to unanswered complaint(s).”
@Lucky225:
[www.txninc.com]
For more information, please contact Kelli Turney at 904-287-1123
or at kelli@txninc.com
If this guy is legitly scamming folks, this should be easy to find him. PO Boxes need 2 ID’s, and if provided with a court order, we will release name/address information for the box
@s25843: Or more likely, but considering we are all good people here and wouldn’t do this: watch the box wait for the guy to pick up the mail…
@s25843: I think if he does this out of state, the feds can jump on him, right? The OP’s mom was in Florida, where the fake bill came from, but if he were stupid enough to try this out of state, I think he’d find himself in federal crosshairs.
@pecan 3.14159265:
“if he were stupid enough to try this out of state, I think he’d find himself in federal crosshairs.”
I don’t think it matters if it is across state lines are not here. It can still bring the federal crosshairs down. The post office is a federal entity, and he used it to commit his crime.
@pecan 3.14159265: Technically smashing a mailbox with a baseball bat and stealing junk mail from your neighbor a federal crimes. If it has to do with the USPS, it’s federal.
@s25843:
You’d be surprised how easy it is to open a PO BOX in MAJOR cities with virtually no ID.
I recall years ago when I used to have long distance on my home phone I’d get some separate billing for collect calls. It was on my normal bill, and the calls were valid, but they were originated through a carrier other than my own. Is it possible this is something along those lines and its just sent as a separate bill?
@lauy: All the collect calls I was ever billed for were billed THROUGH my own local phone company, even if the call originated through a different carrier. The different carriers didn’t even have my address … they just posted the billing to the phone number.
@lauy: did u read the fucking story at all? seriously? WRONG PHONE NUMBER!!!
PO box… what an idiot…
they can get that info…
@Synth3t1c: oops beaten
All I can say is that unless the details had stuck out it seems completely likely that Sprint (or even other companies) could have sent a bone headed bill like this.
This follows all sorts of fake company fraud. Stop being scammed by always following these steps when paying for something, or giving out your personal info:
If someone calls you, claims to be from company X, and wants money/personal information explain to them you will call back their main number as listed on their website/bill/in the phone book/on 1-800-555-1212 (yes, it’s real). If they protest, ask for a case ID or some other way you can ensure the call will end up with the right department there. If they can’t do that, hang up, it’s a scam. If the offer a different phone number, politely inform them you will not use phone numbers provided until you verify them (with sources like the above).
The same idea applies to bills. Don’t use the address provided on the bill, use the address provided on the website or by the company via phone (as listed on the website/yellow pages/800-555-1212, etc), or the address from your most recent verifiably “real” bill. If it was a scam bill, the worst result is you end up paying too much and you’ll have a credit. But, if you do this, you’ll notice pretty quickly that it’s a scam and check by phoning a verified good phone number anyways.
If everyone would just stop with the implicit trust, the world would be a better place. And software would work better, too. :^D
@shepd:
It’s the same reason social engineering scams are so successful. People always trust in the goodwill of others, especially if that person is wearing the trappings of authority, real or not.
@WraithSama: It’s the #1 security threat for IT departments. If someone claiming to be from the IT department calls someone to verify something or configure something or do upgrades and asks for the user’s password, they’ll give them their password 9 times out of 10, even if you put signs up everywhere saying not to give your password to anyone including the IT department.
@shepd: This is happening to me. Every week I get a call from “the billing department” at “the hospital” where I had surgery two years ago to dun me for a “balance”. Funny thing is, when I tell them I’ll call them back later, and I do, and the hospital receptionist transfers me to the billing department, they have no clue who I even am or why I’m getting calls.
@shepd: The same goes for random collection agencies sending you dunning letters. I had one demanding I pay them for a Verizon account but both of my Verizon accounts were paid in full, active and in good standing. If you think you actually owe money pay the original creditor. If a collection agency is involved the original creditor will forward the funds to them or inform them the account is paid.
There are plenty of collection agency scams sending out invoices hoping someone is foolish enough to pay them.
@bohemian: are u sure? i actaully owe a collections agency for my gas bill and they said that i couldnt just pay the gas company and that i had to pay THEM
@thaShady:
You’d be surprised how quickly you can get something like that sorted out by simply forcing them to follow some laws.
“Oh, in that case I will need proof of my signed consent to these charges, or a copy of the taped phone call of my consent. Or, if you’d rather not go to this effort, I could just pay the gas company the money instead. Up to you, we can make this easy, or we can make this hard.”
