Sky mobile scam

CatrionaNaomi · 7 July 2017 at 5:10PM

If any one can help, I would be so grateful. I am nearly 60 yrs old of poor health and I am beside myself. I am not sure which is worst, a) that some one stole some of my ID, or b) How sky are treating me.
Sky despatched an iPhone that I did not order to an address where I do not live. That was signed for (with passport ID) by a person who was not me. The first time I heard about this was on Saturday 24th of June when I received a default notice at my home in Spain. Obviously, I called sky immediately.
Sky has taken no effort to recover the phone from the person who signed for it, despite the fact you know their name, their passport number and where they live.
Also, sky has not even reported the incident to the police, so that they can prosecute the person who has stolen the phone, nor have you made any attempt to recover it from the person who signed for it.
Instead, they want me to either pay for the iPhone 7 which I believe is worth £900 or they want me to pursue the matter with the police in England and recover the phone for them.
SKY demanded that I report the stolen phone to the police. I have tried twice now at two separate police stations. But the police say it is not my responsibility to report the crime of the stolen phone. It is sky’s responsibility to report the scam as they lost the phone, not I.
I was told I could not report the theft as I am the third party. I do not own the phone, Sky does. It is not my loss, it is Sky who is the victim of the theft, it is they who must report the theft.
I actually own the property that the phone was delivered two. The tenant in the GFF has confessed to signing for the phone and selling it at cash generators.
He has been to the police station and make a full confession. The police won’t prosecute as they don’t have a reported crime. Because SKY has still not reported it!
This saga began on the 24 of June when I was flying home to the UK to celebrate my mums 91st birthday. It is now the 7th of July and my credit file is still tarnished, and sky are refusing to remove the entry. They are holding me accountable.
I want to get a mortgage to buy my mums home, (she has gone in to a nursing home) my credit file is ruined.
I have reported the ID theft to Action Fraud and have a reference No. I have forwards the number to SKY. Action Fraud say it is up to Sky to remove the entry off my credit file.
Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I can do? I need to get sky to take the adverse credit entry off me Equifax report.
Catriona

pmduk · 7 July 2017 at 5:17PM

Make a notice of correction to your credit file.

[Deleted User] · 7 July 2017 at 5:21PM

Is it possible to get a mortgage at nearly 60 yrs old and being of poor health?

mobilejunkie · 7 July 2017 at 5:30PM

pmduk wrote: »

Make a notice of correction to your credit file.

Useless advice. If they do that it will go back after 30 days unless Sky do something. Then again, Sky and the police are also useless. I would make a formal complaint to Sky and if they either ignore it or won't do anything you can then go to the Ombudsman after 8 weeks. Whether that will get you very far depends on which Ombudsman deals with Sky complaints when Sky haven't resolved them.

You would seem to have a problem proving you aren't responsible; it went to your address and was signed for there with photo ID. It is a bit odd that you don't live there and therefore (presumably) aren't on the electoral role - which a network would normally check before passing you through the credit check. Assuming the person who did this impersonated you it is identity theft. You could make a formal complaint to the Police Complaints Commisssion but in my experience they pay complete lip service. A close friend once had a much bigger instance of fraud (not identity theft but a letting agent) and they didn't even visit or interview the person in question, even though my friend had all the accounts to prove what had happened (which they also didn't look at) AND they subsequently did go to the Police Complaints Commisssion when the police did zilch.

pmduk · 7 July 2017 at 5:42PM

mobilejunkie wrote: »

Useless advice. If they do that it will go back after 30 days unless Sky do something.

But you can dispute that and then refer the dispute to the Financial Ombudsman. See point 25 here. Hopefully Sky knowing that the FO are involved will lead to the complaint being examined at a more senior level to avoid the usual lengthy FO investigation.

On this occasion you may be better not making a formal complaint to Sky. I believe you will get a better response from the Financial ombudsman than Ombudsman Services.

mobilejunkie · 8 July 2017 at 8:40AM

pmduk wrote: »

But you can dispute that and then refer the dispute to the Financial Ombudsman. See point 25 here. Hopefully Sky knowing that the FO are involved will lead to the complaint being examined at a more senior level to avoid the usual lengthy FO investigation.

On this occasion you may be better not making a formal complaint to Sky. I believe you will get a better response from the Financial ombudsman than Ombudsman Services.

Interesting. I had a situation where I dealt with the CRA but don't recall a permanent note as an option. Maybe not so useless advice, although I'm not sure it would help to a great extent. Adverse and unfair marks need to be removed to eliminate any doubt on future searches.

I do agree with the last point; in my experience with various Ombudsman services the FOS is by far the best in terms of fairness - and (unlike at least one mobile Ombudsaman) also have their own complaints procedure (against themselves - which I have also used successfully once). I also agree they are more likely to get the attention of the company itself - though twice I've used CISAS for EE and the company conceded immediately once they got involved.

CatrionaNaomi · 8 July 2017 at 8:54AM

Yes, in my case I want to buy the house to refurbish it and rent it out. The amount I plan to borrow it about 40% of the value. The rent is significantly more than the mortgage payment at an assumed rate of 7%. As it happens I have a whole of life policy that I took out when I was 18, that is more than the amount of mortgage that I want. When I spoke to various banks there primary concern seemed to be that I am on the electoral roll and that I have a clean credit file with a good score.

CatrionaNaomi · 8 July 2017 at 8:59AM

Thank you for this suggestion. I have now done exactly that. I did it over the phone. Equifax were really helpful. They did say it would not change my score but I could direct a lender to look for comment that I have made.
They have also said they will approach sky directly and ask them to remove the entry. It is still sky's right to decide if they want to remove it.
But I do feel so much better that I have actually done something constructive. I cannot believe the responses that I have had. I will keep doing everything until |I succeed.
Best wishes.
Catriona

CatrionaNaomi · 8 July 2017 at 9:11AM

Thank you for your reply. I will now make a formally complain to sky. I have not done this. I have only complained to the customer service people who I keep going round in circle with.
I will also see if I can find out which regulatory bodies would cover this and write to both.
I have to say thank you to you and to everybody who has responded. I don't feel quite so desperate or alone.
Catriona

CatrionaNaomi · 8 July 2017 at 9:16AM

Thank you again.
I will write to the financail services ombusman. I will copy the complaint to SKY. If sky's call are really recorded, then I think sky complaints department may well sort it out. But I have given sky more than enough opportunity to resolve this, so I will make a formal complaint to the financial services ombudsman.
Thank you all once again.

Cornucopia · 8 July 2017 at 9:22AM

Whilst the prevailing narrative is that we individual consumers are the "victims" of identity theft, in the majority of cases that's not true.

When I was a "victim", I and the Police were quite clear that I was assisting them to investigate frauds against the Banks in which they were the victims, not me. Or in other words, the Banks had mistakenly given someone loans believing them to be me, but in fact were victims of fraudulent applications and their own lack of due diligence. This is so clearly the correct interpretation of events and I applaud the Police for taking that line rather than following the prevailing narrative (which I understand some banks have sometimes propagated).

I would follow the good advice above, but I think you need to be clearer about what Sky should do now to resolve the situation to your satisfaction. You do not say whether you are still financially disadvantaged by this, which suggests that Sky have addressed that. I would have thought that everything else is somewhat secondary to the potential financial loss, though that's subjective.

That said, I am not sure that the thread title is accurate (I find the word "scam" to be the most overused on the forum). I think there is a big difference between one reported incident of badly-handled fraud and a general scam.

Sky mobile scam

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