I just checked my credit report using the annual free report, and found a listing for Palisades Collection on an AT&T Wireless account for over $5K. Not only have I never been a customer of AT&T, but I had filed a previous dispute with them and the first collection agency trying to collect on this case of Identity theft.
The first time, in 2003 when I disputed this with both AT&T and the collection agency for an account that was opened in my name, I followed the correct procedures in sending them proof of my identity, as well as the police report where I filed the case - 2 years after the "account" had been set up in my name. Neither AT&T nor the collection agency at the time were ever able to offer proof that the debt was mine, other than the "your social is XXX-XX-XXXX, and you live at Street, therefore the debt must be yours."
I am now fighting the same issue, with Palisades on an account that AT&T either brokered to another collection agency or never wrote off in the first place. These actions need to stop, there is no recourse for the consumer, and we are held at the mercy of the credit bureaus reporting eroneous information.
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