By “the 800 number was not listed in Sprint’s DB” I assume you mean the bill did list a phone number to call for questions? Can you post that number? The USPS will not release boxholder information without a court order but an 800 number could probably yield some information. Of course, 800 numbers are a lot easier to open with false identification than a PO box.
If he were smart he’d just use a vacant place with an open mailbox.
Interesting. If you Google something like “600670 Jacksonville” you’ll see that Sprint, MCI Worldcom, Telecom USA, and Excel all use the same address.
In most of the hits, one or two are listed as creditors in various bankruptcy filings or vendors in campaign finance reports.
I have no idea what this means — probably either that they’re legitimate or that even judges are paying fake bills without realizing it.
@thomamas: Sounds like some type of clearinghouse that processes payments. My guess is that it is legitimate (versus a scam), just erroneous in that it was billed to the wrong person’s account. I wonder if the rightful owner of that number has a similar name or something.
This is kind of the dumbest fraud ever. Just submit the letter and the PO Box address to the FBI. CASE CLOSED!
Wokka wokka
@.Xenn.: No, I think it has to be mailed across state lines for it to constitute a federal case.
@pecan 3.14159265: Nyet, comrade. The use of US Mail makes it a federal offense, every time.
Although, I do have a new address to send all my shredded junk mail… :O)
@PencilSharp: Federal offense just means that it broke a federal law. FBI investigates interstate offenses. A federal law can still be broken without crossing state lines and will not constitute an FBI investigation. As veg-o-matic said, this would be a case for the USPS investigators.
@.Xenn.: Postal Inspector first, as I do believe it constitutes mail fraud.
Ahhhh real life phishing.
Scams like these are EASY to avoid.
Just ditch paper bills altogether.
Opt to pay everything online.
Just don’t use the links in the reminder emails they send you, as you’ll be more likely to fall for a phishing attack.
Instead keep a list of URLs/bookmarks to the pages for the companies you owe.
If they don’t have an electronic billing option, then check with your bank/credit union. Financial institutions are usually able and willing to take care of bill auto payment.
Then if any bill comes in the mail like the one in this article, log-in online and check your balance-due. If the charges aren’t there the bill is a fake and can be ignored/shredded/investigated&sent to the authorities.
Oh, and if legit bills arrive call the company and have them stop sending paper copies. Opt for electronic statements if available. it’ll reduce the risk of id-thieves trashing for your info.
Do the same with your taxes.
Electronic PDF statements & receipts are MUCH easier to save & store.
USB thumbdrive + truecrypt.
Electronic media FTW!
My $0.02
“does this t-shirt make me look fat?”
[www.ripoffreport.com]
Looks like an old fraud.
I’m sure the Postal Inspection Service would love to hear about this.
[postalinspectors.uspis.gov]
@grouse: Whoops. Beat me to it. But yeah, if you use the postal service to carry out a fraudulent scheme, it is mail fraud, which falls under the PIS mandate.
Don’t f#%& with a Postal Inspector.
Old scam still going on,google the 800# on the scanned bill & get results like this: [800notes.com]
Be careful if you google “Transaction Networks, Inc.” referenced in my prior link: the top result set off my security program.
Here is the entire website text:
“Welcome to the home of
Transaction Networks, Inc.
We provide direct billing services to
long distance providers who are
unable to recover revenues from unbillable traffic.
For more information, please contact Kelli Turney at 904-287-1123
or at kelli@txninc.com“
It’s a rather crude site.
There are other indirect reference results that show it to be located in Jacksonville & provide some sort of data processing services and matches the number for Kelly Turney above
([www.macraesbluebook.com]).
There are other businesses similarly named that appear legit elsehere.
@wvFrugan: And they seem to have a law firm: [www.stmlaw.net]
If you check out the originating number on google, it appears to be a payphone in the New York City Department of Corrections. 800 Number belongs to “Transaction Networks” [www.txninc.com] The website is very, generic.. The website is hosted by appliedi.net.
@whyerhead: And to take it a step further, that specific payphone is located at:
George R. Vierno Center (GRVC)
09-09 Hazen Street
East Elmhurst, NY 11370
Per the NYC DOC site: Houses detained male adults.
I’m wondering if this person received a collect call from an inmate at Rikers Island (which is where that center is)
@whyerhead:
The link you referenced caused my anti-virus program to block a “Bloodhound.Exploit.196″ “Heuristic Virus” threat twice earlier when I did some googleing myself.
