EE contract and mobile taken out fraudulently in my name

raf80

I recently received a bill from EE for a mobile phone contract and phone (no phone has ever arrived to my address). Plus a direct debit letter (with an unknown bank sort code/the 4 digits of account number). I had never requested/bought this phone or contract. I immediately called EE to report ID fraud. I spoke to a customer service rep and it was reported to the fraud dept. Meanwhile I made a report with Action Fraud online. 

A day later the fraud dept called and asked me to get a crime ref number from the police. I went to my local police station and explained the situation. They told me to use Action fraud, they couldnt give me a crime ref number. I went home and reported the issue online also with the Met police. An email came back from an officer telling me to use action fraud instead. 

Meanwhile I registered with CIFA and also made a dispute about the soft search (that ee performed) that i did not request. I have also checked another credit agency which tells me that my email and password details are being sold online. These details were the ones i used for a particular credit score service, so I suspect my details were sourced online.

Eventually the EE fraud dept called me and told me that their investigation had not found any fraud. Now I have submitted a written complaint to EE and await a reply.

What else can/should I do to help my case/situation? Why don't the police give a crime ref number? Is ID fraud not a crime?

Thanks

sourcrates

Its such a common crime, police won`t deal with it.
Action Fraud was set up to deal with things like this, but unless you actually know who did it, and have them on film perpetrating the crime, there is not much else they will do.

You have done all that is required of you, but basically its going to be your word against theirs, as it cannot be proved one way or another, as you can reason for yourself judging by the response from EE.

Its still a very grey area when you are the victim of these kind of frauds. 
Just stick to your story and see where it leads.

The_Real_Cheddar_Bob

I'd request copies of the original contract documents (these will be electronic) as well as what method was used to take out the contract, eg person, phone, website. 
I'd then ask them for the details on what they send to customers to welcome them, emails, letters, etc. Id also ask them what steps do they take to prevent fraud. 
When you have all that detail, compare to what you know and approach from that perspective 

When the EE shops are back open, head to the local EE shop. Make it their issue, tell them you won't leave the store without it being resolved and if the police remove you that you will sit outside every possible spare moment you have being disruptive. (its harder to do than say). The point I'm getting at, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Do not give up, become a pest. 

Nearlyold

The_Real_Cheddar_Bob said:

I'd request copies of the original contract documents (these will be electronic) as well as what method was used to take out the contract, eg person, phone, website. 
I'd then ask them for the details on what they send to customers to welcome them, emails, letters, etc. Id also ask them what steps do they take to prevent fraud. 
When you have all that detail, compare to what you know and approach from that perspective 

When the EE shops are back open, head to the local EE shop. Make it their issue, tell them you won't leave the store without it being resolved and if the police remove you that you will sit outside every possible spare moment you have being disruptive. (its harder to do than say). The point I'm getting at, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Do not give up, become a pest. 

The second part can work, however you need a very thick skin, when I worked in Retail many years ago and someone tried that approach with my boss, his reaction was always to tell the customer they were welcome to stay as long as they liked, then he would fetch them a chair with great ceremony explaining (loudly so that everyone else in the shop could hear)  they would be more comfortable sitting down and enquiring if they would like a cup of tea. No one ever stayed for more than a few minutes.

p00hsticks

The_Real_Cheddar_Bob said:

I'd request copies of the original contract documents (these will be electronic) as well as what method was used to take out the contract, eg person, phone, website.

I think the problem with that is that if they give that information to you then it's because they still believe you are the person who actually took out the contract. You can ask, but if it was me, I'd be hoping they turned round and refused on data protection grounds, as that would be an indication of the acknowledgement on their part that ID fraud has indeed taken place.

MalMonroe

Last year a credit card account was opened in my name. I didn't know until I actually received a credit card through the post with a letter advising that a pin number would be arriving shortly. 

It made no sense at all to me. Why would someone open an account where the card and all the information actually came to me at my address so they were not able to use it? Was it a joke? Who did it? And why?

I phoned the CC company and they said yes, they had received an application, I'd passed the test and a card was issued. I didn't want a card, I told them. I was advised to report the matter to the police who DID give me a crime number, which I was able to supply when I reported the matter to Action Fraud. I regularly check my credit reports and there had not been a hard search by that CC company so I had no idea what was going on.

