I'll try to provide all the relevant details as succinctly as possible:
- The creditor is "AT&T Mobility", which is AT&T's wireless/cellular subsidiary.
- we have never ever done business with ATT
- we for sure never received mail from ATT about an account balance
- ATT is using a debt collection agency. This agency sent us mail apparently in October. I probably destroyed it because I knew for certain it was not real, and it wasn't on wife's credit report. It even had her married surname, not her maiden name, and we've been married only since 2021.
- I should have requested proof of debt at this time. I think I forgot to. I just wasn't worried because it was so outlandish.
- Wife's credit has been frozen since August 2022.
- Wife has shared my name since Fall 2021.
- The debt SEEMS to be from some time in 2023 but it's hard to tell. I don't remember seeing this debt listed on any credit report last Fall.
- no correspondence from debt collector since October, until today. receive mail with a settlement offer.
- I called debt collector (proxy number so they don't have my real cell). I get a supervisor. asks for the last 4 of SSN, and I decline, since I have no reason yet to believe it's authentic. He does tell me that the collection is on TransUnion and Experian. He also affirms the accuracy of the ATT Account Number listed on the mail I received. End call.
- I log into both TU and Exp. It's there, indeed. Exp goes as far as to list ATT as the original creditor. I file a dispute on both agencies. I confirmed it's not listed on Equifax.
- I find 3 support phone numbers for ATT: Consumer/Business Wireless, Consumer internet/landline, and Business internet/landline. I call all 3, try to get the system to connect me to a Rep for billing support, and I provide the 12 digit account number. In all 3 cases the system says it cannot find info for this account. Never spoke to a human though.
It doesn't seem plausible that this account was real and opened fraudulently many years ago and was only recently abandoned, since the Acct number isn't recognized on ATT automated systems, and the debt collector is using the married name instead of maiden.
Does anyone have thoughts on what could be going on here? Something seems off about the timeline if this is fraud.
Edit: I just submitted a claim to AT&T's Global Fraud Management department. hopefully all of the action I have taken turns out to be sufficient to remediate and recover my wife's credit score. I'm still perplexed at what transpired though.
original posted by Sparkplug1034 to r/personalfinance on Wed, 13 Mar 2024 23:44:33 GMT.