I was recently interviewed in Entrepreneur magazine where my dotcom sub-company was mentioned by name and city/state, and shortly after publication somebody went to Dell and applied for a credit account using my subsidiary company name, my name from the article and publicly available business address and phone number (found on my site and in Superpages/phone book) to order several thousand dollars worth of gear, which was shipped to a third party unknown to me in Wisconsin. Dell then sent me a bill. I called them immediately to inform them it was a fraud, tell them to send police to the address, and ask how they could allow somebody to setup an account under my dotcom-name (not even my corp business name), and not bother to check for a social security number, employer ID, call to verify or anything. Now they are sending past due notices and two threatening calls to pay up or they will "ruin my business credit." Stupidly, they setup the account under a dotcom business name, which has no business entity (no employer ID, bank account, credit card, etc.). Basically it seems that anybody can setup an account with Dell (DFS) with any publicly available business info from a phone book and website, open an account, and then Dell goes after the company not the culprit when it's obviously fraud.
They claim they were given personal data, which is impossible since the dotcom is not a business entity and my SSN was not used as Pres of the parent co of the dotcom. They refused to listen to the explanation on the two collection calls, and from the original call to report the fraud they gave me a case number but never followed up and the collection calls had no interest in the report/case number.
This is gross negligence on Dell's part for not verifying the company was actually the actual company applying for credit, asking for a SSN or employer tax ID, etc; all they had was a street address, name of company Pres. And phone, easily obtained for ANY company in the Internet age. They never called to authorize or confirm the account or the order, but now they find it way to call to harass and make collection threats. What they don't know is that I run a 26 year old P.R. Firm which - if necessary - can develop millions of dollars worth of negative publicity for them over this, as well as call for a class action lawsuit based on "gross negligence" in supporting the spread o business identity theft. I've also reported this to the NY State Attorney General's office and am not proceeding with Illinois, Texas, and the BBB (their credit company uses two locales in both IL and TX).
Sadly, I was a happy small business customer under my proper corp. Name, and have purchased web servers, a dozen LCD displays, service contracts, software licenses, and never had serious issues. Now, they've lost my business forever, and I'm using the power of my network to spread the word about their incompetence. Now I know, first hand, what Dell Hell is all about.
Christopher XXXXXXX (LAST NAME REDACTED)
Redondo Beach, California
U.S.A.
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