Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
dgilor
Enthusiast - Level 3

I am a victim of identity theft where someone ordered phones from Verizon Wireless using my personal information and the address of my home after I moved from that house to another state.

The phones were not delivered as the FedEx person saw/knew that the house was vacant and that I had moved. Someone came and picked up the phones from the FedEx office. As the phones were not used with the lines assigned, it is very likely that the SIM cards in the phones were replaced with other Verizon lines. All this information I obtained from intense personal investigations for the past two weeks.

At this stage, Verizon can easily find the thief by either checking the phone numbers being used on the stolen phones (as the phones are locked to Verizon) or submit a complaint to the police and the police can get the surveillance video from the FedEx location. Instead, Verizon insists on harassing me with payment requests and threats to mess up my credit by putting all the expenses and bills on my report.

I have submitted the police report to Verizon and sent them my id, but they insist on getting additional personal information about me that they do not already have. As a victim of identity theft, it is ironic that they expect me to supply them with additional personal information as they should even be deleting the stolen personal information about me that they have received from the thief.

I have spoken several times with Verizon customer support and fraud department. The customer support people are nice but say that only the fraud department can handle it. The fraud department is NASTY. They even imply several times that I ordered the phones and picked them up. They also supply me with incorrect information. The funny part is that the tracking information shows CLEARLY what happened, yet Verizon is nasty enough to accuse me. You should never accuse a victim of identity theft as if he is a thief. Such a person is going through enough trouble already without nasty remarks.

1. Verizon should remove the bill from my name.

2. As Verizon has information about the thief, Verizon should open a report with the police and cooperate with the police by supplying the customers of the phone numbers used by these phones.

3. Verizon should delete any stolen personal information about me from their systems!

4. Verizon should change their agreement with FedEx so that rejected packages due to "customer moved" should be returned immediately and not delivered to someone who has the tracking number and name.

5. Verizon should go after the thief and leave me alone.

In any case, I have filed a complaint with the FTC (actually two), the FCC, Equifax (credit agency that Verizon uses) and the GA public service commission. To be nice, I'm also submitting the complaint here so Verizon can have it too. Until Verizon handles my complaint, I will continue using all legal means available to me to get Verizon to stop harassing me. I'm also considering creating a Youtube video similar to the "United Breaks Guitars" video (if you haven't seen it, go watch it). That would actually be fun. If anyone has ideas on themes, please let me know. Thanks.

Should I be contacting Santa instead?

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
dgilor
Enthusiast - Level 3

I have just received a call from Verizon HQ that they have handled the incident and all the results of the identity theft have been removed. This is without me having to give more personal information.

Thank you for listening.

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
dgilor
Enthusiast - Level 3

Btw, your account number for me is (removed)

>> Personal information removed to comply with the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service <<

Edited by:  Verizon Moderator

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
dgilor
Enthusiast - Level 3

Thank you for your response.

Fortunately, this is not true. You cannot use a phone locked by Verizon in another country or on another service. As the person resides in Georgia (s/he picked up the phones at a local FedEx office), it is obvious that the phones are being used in the US.

Verizon refuses to check the equipment numbers and see what phone lines it was used for. That's the interesting part.

The fraud team should check what is going on. Instead, they refuse to check and instead insist on me supplying them with additional personal information about myself so they can have more information about me. I am not a Verizon customer so I have no reason to be giving them personal information beyond what they already obtained through the theft. It is also against the FTC rules for them to request additional personal information.

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
zellerandy
Specialist - Level 1

Fortunately, this is true for 99 percent of phones.  All verizon 4G phones come unlocked.  Im guessing if it was fraud they didnt pruchase a 3g phone, so yes the phones would be unlocked for inetrnational use.  i find it very hard to believe they know who has the phones.  Fraud causes not just you a huge head ache but cost verizon a huge headache and a ton of money.  They probally sent out multiple 800 dollar phones that they are not going to get paid for.  Im sure you can understand that they require a little help from you.

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
dgilor
Enthusiast - Level 3

Thank you for the information. After some googling, I see that what you are saying is partially correct. I looked at the Verizon "unlocked sim phone list" and I didn't see the phones there (iPhone 6 is what the thief obtained).

As I said, the thief is living in Georgia. The thief also bothered to activate the phones with Verizon, which probably shows that the thief is trying to use them on a Verizon network. Of course this is all theories and the fraud department would easily find out by checking the equipment numbers but they refuse to do so.

If it really is an issue for Verizon, they should be getting the video of the thief from FedEx. But all they care about is how much personal information they can get about me. Unfortunately, in another month, the video will be deleted by FedEx, so this proof will be lost. If Verizon stopped harassing the victims and moved their attention to the thieves, the theft would stop.

A little help? I supplied them with all the information they needed. I even investigated and pointed them at the FedEx office with the video surveillance data. I showed them how they can get the phone numbers. Why do they need personal information about me beyond what they have? Do they need my mother's maiden name to stop harassing me? How about my latest W-2 form? Anything else? Would they like the name of my girlfriend? My children?

You know what is funny? Verizon says that I do not have to worry about them obtaining more personal information as it is secure. Tell that to the customers of Target and Home Depot. How many employees does Verizon have? Do all of them need to know my personal information? Why?

I think the law should prevent them from holding the stolen information they already have. Why would I give them more willingly?

I have an idea for a new Verizon fraud-department motto: "Harass the thief, not the victim". Where do I post my suggestion?

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

By posting your account number in a public forum you open yourself up to more theft.

Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

sprmankalel wrote:

By posting your account number in a public forum you open yourself up to more theft.

FYI you can report the post to the Moderators under the Actions link in every post so they can fix it.

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
dgilor
Enthusiast - Level 3

Nah. You cannot do anything with a Verizon account number. Especially if it is closed.

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
zellerandy
Specialist - Level 1

yeah I thought that too

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Re: Terrible fraud department and Verizon harassing me
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

dgilor wrote:

Nah. You cannot do anything with a Verizon account number. Especially if it is closed.

It still shouldn't be posted on the public forum especially when the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service says that you aren't supposed to post personal information here and you agreed to the ToS when you registered for the forum.

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.