@wvFrugan: Weird.. I looked at the source of the page.. nothing out of the ordinary.. Just a broken image file and generic text.
Text of the website for those who are blocked by antivirus programs:
Welcome to the home of
Transaction Networks, Inc.
We provide direct billing services to
long distance providers who are
unable to recover revenues from unbillable traffic.
For more information, please contact Kelli Turney at 904-287-1123
or at kelli@txninc.com
Seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a $14 scam. I sense an air of legitimacy combined with simple incompetence.
@RandomHookup:
I found a campaign financial report that showed a “BUSINESS TELECOM INC” at the same address, which then produced a document having to do with AT&T & Spint suing them for overcharging (just making up rates) for telecommunications access on their (BTI’s) systems in 2001. It appears BTI is a southern telecommunications company primarily in GA & FL. Very confusing.
@RandomHookup: No, small dollar amounts are the perfect scam because people will think less about it. People are more likely to hand over a few dollars without thinking than a large amount.
@bohemian: I thought of two possibilities as to the low small dollar amount. The first is that they want to simply have easy, passive income; there are a *lot* of old people who don’t know any better who would pay a bill like this without thinking twice. The other is that they want the person’s checking account info (which would be on the bottom of the check sent in as payment), in order to commit check fraud. This makes a lot more sense than the former, because I’m not sure how some random guy would go about cashing a check made out to “Sprint.”
@Poisonous Taoist: You could probably do something like register a small engine shop and call it “Sprint LLC.” The real Sprint’s trademark wouldn’t cover something completely unrelated to the telecom industry. However, it would be a pretty ballsy move (or huge extra layer of fraud) because you’d need to use your SSN or a stolen SSN to register the LLC, and the bank would probably want ID when you opened your account. But, it wouldn’t be too hard to open a business account for a business called “Sprint.”
I would think this should be referred to the USPS, as it is clearly mail fraud. They have the resources to catch this perp.
It’s $14 times how many of these they send out, it’s small enough many will just pay it.
I like the collection agency warning!
People still haven’t commented on the fact that the number ISN’T hers to begin with, therefore no matter what, she doesn’t owe even IF it were legit.
But the scam is definately interesting. I’ve never seen a seperate bill come for collect charges- like some have said, the amounts are usually charged straight to your normal bill.
Thanks for the heads up, Roderick.
I work for a phone company in Florida and we get our customers sending us bills like this all the time. When I research the call date and time to see if there were any calls on our network that match the one on the bill I often find there was. Most commonly the customers are dialing a toll free number for a CapTel ([www.captionedtelephone.com]) and they have not set up with the company to use the long distance provider of their choice. After speaking with CapTel I have been told that if the calling party does not set that up, they will route the call through a default long distance provider. Thus, this produces the bill you see above.
This is most likely a legitimate bill even if the rates are highway robbery.
Roderick here.
@teknrd: This isn’t a legit bill. The number is not ours, and the toll free number at the bottom is not affiliated with Sprint. We learned this after calling the real Sprint company, rather than the number on the letter.
I’ve received the same type of bill 2 years ago while I was using Comcast for my phone. I called the number on the bill and complained that the phone calls weren’t one’s I made. They put my “account in dispute.” Then a few months later I received a collection notice from a different firm for the outstanding balance. I sent them a letter asking them to prove the debt and never heard from them again. Nothing showed up on my credit report. Bottom line: don’t pay the bill.
Recently I had a similar thing happen while a Verizon FIOS customer. This time Sprint managed to have the bill added to my regular FIOS bill as a 3rd party service. Sprint’s story is they “pick up” the long distance calls that I’m allegedly making that Verizon doesn’t handle. Of course none of the calls are ones I made. After many hours of the phone I learned you need to use the magic buzzword “recourse the charges” with Verizon to have them remove Sprint’s charges from my bill. Most states have laws against “cramming” so if the don’t listen to the “its not my calls” argument you can fall back on your state laws.
It seems there is some connection with the firm in Florida and the real Sprint long distance company. Sprint long distance told me not to have the charges sent back or they would end up with a 3rd party billing agency. aka the place in Florida.
I had this idea when I got my last homeowners association bill. Like I even know the actual name of my HOA off the top of my head, or where their offices are located. I had to do a little verification before I sent the check.
I’d bet there’s a lot of people who would just send the check. Or worse, send their CC info.
So, you browse the real estate listings to figure out the yearly HOA fee, look up who the HOA is, and ask a realtor when the fees are due. Then send a fake bill one month before the actual bill is due to arrive. Profit.
