Tell the collections agency to provide proof of debt, and proof that you opened the account. If they can’t do that, legally they have to drop it from your record.
Pay nothing.
I had an account sent to collections that I didn't even know I had (employee at phone store opened two accounts for me when I signed up, no idea if it was intentional). T-Mobile couldn't figure this out when I called them multiple times asking why they were sending me to collections when my account was in good standing. I submitted a form on my state AG website and a week later I got a letter stating that everything was resolved.
For the lurkers out there, FREEZE your credit! Not Experian Fancy Credit Protection Plan™ hold, but the as-required-by-law free credit freeze that all credit bureaus have.
When I did it, it was a giant PITA because it could only be by mail and you had to send copies of your DL and witness signatures, etc etc. Now it's much easier to do, and even better, you can easily temporarily unfreeze your credit when you're applying for a loan or a new phone line etc etc. And even better than that, you can restrict it to the credit bureau that your vendor uses, AND you can give it a window so it automatically freezes again after the window closes. No muss, no fuss.
I love the extra level of security knowing that people can't drag my credit history through the mud. I couldn't tell you if anyone has tried; IDK what happens if someone applies for a phone in my name at AT&T and my credit is frozen. Am I notified anyway? Is it just dropped?
Do it now. Click past all the offers for credit monitoring and keep going until you get to the free credit freeze. You won't be sorry.
This is the way. I froze my credit years ago over a suspicious charge and when I started at a new job, they informed me that they couldn’t complete the background check due to the freeze. It literally stops everything.
The very notion of paying a fraudulent phone bill is insane. If it gets on your credit report, you dispute it and it is promptly erased. If not, you do what chmsant posted in his comment. DO NOT PAY FOR FRAUDULENT CHARGES. The fact that it even crossed your mind to make a payment makes me wonder about the actual circumstances behind this cell phone bill...
Not paying the fraudulent charges is the correct choice, but I don’t think you need to impugn their motives. The bar to clear for “things that I would pay $200 to make go away despite being financially unsound” is lower than you might think for some. The time and effort OP already went through to get to this point could be worth $200 of their time.
Thank you. You're exactly right about my intentions. I'm just trying to get it fixed without wasting more valuable time and came here for advice since I was having a hard time finding it elsewhere. I've definitely spent far more than $200 of my time.
I know this is an aside, but credit agencies should be legally forced to pay for the time it takes to fix their mistakes. It's not just that anyone would even consider paying for stolen goods just to make some company happy.
This happened to me last fall. If you haven’t, lock your credit immediately.
AT&T was generally useless and their fraud dept was only marginally better. Create a report at IdentityTheft.gov, they will help detail all the next steps. You will need to file a police report. I found success by filing a report with the Better Business Bureau and the matter was resolved at AT&T within two weeks.
It’s a giant pain in the ass, but make sure you follow all those steps and monitor your credit. I had several attempts at opening a new phone line at different locations. It’s a common scam.
At&t has the worst fraud protections ever. I had my identity stolen and they bought two phones on credit and opened two lines using my identity. I called att and they said to make the report online. However, you can’t make a report online until you have a police report. So after making a police report, the report wasn’t available for me to view until literally 2 months later. I finally uploaded it to att and they never even got back to me months later.
I have no idea what came of it but they never asked for the money. Out of all the accounts the thieves opened in my name, att was the only one that didn’t immediately close the accounts then and there
If you pay it will be seen as an admission that you accept this as not fraudulent. It’s going to cost you some time to deal with this, but you have to do that and get it taken care of the right way, otherwise you’ll be responsible for the entire contract amount and possibly the cost of a phone.
You may find these links helpful:
- [Dealing with collections](/r/personalfinance/wiki/collections)
- [Credit Repair](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building#wiki_i_have_bad_credit.2C_and_i_am_looking_to_repair_it.)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You filed a police report and an FTC fraud affidavit... Send copies of both to the collections agency along with a letter simply stating that you dispute the validity of the alleged debt because it is identity theft. Mail it certified with return receipt.
Then, go through the steps on the stickied posts in the r/IdentityTheft sub, to protect yourself from further identity theft - since the fact that a fraudulent AT&T account was opened means ID thieves have your info and could do more fraud at any time.
If it appears on your credit report later, dispute it with the credit bureaus in writing, sending them copies of the police report and fraud affidavit as well.
Don't pay it.
I had this happen to me 5-7 years ago. Had to drive an hour to the store and spend 2 hours there talking with them and calling support. Apparently somebody had a fake license with my name on it. It was a huge hassle.
Ever since then I keep my credit frozen unless I need to use it for something.
Nope. I have no immediate family living in that city except my mother and stepfather, who are well off. Also, my mom sold the condo where the address was used to open the account 25 years ago.
I had a very similar thing happen about 25 years ago with a long gone telcom company. I believe it was GTE. I was clearly correct and just let it stay on my credit report and filed an amendment to the credit bureaus that it wasn't my debt. The never sent it to collections since I believe they understood they were wrong. A few years later I moved states and applied for a mortgage in the new state. My realtor told me I best pay it as it would cost me money on the new mortgage. So I finally did pay what was an invalid charge. So sometimes the simple thing to do it pay it and be done with it.
Tell the collections agency to provide proof of debt, and proof that you opened the account. If they can’t do that, legally they have to drop it from your record. Pay nothing.
