Orange fraud issue, help please :)

faded_flowers

My friend has just been sent an £800 bill for an Orange contract phone... turns out her sister has opened the account using her name and current address, and obviously not been asked for ID!

She has tried to report it to the police, who have told her she can't report it as a crime only Orange can - is this right?

Meanwhile she has been trying to contact Orange and being sent round in circles.

Am I right in thinking a recorded-delivery letter is the way forward? She's a student and seriously can't afford this debt.

Any advice welcome

watcherman

Your sister is a victim reporting a crime, tell her to contact the police again, and quote the national crime reporting standards, where an allegation of crime is being made, the first point of contact (police) must record the allegation....They're talking BS about it being Orange who have to report it.

Jon_01

Call CS in the morning (the fraud dept isn't open unitl 9:00).

Tell them you need to report a fraudulent acc, they'll take the info and pass it through.

She most certainly would have been asked for ID, you can not have an account without supplying it. She may have 'borrowed' her sisters? But a check will show what was supplied at the point of registration as it's all logged.

The fraud dept will run a investigation to find out what's happened...

She will need to report it to the police as fraud, I don't know who she spoke to, must have been the tea boy!

At some point she'll be asked for the crime number by Orange.

Fire_Fox

Your friend should contact all three credit reference agencies and report that she has been the victim of identity fraud. They can add notes to her files that ask for ID in future and also inform anyone your friend might want to get credit with that this is not her debt. I absolutely think she should send a recorded delivery letter to the Fraud department at Orange and contact the police again.

eranou

she may not have needed ID because she could have called up orange and pretended to be your friend and provided all relevant security details then requested a new line be added to the existing account