Sprint, AT&T Won't Tell Identity Theft Victim Where Thief Resides
Fearing his identity would be stolen, Mike put out a fraud alert on his credit report to insure he'd be contacted whenever new credit applications went out under his name. The move paid off because someone snagged his social security number and tried to open accounts with AT&T and Sprint.
Both were courteous enough to call Mike and deny the thief's attempts at opening the accounts, but their helpfulness stopped when Mike asked to know where his assailant was:
I got a call from AT&T asking to verify that I was opening a new account with them. I said no I'm at home. They apologized and then said they will halt the application process. I said, tell me where this is occurring so I can file a report. They said they couldn't divulge that information as it's private and due to the privacy act they cannot discus such information over the phone, I ask to speak to a manager they said nobody was available.
Next up Sprint. I got a call Monday 8/3 asking the same thing. This time I lost my cool. I demanded some sorta retribution for this. I asked repeatedly why they could not help me. They suggested I speak to their fraud department. I said well thanks that may help. I then call Sprints fraud department and got the runaround. It would seem that somebody would have to open an account in your name for them to actually be able to help you. I again speak to a person that gives me this "privacy act riot" I again ask to speak to a manager and was denied.
I went online and did a search on what to do, problem is I'm not sure how to file a police report if I don't know where this is occuring from. I filed a very brief FTC complaint. And I already have a Fraud alert. I also requested my credit report from one of the credit agencies (however due to my fraud alert I have to give my first born child in order to get it as I'm not able to view over the internet.
So bottom line. I'm at my wits end. I don't know where else to turn. I don't even know how they got a hold of my social as I'm very very anal about giving it out and shred all of my papers that would've had it. I don't even carry my social card with me it's in a fire proof safe at home. The only thing I can think of is I recently bought a house and switched my cell phone into my name. So either Verizon or somebody at a bank stole my info.....
At least Mike is better prepared than most identity theft victims. But his story is a cautionary tale that no matter how careful you are, you're always vulnerable to such attacks, and won't necessarily find potentially defrauded corporations in helpful moods.
(Photo: Spidra Webster)
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Comments:
I don't think you have to be in the location of the criminal to file a report. I'd just go down to your local police office and file a report. That way it at least shows a clear, time stamped effort to fix this and notify the law of a problem.
So he would have been able to get help if they opened the account, but because they didn't, he's SOL? (not completely SOL because that person wasn't able to open the account, but still). That's all kinds of wrong.
[Devil's Advocate] A company will not divulge a criminal's ID just to anyone, save for a law enforcement official with a search warrant. It's part of their legal standing and would be liable if they gave the person the thief's name and location, then that person commits murder. Am sorry the OP got in trouble with the clown, but a call to the police will set things in motion to capture the offender.
I wonder if you could file the police report and inform the DA that you want to file charges against the John Doe. Maybe at that point the DA could subpeona the information and find out who the perp is?
I'm not a lawyer but it seems like that could work...
@Nighthawke: Yeah, this comes up in missing persons cases, too. I can see that it's frustrating, but I would have been shocked if they'd give a private citizen the information. He should start with his local police.
@Nighthawke: Very well put. It is a Privacy Act thing. You don't want anyone to be able to grab your address and phone number without your consent. This specific person is still an alleged thief. It seems that he is, but it's not been proven in court. He still has rights, especially that of due process.
Go to the police and file a report.
@Nighthawke: Sure, right, the police will hop right on an ~attempted~ identity theft in another jursidiction especially if it is in another state just like they hop on actual identity theft.
(sarcasm, dripping sarcasm)
You can't fault Sprint because they probably have very strict, no tolerance privacy rules.
I'm not trying to berate the consumer here, but I think it would have been more advantageous to go to the local police station instead of wasting time with Sprint.
On another note, if you want to deal with an agency that's somewhat stingy in releasing information, call the IRS.