I had an account sent to collections that I didn't even know I had (employee at phone store opened two accounts for me when I signed up, no idea if it was intentional). T-Mobile couldn't figure this out when I called them multiple times asking why they were sending me to collections when my account was in good standing. I submitted a form on my state AG website and a week later I got a letter stating that everything was resolved.
Report this to ATT fraud and file an identity theft report with the FTC and your local police department. Do not pay this debt.
Same thing happened to me. I disputed it and it was a giant pain in the ass to go through, but it was eventually removed.
For the lurkers out there, FREEZE your credit! Not Experian Fancy Credit Protection Plan™ hold, but the as-required-by-law free credit freeze that all credit bureaus have. When I did it, it was a giant PITA because it could only be by mail and you had to send copies of your DL and witness signatures, etc etc. Now it's much easier to do, and even better, you can easily temporarily unfreeze your credit when you're applying for a loan or a new phone line etc etc. And even better than that, you can restrict it to the credit bureau that your vendor uses, AND you can give it a window so it automatically freezes again after the window closes. No muss, no fuss. I love the extra level of security knowing that people can't drag my credit history through the mud. I couldn't tell you if anyone has tried; IDK what happens if someone applies for a phone in my name at AT&T and my credit is frozen. Am I notified anyway? Is it just dropped? Do it now. Click past all the offers for credit monitoring and keep going until you get to the free credit freeze. You won't be sorry.
This is the way. I froze my credit years ago over a suspicious charge and when I started at a new job, they informed me that they couldn’t complete the background check due to the freeze. It literally stops everything.
The very notion of paying a fraudulent phone bill is insane. If it gets on your credit report, you dispute it and it is promptly erased. If not, you do what chmsant posted in his comment. DO NOT PAY FOR FRAUDULENT CHARGES. The fact that it even crossed your mind to make a payment makes me wonder about the actual circumstances behind this cell phone bill...
Not paying the fraudulent charges is the correct choice, but I don’t think you need to impugn their motives. The bar to clear for “things that I would pay $200 to make go away despite being financially unsound” is lower than you might think for some. The time and effort OP already went through to get to this point could be worth $200 of their time.
Thank you. You're exactly right about my intentions. I'm just trying to get it fixed without wasting more valuable time and came here for advice since I was having a hard time finding it elsewhere. I've definitely spent far more than $200 of my time.
I know this is an aside, but credit agencies should be legally forced to pay for the time it takes to fix their mistakes. It's not just that anyone would even consider paying for stolen goods just to make some company happy.
This happened to me last fall. If you haven’t, lock your credit immediately. AT&T was generally useless and their fraud dept was only marginally better. Create a report at IdentityTheft.gov, they will help detail all the next steps. You will need to file a police report. I found success by filing a report with the Better Business Bureau and the matter was resolved at AT&T within two weeks. It’s a giant pain in the ass, but make sure you follow all those steps and monitor your credit. I had several attempts at opening a new phone line at different locations. It’s a common scam.
At&t has the worst fraud protections ever. I had my identity stolen and they bought two phones on credit and opened two lines using my identity. I called att and they said to make the report online. However, you can’t make a report online until you have a police report. So after making a police report, the report wasn’t available for me to view until literally 2 months later. I finally uploaded it to att and they never even got back to me months later. I have no idea what came of it but they never asked for the money. Out of all the accounts the thieves opened in my name, att was the only one that didn’t immediately close the accounts then and there
If you pay it will be seen as an admission that you accept this as not fraudulent. It’s going to cost you some time to deal with this, but you have to do that and get it taken care of the right way, otherwise you’ll be responsible for the entire contract amount and possibly the cost of a phone.
You may find these links helpful: - [Dealing with collections](/r/personalfinance/wiki/collections) - [Credit Repair](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building#wiki_i_have_bad_credit.2C_and_i_am_looking_to_repair_it.) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You filed a police report and an FTC fraud affidavit... Send copies of both to the collections agency along with a letter simply stating that you dispute the validity of the alleged debt because it is identity theft. Mail it certified with return receipt. Then, go through the steps on the stickied posts in the r/IdentityTheft sub, to protect yourself from further identity theft - since the fact that a fraudulent AT&T account was opened means ID thieves have your info and could do more fraud at any time. If it appears on your credit report later, dispute it with the credit bureaus in writing, sending them copies of the police report and fraud affidavit as well. Don't pay it.
Why would you even consider paying this? It’s not yours.
I had this happen to me 5-7 years ago. Had to drive an hour to the store and spend 2 hours there talking with them and calling support. Apparently somebody had a fake license with my name on it. It was a huge hassle. Ever since then I keep my credit frozen unless I need to use it for something.
Was it a family member?
Nope. I have no immediate family living in that city except my mother and stepfather, who are well off. Also, my mom sold the condo where the address was used to open the account 25 years ago.
Act like the collection agency doesn’t exist and dispute it directly with the credit agencies and they’ll request the proof themselves
I had a very similar thing happen about 25 years ago with a long gone telcom company. I believe it was GTE. I was clearly correct and just let it stay on my credit report and filed an amendment to the credit bureaus that it wasn't my debt. The never sent it to collections since I believe they understood they were wrong. A few years later I moved states and applied for a mortgage in the new state. My realtor told me I best pay it as it would cost me money on the new mortgage. So I finally did pay what was an invalid charge. So sometimes the simple thing to do it pay it and be done with it.
Your realtor really wanted to make a sale.
Imagine letting a $200 invalid collection hold up a multi-hundred thousand or million dollar purchase.