AT&T Community Forums

AT&T Fraud Department sounds like a fraud

How does AT&T make it possible for a customer to pay all her bills, spend tons of money, but be unable to make phone calls? If you want to know more, read on! It all started with a text message asking my wife to call a number, that appeared to emanate from AT&T. I called and heard an AT&T jingle, then was told that someone had signed up for service using the same last 4 of her social and her address. When I asked who did that the lady asked the last 4 digits of her social. I thought "if this is AT&T, aren't they supposed to know that?". It looks like a phishing scam, so I asked the lady to prove me she was legitimate. All she came up with is "you called me". Yes, I called you, but I dialed a phone number received from an unauthenticated message. Then, she said the AT&T jingle was another proof. Really? How hard would it be for anyone to record it and replay it to pose as AT&T? What a ridiculous answer! So, I googled the phone number and found confirmation it was a scam, and even went to the closest AT&T store to ask about the phone number and was told it was unfamiliar and the interaction I had did not look like normal AT&T practices. So I dismissed this as a yet another phishing scam and went on with my life… until a few weeks later when my wife dialed a phone number and learned that her account had been suspended. She had to find another phone to call AT&T about that matter. According to the customer service representative, it appeared that another person had opened an account with her social security number and address, but failed to pay his bills, explaining the suspension on all accounts under that social security number. The representative sent us to the fraud department, who confirmed 2 accounts had been created by the same rep under 2 different names. She told me I probably had to go to the store to resolve this. I replied it was AT&T’s fault to have created 2 accounts, therefore it is AT&T’s responsibility to repair that mistake. She started to literally scold me, telling me that I had opened 2 accounts and this was my problem. I told her I was uncomfortable with her tone and would like to speak to her manager. At this point she sent me back to the phone system’s main menu. I felt abused but had no choice but to drive to the AT&T store where I had initially signed up for service. At the store, the sales manager told me that she could not resolve this. All she could do is connect me to the fraud department and try to assist me. Great, we just went full circle. The fraud department sending me to the store and vice-versa. To add insult to injury, there was a waiting line at the store that was over an hour, and because we are in Hawaii, the fraud department was going to close by the time we could talk to a rep. To summarize, here is a catch 22, and an impressive display of unprofessionalism by AT&T’s employees. AT&T looks like a company whose right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. We are left with a phone that we cannot make phone calls with. What did we do wrong? Choose AT&T!

Responses

formerlyknownas

ACE - Sage

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105.4K Messages

8 years ago

This has come up before. As I have signed up with AT&T only 10 months ago, I know that somewhere on the forms is my ENTIRE social security number. However, in order to add a line I don't remember if I filled out the same form with full SS# .

Each of us is responsible for keeping our ss# and other vital personal information safe.
The consequences are very difficult and may take months or years to fix.
I know you are angry with AT&T. But let's think about this a moment. If your bank or credit card starts seeing fraudulent charges, they suspend activity on the account and contact the owner so that no more of YOUR money is stolen.
They stopped the thief from adding more phones to your wife's stolen identiy and you were alerted to this activity. thank goodness.

You wife has been the victim of identity theft. In which case, this is the least of your worries.
Call AT&T. Be polite. Be concerned, you should be. Ask what to do next. Moving all phones onto an account under your SS# to be safe perhaps?

Run wife's credit report. This can't be the only fraud.

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ATTDmitriyCM

Community Manager

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10.3K Messages

8 years ago

Hello @yloponom

I'm very sorry you're having some issues with your wife's service. If you still need assistance with that, our team will be happy to help! Please send us a private message by clicking here. Please include your full name, phone number, account number and the best time you can be reached.

Thank you,

Dmitriy

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TKPKDK

Teacher

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20 Messages

8 years ago

You say to be polite? I have spoken with at least 10 different reps regarding my horrible situation and many were very snippy. One actually said that I need to learn patience because his girlfriend is in a coma and he has had to be patient! One told me that I have called too much.

That may be, but you never get them to respond. They just hope you will go away. I have always been polite and will always be, but everyone has their limits when you have been lied to so many times and bumped to a gazillion different departments and given every excuse in the book over and over and over. Forget the chat room. That will get you NOWHERE. If I tried to explain what is going on with me and AT&T, it would take 10 pages. I won't put you through that 🙂

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passingthrough

Contributor

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1 Message

6 years ago

It's a shame that employees give out the incorrect information and cause additional stress and expense to a customer who is a victim of fraud. The "ACE" responder in this thread doesn't know much about online fraud, because they should know these scams and schemes are almost commonplace now and are not the fault of the victim! We have little or no say about what personal information is kept online or how, or who they hire thereby giving access. I have to laugh when I hear people say they won't use online banking or online ordering systems, because they are not reducing their exposure to potential fraud very much at all. Their information is online in a zillion places whether or not they themselves use online systems directly. They go through great inconvenience and expense for a very small return on their "online avoidance" investment.

Further, when you are a victim of fraud you are never informed about the details or disposition of the case. So how would we know what we had done wrong, if anything? I'm on here looking for the fraud department because ATT charged $969.00 to my debit card and I'm not even a customer! I thought it might get resolved faster if I went to ATT instead of my bank, where I have zero fraud liability by the way, but from the looks of things, probably not. I think I'll stick with going through my bank.

You are correct about companies hoping you'll just go away. A lot of people will just pay out of ignorance or just to avoid the hassle, and they are well aware of that!

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sandblaster

ACE - Expert

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62.9K Messages

6 years ago

@passingthrough wrote:

It's a shame that employees give out the incorrect information and cause additional stress and expense to a customer who is a victim of fraud. The "ACE" responder in this thread doesn't know much about online fraud, because they should know these scams and schemes are almost commonplace now and are not the fault of the victim!

@passingthrough The "ACE" responder is another customer, not an ATT employee. Besides, nothing in that response either stated or implied the victim is at fault. In your own case, since you are not an ATT customer, you definitely should work the issue through your bank. Just curious, are you absolutely sure the fraudulent charge is even from ATT? There is a very common scam being run where charges look like they are from ATT but are actually not.

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