Sprint Stinks, LifeLock Saves

I had a mishap involving Sprint cell phone service that began early last week. Mind you, I never ordered the service, which was the problem.

Someone had just applied for phone service in my name over the phone (not in person, and therefore with no forms signed or ID presented). The credit agencies reported the new account, which triggered LifeLock.

Thank God I have LifeLock, whose system automatically sent me an email alert. I went right from bed to my email to my phone and canceled the phone service in minutes, still dressed in the undies I slept in. The problem should have been over before it started, don'tcha think?

Unfortunately, Sprint was in a jolly hurry to send out a box of four very expensive cell phones to my address. Their fraud department was impressive, as they responded professionally with the air of competence in closing out my account and originating a "return kit" with which I could return the phones. By limitation of either law or policy, they don't report these cases to law enforcement. Their role is relegated to closing out accounts and either recovering or writing off lost assets.

In today's mail, my envelope from Sprint contained not the return kit, but full documentation of Sprint's stupidity leak -- in Spanish. It's a full invoice for over 200 dollars for the phones and account. The only English words anywhere on the pages are my name and address.

That tells me that Sprint approved a new account and a very expensive shipment, over the phone, under my very English speaker's looking name in Spanish. All this, and the contact number the applicant left is not in service. A well run company would run due diligence before opening the account and shipping phones out, but Sprint's policy is to clean up the aftermath.

Don't worry about me, folks. My account's being resolved, and I've got LifeLock as backup. But Sprint's an open piggy bank for criminals. I hope you aren't. These days, it's a scary thing indeed how a little personal info in a bad guy's hands buys him a bounty of free stuff at someone else's expense.