I experienced identity theft in January. Among other things, a Sprint account was signed up in my name. I discovered this when I received a collection notice.
I contacted Sprint in February and they instructed me to send a dispute report with all of my ID and a copy of the police report. They sent me the dispute report form and I returned all of the information immediately.
In March I called to check on the issue and spoke with a Sprint rep who confirmed receiving my information. He told me that the account had been flagged as fraudulent and I would not be held responsible or receive further collection notices.
In July I received a phone call from a collection agency, informing me that I owed for the fraudulent cell phone account. My wife contacted the Sprint Fraud Department immediately.
The rep she spoke with informed her that they had sent us a fraud packet in February and we had never turned it in. My wife explained that not only had we returned it, we had spoken with them afterwards. The Sprint rep called my wife a liar.
My wife asked to speak to a supervisor. The rep refused. She stated that this "is not an escalatable issue." My wife repeatedly asked for a supervisor. Finally the rep hung up on her. She called a second time and they hung up on her as soon as she identified herself.
Sprint takes very few precautions against criminals signing up false accounts, and then when a crime victim follows all of their procedures their own incompetence comes back to haunt the victim. They sold a false account to collection, after conveniently losing all of the documentation they had already confirmed that they had.
Oh, and the collection agency they use? Doesn't follow the law. They are supposed to notify you in writing within 5 days of contacting you. They were supposed to send me a second fraud packet to fill out. I have yet to receive that.
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