You know, I did a reverse lookup on yellowbook.com for the owner of both numbers on the bill. There’s a woman listed for the Florida number. I wonder if she’s aware someone’s sending out false bills with her own phone number on it.
The “From” telephone number appears to be a payphone at the Department of Corrections in Queens, the “To” number is some residence in Ocala, FL. Googling that 800 number will give you a bunch of forums reporting similar scams.
That’s a very convincing-looking bill. In addition to criminal penalties for mail fraud, whoever did this is could probably be sued by Sprint for misuse of their logo. Its most obvious flaw is the need to fold and tear off the portion to be returned… scammer needs to buy some perforated paper. I’m also curious how he plans to cash a bunch of checks made out to Sprint, which probably isn’t his name…
@vladthepaler: It isn’t clear in the scan, but the paper is perforated just above that line.
I work in Sprint’s Corporate Communications and want to let everyone know that the bill in question is NOT fake. Sprint has contracted with a third-party billing vendor, TXN, for billing of wireline casual charges in areas where we do not have billing agreements with the local exchange carriers.
Customers with concerns or questions should call the number on the bill. (Calling Sprint would not help because we don’t have the billing records for these charges.)
Someone might might receive a bill like this if they made a long distance call and used Sprint for call but they don’t have an account with us (what we call “casual calling” — for example, a collect call made from a pay phone). In these instances we would use a third-party billing company like TXN.
I hope that helps. Sorry about the confusion.
Lloyd
I work for a Sprint vendor for customer service. Four observations:
Sprint only uses 9-digit account numbers anymore since the merger, and all current accounts use them.
Obviously, that address isn’t Sprint’s valid bill payment address.
That number system isn’t how Sprint categorizes call detail records. They use a letter system (PU, promotional usage, for night and weekend minutes, for example).
Also, the bottom line is that Sprint phones can’t be used to receive collect phone calls. I know this because I’ve had customers asking if they can use their phones to receive calls from prison.
@destruktolux: I thought this was supposed to be a landline phone that we’re talking about.
@hedonia: Sprint isn’t in the local phone business anymore. Why would your long distance carrier send a collect call bill?
I am in Sprint Corporate Communications and want to let everyone know that the bill in question is NOT fake.
The bill is from TXN, a third-party vendor we have hired to bill wireline casual charges in those areas where we do not have billing agreements with the local exchange carriers.
For example, you would receive a bill like this if you accept a collect call from someone who specified Sprint as the long distance carrier for the call and we do not have a billing agreement with your local exchamge company. Charges appear may appear higher than usual, but that’s because such calls are billed at a premium per-minute rate, as opposed to the discounted rate plans that most of us usually use. Again, we’re talking about wireline calls, here — such as a call from a pay phone to your home phone — not wireless.
If you receive a bill like this and have questions or concerns the best thing to do is call the vendor’s number listed on the bill. Calling Sprint won’t help because we will not have the billing records for the call.
I hope that helps. Sorry about the confusion.
Lloyd
@LloydKarnes: That’s great, but what about the fact that the phone number does not belong to the person who received the bill?
And if Sprint doesn’t have billing records for the call, how did the billing information get transmitted to TXN?
If I get a bill with the Sprint logo at the top of the bill, but Sprint disavows all knowledge? I’m using it to start the grill at my Memorial Day picnic …
@larrymac: Gonna have to go with you on this one. Also: [800notes.com]
For example, you would receive a bill like this if you accept a collect call from someone who specified Sprint as the long distance carrier for the call and we do not have a billing agreement with your local exchamge company.
Considering our cell phones are both Sprint, and we don’t have a home phone, I’m guessing our local exchange company would be… Sprint. If Sprint’s handling the phone on both ends, why would they charge us on a different bill? Hell, why would they send it to the wrong address?
@larrymac: Actually, just read this. [www.google.com]
The only results that have feedback almost unanimously say that it’s a scam.
Good grief I hope that Cat poops in his owners bed for making him look that stupid. To be dressed up as a bird… MORTAL ENEMY!!!
@axiomatic: I bought that same chicken hat for my cat . I got it at Target for $3. My cat wore it for approx. 15 seconds. Worth every penny.
Wow! A few months ago my dad got a bill from T-Mobile that said he had a credit on his account. Problem is my dad has never had service with T-mobile and barely knows how to use a cellphone. When we called to find out what was going on, it sounded legit until the rep asked for my dad’s entire social security number. We refused to give it to him and the guy just said the bill was a mistake and to ignore it. To add to our suspicion, the guy had an African accent. (Yikes!)
you guys may want to black out the 352 # it comes up with a persons address also the company that does bill for companies that it can’t bill for however sprint is not one of there customers most are in the Uk but i would remove that 352 # toot sweet
Who would just pay a bill mailed to them without reviewing the charges???
