O2 Indentity theft dispute

[Diabolik1970]

Hi Everyone

 

On July 6th I lost my wallet with Credit Cards bank cards/ Driving license and business cards. I blocked my CC's and Bank cards as well as reporting my lost driving license to the DVLA ( note I made the mistake not reporting this to the police straight away ) On July 13th I get a letter from O2 stating that I took out a contract with them - ( second mistake here I called the nr and had a go at the person that had the phone in question) - Anway I report this to O2 by phone and have the phone blocked and am advised that I will be called back by their security time I also report this to phones4u as it was taken out via them. ( Also check with TMob and orange and find there were attempts to open accounts with them as well that failed )

 

Nothing happens for 2 weeks so I call again and I go through the same rigmarole explaining how and what with no outcome. I do not get called back so I report it again a few weeks later at this point I have the contract canceled.

 

Then silence till early October when a Debt collection company contacts me via phone - I tell the lady on the phone I am disputing this with O2

 

After this call I do 3 things

 

a) I report it to the police ( who ofcourse told me off for reporting it this late .

 

b) I contact O2 again who tell me that because I called the phone they consider it non fraudulent but they will send me a disclaimer letter which they did and which I returned witth the required information the subsequent week .

 

c) I call phones4u who tell me dont see anything fraudulent either but refuse to tell me what bank card was used ( certainly not any of mine as they were all blocked on the 7th) as well as saying that my dispute is solely with Vodafone

 

Anyway the police come back earlier this week saying they can do nothing for me and at the same time I have another letter from the Debt collections agency ( nb my credit rating is shot now I checked on experian)

 

At this point I am at a loss as to what to do next O2 seems to be ignoring me despite me disclaimer letter and I certainly dont want to pay the 700 pounds ... Any one any ideas ??

[buzby]

Your issue isn't that unusual - but there are also a good many non-frauds perpetrated in this way (where the legitimate owner of the licence/cards uses them to obtain high value phones to sell on, THEN reports their cards stolen after-the-event. This is why calling the phone yourself is seen as pad form at best - and collusion at worst.

 

You need to place things on a formal footing, in WRITING to all affected parties, and to the CRA. Only by doing this can you start to claw back the identity theft and have it put right. It'll take up to a year to do, but should it happen again, you'll know the drill!

[Diabolik1970]

Hi Raymond

 

Can I ask what is the CRA ? I blocked my bankcards and creditcards on the day after loosing them so none of them where used to buy the contract and I reported my driving license lost in the same week that surely must count for some thing ? As for having a go , yes I now realize how stupid that was although it was a bit of satisfaction at the time.

 

Anyway I have prepared a letter for phones4u asking for all data related to me (incl cctv if available ) under And I am now preparing a letter for O2 and the debt collection agency all though im not sure what to put in them any hints and tips concerning wording would be greatly aprectiated

 

Separately I have fired of and Email to the CEO of O2 for what its worth.

 

My main gripe is that at no time O2 took the effort to speak to me ..

[buzby]

Sorry, the foru usually automatically expands theseacronyms - CRA =Credit Reference Agencies (Experian, Equifax & CallCredit).

[Diabolik1970]

OK Action taken thusfar

 

1) Fired off email to Ronan Dunne CEO of O2 - for what it is worth

 

2) Prepared Letter to Debt collections agency to advise them that this account is in dispute and that any attempt at further contacting me = harrasment as I dont have any liability to them.

 

3) Prepared letter to O2 legal team advising them that I deny any liability and that O2 should back off as this mess is not my fault and that I will seek legal advise to pursue this through OFT and OFCOM if they don't. also asked for all my DATA to be handed over

 

4) Prepared letter for phones4u asking all relevant data to said account incl bank details used to open this account.

 

The last thing is what still baffles me - how could they open a contract without handing over bank details at all ... weird .. I feel like I am doing the job of the Police

 

Anyone any other suggestions

[Diabolik1970]

Just checked my credit report and I see another attempt has been made for some reason 3G is linking my home adress with an adress I have never seen before.

 

Action taken

 

called 3G - this was useless they couldn't find anything on their system on either my adress or the linked

 

called the police left my details as they were not available to have this added to the existing file

 

called CIFAS and registered my details with them

 

--- Getting seriously annoyed with this

[buzby]

3G...? You said O2. How have Hurchison become involved....?

[Diabolik1970]

Hi - no what happened is I checked my experian credit report and I found a new linked address - eg where an address is linked to your home address.

 

The source for this info was Hutchinson 3G so I immediately called them to check whether they could find any contract either in my name or on either of the 2 adresses - I am notmaking the same mistake with any new problems. - Anyway to make sure I registered with CIFAs now .. and will call the police in the morning to have this address added to their files.

[buzby]

It is Experian who do the linking, so you're best asking them why the connection is in place - especially if you have no knowledge of it. Hutchison aren;t able to make the link unless it was given as a previous address. E should be able to tell you why it was done, however, you do kno that by involving CIFAS, you now will have an alert flag on your details? This can make it prime for automatic refusals even when it is YOU making the request for goods and services.

