T-Mobile Fraud

AN IRATE INQ reader has discovered a fraudulent £40 payment to the UK’s T-Mobile mobile network for topping up a pre-paid handset. The clue was that he’s not even a T-Mobile customer.Our hapless reader noticed the dubious entry on his credit card bill and spotted it immediately as a fraud. So he quickly rang T-Mobile to complain.

Reputedly the agent in T-Mobile’s help centre sounded very familiar with the situation and suggested that the company was currently experiencing problems with fraudulent top ups.

His advice was to cut up the credit card immediately and order a replacement. Presumably the hacker had been able to scam the three digit verification code on the back of the card.

One of the problems with pre-paid is that the networks don’t actually know who the real owner of the handset is. It seems that T-Mobile’s online sign up system for topping up doesn’t even require a postal address.

So the INQ speculates that the system isn’t checking credit card numbers against a postal address when adding top ups.

The INQ is waiting for T-Mobile to get back to us about this. Meanwhile, check your credit card bill.

Reader Motoko was shocked to find $1,000 worth of charges from an unknown phone number on her latest T-Mobile bill. T-Mobile refused to vacate the charges, even after admitting that the number that somehow latched onto her account was already under investigation for suspicious activity. One thoughtless rep suggested that Motoko merely lost track of time while racking up the mysterious charges, and offered to bump her up to a more expensive plan. Motoko writes:

“I checked my T-Mobile bill this month and saw that I was billed $1,169.84. A lot of the calls and text messages were made from 401 XXX-XXXX, a mysterious phone number attached to my account that I have never seen before.I called T Mobile and spoke with Cindy, who said the number is under investigation but the charges are valid even though the vast majority of it was from a phone number that does not belong to me. Cindy then said she will call me back 2 days from now on Friday and that the new number will be suspended. Not happy with the outcome I called again and spoke with Gabriel (#0458150) who kept denying for 15 minutes that any phone calls were made from the 401 number and that I had made those calls to cities I’ve never heard of under my number, and maybe I “forgot” and “lost track of time” when making these calls. I finally showed her the online billing statement that clearly showed TEN pages of phone calls from the 401 number to numbers and cities I have never seen before. She promptly says “Oh…”, puts me on hold for 10 minutes, comes back and tells me that the charges are valid because they were made from the same phone! Then she asks if I want to change my plan to one with more minutes so I won’t have to pay $1,000 next month, thanks Gabby!

T-Mobile is basically insinuating that I purchased two numbers/SIM cards on the same account, then swapped them in and out of the phone at various times (often making calls from both numbers at the same time on the same phone!), racked up a bill of $1,169 after two months and am now trying to weasel my way out of this monstrous bill by lying.

Gabriel was kind enough to tell me that perhaps I should figure out who’s number it is and that I should call it. Realizing that T Mobile obviously doesn’t give a crap, I called the 401 number and got a message “By subscriber’s request this phone number does not accept incoming calls”. I asked Gabriel if she’ll forward me to her supervisor, she says yes but he’s busy so he’ll call me back tomorrow. After much cajoling she puts me on the line with the supervisor who promptly tells me the charges are valid and that he’ll have someone else call me back in 10 minutes. Take a wild guess if he called me back or not? Yup. This is why I’m not even going to bother anymore with their awful customer service.

I’m not going to pay $1,169.84 worth of phone calls that I did not make, T-Mobile will probably cancel my phone line next month for non payment and I’ll be without a phone for a while, this is going to suck majorly. They also billed me $466.12 last month and that was auto paid. I’m guessing they’re not going to just give that back unless I take them to court. I’ve been a customer of T-Mobile’s for many years, have always paid my bills on time, never disputed anything because I travel a lot and have set everything on auto pay, but this is just ridiculous. I can’t believe they’re ignoring me as if I’m some lying irresponsible 14 year old girl who just got her first cell phone. All the evidence points to someone hijacking my account. Why won’t T-Mobile take scams like this seriously?”

After disabling autopay, go back and make sure your previous $466 bill is not also littered with fraudulent charges. If it is, call you credit card company and ask to file a chargeback.T-Mobile should take the scam more seriously, but like a drunken frat boy, they are after only one thing: your money.

http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=32725

Here it is: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/288/RipOff0288342.htm

Robert,

I personally double dare anyone at your organization to pull the tape on the conversation I had with Jesse in and around December 5th in which he CLEARLY stated 3 times that upon payment of 634.00, that Amsher would be contacted and all negative information about my account would be removed.

Prove me wrong and just pull the tapes. You will clearly see how I was lied to. The only reason the 634.00 was not paid was because you had a balance of 2000.00 that you showed. Upon correcting it, I had no problems paying the 634.00

Is this how you treat a customer that was loyal to your company for 4 years ? Just listen to the tape and see for yourself.

Thanks for your consideration.