Every bill I received is checked to make sure it’s correct line by line before a payment is cut. If anyone sent me a seperate invoice for even $5 that I could not prove was valid, NO PAYMENT.
This is being mailed en mass to elderly folk in Florida. Those with Alzheimers or who are otherwise a little senile will dutifully pay the bill, no questions asked.
Reminds me of a medical bill I got a while ago; it turns out that the doctor contracted one of the lab tests out and that company billed me separately, through their billing subcontractor. I got a bill for a vaguely named lab procedure (on the correct date) from a company I never heard of. The doctor didn’t understand the shady aspects of this, and I ended up processing it through my insurance company. They had a part to pay, too, so I figured they’d be most interested in following the trail.
Stop with the fake-looking 3rd company bills! You’re not helping things!
The update still leaves me confused.
Someone “from Sprint” wrote in to say it’s real.. but how does that explain why the phone number on the “bill” does not belong to this person? .. or why the phone call in question was reportedly never made?
I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t understand the intricacies of today’s modern phoneological technologies.
So.. help? Anyone?
@veg-o-matic: Ignore the update. The bill says “Sprint.” We are Sprint customers. The phone number on the bill is not ours. The call listed did not happen (that is, we didn’t accept one, nor did anyone call us collect). The 800 number on the bill is not in Sprint’s database (they have no idea whose it is). When Googled, the 800 number provides 4 results. 3 of those results contain posts by random people claiming the same thing I did; a Sprint phone bill listing one or more calls that were neither made nor received, asking for payment, that Sprint (when called from their actual number) does not know about, and threaten to call collection agencies in order to pressure people (very likely old people, given the area these fake bills have been circulating in and around) into paying. This has apparently been going on for almost 3 years, according to the dates of the posts.
The guy from Sprint is either trolling or hasn’t actually read anything past the title of the post. As I’ve said, we called up Sprint right as we got the bill, and they had nothing in their records about the alleged call, nor anything about sending two separate bills to the same household (and they didn’t know the 352 number or the 800 number). I can go with this random internet “Customer Experience Manager,” or I can go with the actual Sprint CSR we called.
I’ve already emailed Chris to further update the post, but I haven’t heard anything from him.
We have received several of these bills for select calls made on our home phone, which is serviced by Embarq. None of these calls were authorized by us to be rerouted through Sprint’s network. Also, I’ve only gotten very dubious answers from Sprint representatives about the invoices. When asked about the bills, an Embarq representative told me that Sprint is unlawfully routing some of their calls and charging their customers exhorbitant rates. Embarq is, however, unwilling to do anything about it. We have now received a call from a collection agency regarding one bill, so I’m not sure what the solution is. Perhaps the two companies are colluding, and the practice should be investigated further.
Can Consumerist.com please request further information from Sprint? Maybe Sprint can post a statement on their website and provide Consumerist.com with a link to the statement. Consumerist.com is the only website I’ve found which says anything nice about a bill from Sprint, PO Box 600607, Jacksonville, FL. Other websites say the bill is a scam. There needs to be a statement on Sprint’s own website explaining the bill, not just a post on this forum from someone from Sprint, or else the legitimacy of the bill is still questionable.
Two years after the original post from Roderick, I received a similar bill. In my case, my address and phone number on the bill were mine and the call was a call I made. But I was disturbed that there wasn’t a company website on the bill.
I requested information from Sprint through http://search.sprint.com/inquiraapp/contact.jsp
Sprint answered that they checked and found that the phone, address, account number on the bill do not exist as a Sprint account. However, the answer from Sprint doesn’t contradict the “third-party vendor” explanation.
What can I do to get an answer directly from Sprint that the bill is legitimate?
I just received 2 different bills just like this. One from MCI and the other from Sprint. I called the billing number and it is a trac phone to some old lady that lives in an old folks home. The bill is in my name and address but the number is not mine. I asked the lady who’s number was on the bill and she said it was her daughter that lives in Beaver Oh. The lady lives in Melbourne Fl. I live in Palm Bay Fl. Does this mean that my identity has been stolen? Who can we report this too? The cops? The state rep? Does anybody know the phone or address of who we can report this to? I don’t want this to go on my credit report!