[Diabolik1970]

Thanks for that I will check with Experian / nb I allready had fired of an email to Experian pointing out all items on my report that have nothing to with me - lets see what happens there -

 

As for CIFAS -to be honest better safe then sorry till this is sorted out dont want any further surprises - Anyway as I understood I will be either called or asked for my Cifas password if a company sees the flag agains my details. Further more I hardly ever use credit at all to buy stuff so I am not that fussed either way

[buzby]

The difficulty with CIFAS(unless they've changed and I've not noticed) isthat those volunteering to go on the database are flagged with a 'false positive'. What you expect is true, you have a password and if anyone is checking your creditfile, the CIFAS flag is active - which is a warning.

 

What they DON'T tell you, is that this ony works on manual searches. The greatest majority of theseare automatic, and a CIFAS flag results in an automatic rejection. And it has nothing to do with only seeking credit - it is a FRAUD marker, and the systems accessing it do not differentiate between FRAUD BY or FRAUD TO, and they simply reject. This can mean if you want to switch telco, utility company, even a personal background check, it all gets snarled up. One to watch when the dust settles.

 

What annoys me, is that we have developed a situation where, through no fault of our own - we are expected to provide CRA's with additional information about out private lives, simply for them to stash it away and use it for our 'protection'. They also expect us to pay them for the privilege of ensuring that the information placed on their file is accurate - as we cannot see it without paying them to do so. CIFAS is there to protect commerce from nasty customers that might rip them off, but is being marketed to us as an organisation with OUR best interests at heart to ensure we are protected should out identity be 'stolen' - but they forget, it is only because of the database THEY have created that makes a clean identity worth anything. If they didn't maintain their database, our individual identities would be worth precisely nothing.

Edited November 17, 2009 by buzby

[Diabolik1970]

Hmmm that's rather worrying but I suppose I can have this flag removed once the dust settles ...

 

As for the second part of your post I agree fully why should we pay to view and maintain our own private information.

 

What gets me is that the onus of proof is on the victim of identity theft rather then on the company that accepted the fraudulent account in the first place ( what ever it maybe ). This means basically any one can come up to you saying you owe them money with no need to proof this at all and can cause you all sorts of problems if you don't cough up pronto or react very aggressively ( e.g threaten with court cases etc etc ).

 

As for my own case re O2 - this contract was taken out in a phones4u shop with no credit check ( atleast not with experian ) most likely with a blocked card that doesn't carry any bank details at all . Also normally for most things you need 2 pieces of proof of identity in this case they had only one my driving license so I am at a loss how they managed to get passed the checks at all...

[vusys1]

if phones4U are saying no fraud, call their bluff and ask to see "Your" signed contract agreement & copies of "your" proofs of identity that "you"supplied". Do you have contract phone with another supplier? i.e why would i take one out if i got one etc......

 

was it a local store? pop in and see them;)

[Diabolik1970]

Well I send phones4u a data acces request today to see how they managed to process this order in the first place ... it will all take some time but now that I'm focused I am sort of relishing the fight as I did nothing wrong to start with .. and before anyone says anything ... I know its not personal etc etc eventho it is hurting me

[Diabolik1970]

First response back - and its from phones4u they are refusing my data access request because there is an increased security flag on that account.

 

I cant believe this - It was actually me that warned them in the first place .....

 

Ok lawyer time now

[buzby]

You have to laugh....

 

You'll find this problematical as long as the CIFAS flag is active...

[Diabolik1970]

Nah tbh they sort of mentioned this before already before I got the cifas flag.

 

Anyway tonight I need to go to the police station because I have more info for them as despite calling them and leaving my details I am not getting a call back. When I tried going through another route I still ended up having to talk a machine .. The operator was not much help either ....

 

This whole experience is a farce and it would be funny if it wasn't screwing up my life

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Diabolik1970,

 

Well, after reading your thread you don't appear to be getting very far with this at the moment despite your efforts at getting things sorted out.

 

From your initial post you mentioned that Phones 4U had advised you that your dispute was with Vodafone and while your additional contact with them hasn't brought about the outcome you were looking for I'm keen to take a closer look at this to see what's happened from our side of things.

 

To enable the Web Relations Team to do this could you send us an email with all the details by following the steps outlined in our pinned thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/telecoms-mobile-fixed/213340-vodafone-webteam-customers-problems.html?

 

As soon as we've received we'll do our best to get to the bottom of this for you.

 

Many thanks,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK

[Diabolik1970]

Short update

 

It seems my letter had some effect at o2

 

As O2 have now written to me that they now want a Letter from my bank stating that I reported my card lost on the day I said I did.

 

So yesterday I contacted my bank and I will have a letter stating that send to me which I will then forward.

 

Then I contacted the person at O2 who send me the letter ( as I finally had a person to talk to) to inform him that the a letter will follow shortly but more specifically that I do not understand how Phones4u could have accepted the contract at all. I explained that as I bank with Natwest there are no bank details on my card and that in a call to a phones4u shop the lady I spoke with stated specifically that if you bank with Natwest you should bring your account details along. I added that my Data access request had been declined by phones4u which means that I can not check what credentials exactly had been used to open the contract ( unless I fight there decision ) and that the debit card was certainly not swiped as it would have failed on the spot. ( my bank confirmed in my call with them that the card was cancelled the 4 and a new one issued the 5th)

 

He seemed to take this onboard and mentioned he would be taking this point about my bank card up with the O2 mgr that deals with the phones4u relationship.

 

--- now waiting for the letter from my bank to open the next episode--