The only person that will make sure that you get your call returned from T-Mobile customer relations is  Robert P. Dotson. As you probably know by now that the “customer relations’ is an elite guerrilla squad that can only be written to or faxed to. They do not openly provide their telephone number and the regular peasants (customer service reps0 do not have their number.

Inspite of me faxing to customer relations twice at 813-353-6545, I did not receive a response. Only after I emailed Robert, did I get a response.

Anyhow heres some information on the “big dog” at T-mobile Here

Essentially I was relieved that I had not paid T-Mobile $634.00.

Ally confirmed my suspicions that T-Mobile is essentially an untruthful organization. I was told by Jesse (do not remember his extension) back in December that if i paid the full amount of $634.00 that he would make sure that negative information would not be reflected on my credit bureau. I called customer service several times and spoke to a Michelle this morning and was again told that negative information would not be reflected on my account as she had read the notes. After asking Ally to send m a written verification saying that if I paid the full amount, I was told that Jesse in fact had never told me that negative information regarding me would be removed.

I have a question T-Mobile. Do you guys ever record any of the conversations that you hold with your customers ? I DARE you to pull up the conversation that i held with Jesse in and around December 4 in which he clearly stated that once the account is paid, negative information will be removed from my credit bureaus. Maybe these taped conversations would show the confrontational tone of your so called customer relation experts like Ally.

What is my so called motivation to pay you the 634 .00 ???? It will not have any impact on my credit. But rest assured, this issue is bigger than you anticipate.

I have already opened a website that clearly will share with the World how your company has acted towards me. I also will mail a letter to each and every news station that I can think off. I am sure a company likes yours gets these threats on a daily basis. But rest assured that this is not a bluff.

You are a fraudulent company that employs people like Jesse that lie on a daily basis to get by every two weeks so that they can get a check. There is no aspect of customer service. If you still do not believe that Jesse had that conversation with me, PULL UP THE RECORDING OF THE CONVERSATION THAT I HAD WITH HIM IN AND AROUND DECEMBER 4th. You will hear him clearly tell me that if I pay the 634.00, that all negative information regarding my account will be deleted from Amsher the collection agency.

Please visit T-MobileFraud.com in a few weeks.

Less than 2 hours later T-mobile customer relations decided to call me…..

It was Ally Young (extension 8034).

To summarize I was told yet again how thankful I should be that T-mobile decided to take the international charges off and that I was only responsible for $634.00. I than again politely asked her to mail me a billing statement and i was informed that she would. My next request to her was to send me a letter stating that upon payment of $634.00, that all negative information would be taken off.

upon hearing this, she paused and told me that she would need to ask Jesse and call me back…..

That raised some concern but surely these people had documented what they had told me before…….atleast I hoped that they had. And I also wondered why Jesse himself did not call me as he still worked for the company.

An hour later I spoke with Ally again and I was told that Jesse no longer remembered telling me that upon payment all negative information would be taken off my credit file. I was like but but but……….when I was rudely interrupted by Ally and reminded again how benevolent T-Mobile was in reducing my amount owed from $2000.00 to $634.00.

I was raging mad by now!! Not only had these people screwed with my time, but they had also screwed my credit for good. Why the hell would I want to pay $634.00 when it would not impact my credit one bit ???????????????????

Of course T-Mobile would not care because they had already sold my debt to Amsher (A collection agency based in Birmingham, AL).

I was told that T-Mobile would not do anything more to help me.  Jesse from customer relations had lied to me……..

I do not wish to bug serious management at T-Mobile. However if I am to lose my house because of fraudulent charges on my credit history then I have to and more !!

I had Jesse from Customer relations call me and essentially tell me that the fraudulent international charges will be taken off. My balance due got reduced from $1400.00 to $600.00.
I was also told that I i will be receiving a detailed billing summary showing why and how I owe you guys $600.00 along with a letter saying that once I pay you guys off that the charges will be taken care off.

I have not received either of those. How can I make you guys understand the URGENCY that I am facing ???? I cannot get a hold of anyone in customer relations and I have faxed numerous times for someone to call me. I then have to go around this chain of command and bother the top T-Mobile executives who then get a manager that in turn gets some customer relations guy to contact me . You guys are a huge business and generate a ton of revenue . Why don’t you get enough “responsible” manpower in your customer relations department that can contact me and resolve my matter ????????

I NEED SOMEONE TO CONTACT ME AND TAKE ME SERIOUSLY. I HAVE PAID YOU GUYS FOR 4 YEARS AND I DEMAND MY ISSUE TO BE RESOLVED IMMEDIATELY. CONTACT ME AT ###-###-####

Have not heard anything from you ??????

I faxed T-Mobile customer relations two letters asking them to call me. (Apparently they do not have a direct line and one needs to fax them only).

T-Mobile why do you guard your so called customer relation experts so much so that they cannot be reached by telephone ? If you do not believe me, call T-Mobile customer service and ask them to connect you to customer relations.