@12-Inch Idongivafuck Sandwich: No, this is SOP for any sort of criminal activity. Sprint would be liable if the OP went out and beat the attempted thief to death. Report it to the police, they get the info from Sprint and handle it themselves.
@econobiker: Feel free to suggest an alternative instead of just sarcastically saying that the correct, legal means is a waste of time.
@floraposte: Agreed. Sprint is liable for any retribution the OP attempts to seek against the individual. Bad news.
Totally OT, and I apologize...is anyone getting an error message like this: "Your Request did not go through. Please refresh your data."
Or is it just me? It loads the page, and then it switches to this. It's in what appears to be times new roman font, and not an error I typically see.
I can understand, somewhat, why they don't want to give out the information however they should have a process in place that when fraud is confirmed, an immediate police report is filed on behalf of the victim. a crime is being committed and if the process is not started to get the guy then he'll just move on and do it to someone else.
It should go like this:
AT&tT: Mike, are you trying to open an account?
Mike: No
At&t: This appears to be a case of identity theft. Do you want us to file a police report on your behalf with the fraudster's info?
Mike: Yes please.
At&t: Great. We'll get that started and you'll receive a copy of the police report in 2-3 days.
of course that just makes too much sense.
@econobiker: I agree with your sentiment. But working with a federal agency in conjunction with in hunting down criminals perfomring interstate crimes would equal BIG jail sentences in the Fed Pen.
Hell, he might wind up getting holed up with some of the terrorists that are being transferred from Gitmo.
@pecan 3.14159265: yep. Haven't been able to comment for days either. (Unless this one happens to go through...)
If the identity fraud occurred with your information, I'm sure the local police would handle it before the jurisdiction wherever the perpetrator is from.
@militarydave: HEY! I'm the real militarydave. This imposter has stolen my identity, and my FIRST POST!! I demand some sort of retribution!!!
@Ayarkay: I've been able to comment for two days (since the site was fixed) but this error message only started happening today.
When someone used my name to open an account on Lower My Bills.com I filed a police report with my local police department.
Since they only used my name (not my social - I'm a reporter and my name is public knowledge - they used the contact info of another pub for phone # and address - someone was being very funny).
Since someone was actively trying to use the accounts the police would have a lot more to go on. Once PD gets involved the phone companies MIGHT be more cooperative. Who knows.
@bravo369: Yep, they'll never do that because they'd rather just open the fraudulent account and make some money by then sending the OP to a debt collector. They probably HATE these types of fraud protection because it keeps them from making some easy money.
@katstermonster: He should be allowed to beat the thief. Not to death, but what many Americans need these days is a good beating.
@Jesse: please explain. The intended victim wants to file a police report. At&t won't give info to the victim so they give it to police. I would assume giving what accounts to be a description of the criminal to the authorities would be legal. If fraud is confirmed then any company should not just be sitting on the information.
Given that these companies are calling the OP themselves to verify his identity, I think their claim to be upholding some sort of privacy policy is tenuous at best.
If they called the OP they had his correct phone number and if he can verify the social security number used on the account there should be no privacy concerns at that point. The company might not want to give out the street address used in the fraudulent account (for fear of a pissed off victim confronting the fraudster and the company being held liable), but it should be standard policy to generate and provide an internal case number and some sort of jurisdiction information (e.g. town/city/county) so that the victim can initiate legal proceedings if they feel the need to and so they can take it to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
Stonewalling like this makes me think that they feel it's in their best interest to not make it too easy for people to take steps to take legal action against the criminals.
It's a sticky situation. If they tell you about the theif and you manage to find him/her/it and bash in their skull in with a tire iron, they would somehow be held responsible. Lovely eh?
Oh and, even the cops won't do anything. It's great, nobody cares! Committ all the fraud you want, just don't sell drugs, especially medicinal marijuana. THEN you'll get arrested. Makes total sense.