Many phone calls and letters later, the card account was closed. But now I have a CIFAS marker on my credit report. So tedious. I am now 'a victim' for twelve months. Great. But nothing happened, no money was taken in my name and I don't see any advantage to anyone taking out a card, unless to just prove that they could.

The CC company would not give me ANY information at all about the person who had opened this account although they did say that they knew who it was. They said that they had to protect that person's identity!! It beggars belief. They would not divulge any information and they would not let me have sight of any digital information either. If you are able to get any of the original application documents out of EE please do let me know as I'd be interested as to how you managed it. The CC company told me that 'due to data protection' they were not allowed. Even though I was the victim in the situation. The fraudsters get the same protection as the victims. Something's not quite right to my mind!

MalMonroe

p00hsticks said:

The_Real_Cheddar_Bob said:

I'd request copies of the original contract documents (these will be electronic) as well as what method was used to take out the contract, eg person, phone, website.

I think the problem with that is that if they give that information to you then it's because they still believe you are the person who actually took out the contract. You can ask, but if it was me, I'd be hoping they turned round and refused on data protection grounds, as that would be an indication of the acknowledgement on their part that ID fraud has indeed taken place.

You are right, a similar thing happened to me. The company refused to give me any information on data protection grounds. It's really frustrating!

MalMonroe

Nearlyold said:

The_Real_Cheddar_Bob said:

I'd request copies of the original contract documents (these will be electronic) as well as what method was used to take out the contract, eg person, phone, website. 
I'd then ask them for the details on what they send to customers to welcome them, emails, letters, etc. Id also ask them what steps do they take to prevent fraud. 
When you have all that detail, compare to what you know and approach from that perspective 

When the EE shops are back open, head to the local EE shop. Make it their issue, tell them you won't leave the store without it being resolved and if the police remove you that you will sit outside every possible spare moment you have being disruptive. (its harder to do than say). The point I'm getting at, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Do not give up, become a pest. 

The second part can work, however you need a very thick skin, when I worked in Retail many years ago and someone tried that approach with my boss, his reaction was always to tell the customer they were welcome to stay as long as they liked, then he would fetch them a chair with great ceremony explaining (loudly so that everyone else in the shop could hear)  they would be more comfortable sitting down and enquiring if they would like a cup of tea. No one ever stayed for more than a few minutes.

The second part definitely can work. My brother-in-law, after buying some furniture which fell apart after two months, went to the furniture shop he'd bought it from and when they denied responsibility for their shoddy goods, stood at the door, loudly telling everyone who attempted to enter what had happened to him. Prospective customers left. 

Nobody offered him either a chair or a cup of tea. He achieved his goal of returning the shoddy stuff for a full refund. 

Do it!

[Deleted User]

MalMonroe said:

Last year a credit card account was opened in my name. I didn't know until I actually received a credit card through the post with a letter advising that a pin number would be arriving shortly. 

It made no sense at all to me. Why would someone open an account where the card and all the information actually came to me at my address so they were not able to use it? Was it a joke? Who did it? And why?

I phoned the CC company and they said yes, they had received an application, I'd passed the test and a card was issued. I didn't want a card, I told them. I was advised to report the matter to the police who DID give me a crime number, which I was able to supply when I reported the matter to Action Fraud. I regularly check my credit reports and there had not been a hard search by that CC company so I had no idea what was going on.

Many phone calls and letters later, the card account was closed. But now I have a CIFAS marker on my credit report. So tedious. I am now 'a victim' for twelve months. Great. But nothing happened, no money was taken in my name and I don't see any advantage to anyone taking out a card, unless to just prove that they could.

The CC company would not give me ANY information at all about the person who had opened this account although they did say that they knew who it was. They said that they had to protect that person's identity!! It beggars belief. They would not divulge any information and they would not let me have sight of any digital information either. If you are able to get any of the original application documents out of EE please do let me know as I'd be interested as to how you managed it. The CC company told me that 'due to data protection' they were not allowed. Even though I was the victim in the situation. The fraudsters get the same protection as the victims. Something's not quite right to my mind!

Almost certainly the criminal is either someone close to you or the thief hoped to intercept the letters so you wouldn't know (hence it often being someone close to you - the number of stories on here about fraud by family members is evidence of that). Perhaps they tried to setup mail forwarding and it didn't work