Local cops do nothing. My wife's identity was stolen and the guy even gave his name and phone #. Cops didn't even want to take the report from my wife after she tracked down all the info. Nothing ever happened.
@pecan 3.14159265: I've been getting that all morning. I have to hit refresh and then stop immediately so that the page load stops and I can read the article.
@morganlh85: He was doing it because the website has been acting up all day and no one could comment. Someone needs to lighten up...
The OP has a legal right to the information but first they must prove who they are.
Go see the summary of rights at: [www.ftc.gov]
I have used it myself to force companies to cough up the information.
@dragonfire81: Agreed. I was going insane, even with hitting stop, it wouldn't work, except maybe very 15th time or so. Ugh. Soooo oglad it's fixed!
If they divulge the identity to you and you run over and kill the guy or get hurt, then they can be held liable. Therefore, no, they will not give you the information. Don't even bother trying. On the other hand, if you had a good reason for it, you could subpoena the information.
All else fails, file a police report.
@bravo369: This has been covered in the comments above. If Sprint gives the alleged fraudster's info to the OP, and the OP then goes and shoots/beats up/kills/threatens the unnamed individual, then Sprint is liable. That's one ugly lawsuit waiting to happen. The OP should file a police report with the information he has, and allow the police to contact Sprint.
Someone got a hold of my debit card number last fall and ran amok for about 3 hours before my credit union stopped them. I called the places that had charges listed (Chemistry.com, EHarmony.com, Craigslist.com to name a few) and all of them were very apologetic but politely declined to give me any identifying information about the person who used my card, for "privacy reasons" they all exclaimed.
Whose privacy is paramount in this situation? The privacy of an identity/credit card thief? Or that of the victim?
I would think if someone was trying to open an account fraudulently it's probably more to obtain the phone itself to resell. Or it could be that they just want to use the phone for the 2 months before it gets shut off for non-payment. I don't think they would plan on actually paying the bills
@Nighthawke: I think what you describe is the correct response and the customer service representative quoted the wrong reason for not being able to divulge the information.
Of course they don't plan on paying the bills.. unless they were to maybe open a credit card in the OPs name and pay it that way just to keep it going a bit longer.
@Jesse: The privacy rules have no standing on this. Someone's opening an account on HIS name. HE is the account holder. He should have access to his own account information.
When I used to work as a fraud investigator (not for a phone company) and received calls from fraud victims, I could not give out specific info about the fraudster to the victim for just that reason everyone has mentioned - retribution. We'd send the victim an affidavit, ask them to file a police report, and we would be happy to give any needed info to the investigating officer. And we got plenty of calls from police, so some of them do follow up on these reports. As for verifying the victim, that is difficult. There is an alarming amount of friends and family fraud, where the fraudster (an ex husband/wife, brother-in-law, son, etc) knows things like ssn, previous addresses, has access to the landline phone, etc. (not to mention how difficult it was to verify cellphone numbers) There are also situations where fraudsters call in to try and learn the system, the way we handled fraud requests in order to adapt to any security changes and figure out ways around them. It was kind of amazing the way some fraud rings would change up their methods to match any of our procedure changes. Anyway, we stuck with giving information to the police only.
@SonicMan: Next time he gets a call, before he denies opening the account, he should ask what the address on the application is.
Totally fair on the telco's part. Mike didn't like having his identity stolen, what gives him the right to gather personal information on someone else?
The telcos should have assured him that they would be reporting it to the authorities, and their fraud department should have communicated with him regarding a case number (depending on local laws about sharing that sort of thing).
The company is legally obligated to protect you. They are *not* legally obligated to help you exact vigilante justice upon criminals who are preying upon you, which is exactly what sharing that sort of information could lead to. In fact, the company is legally obligated to protect even the criminal's privacy.
@SuparnaBabalas: No, I agree with morganlh85. Websites that allow "FIRST POST! LOLZ!" comments get banninated from my viewing habits. No matter what.
FIRST POST!!