Cannot cancel Sprint PCS

Readnewsgroups wrote:
>> I provided necessary authentication, including my mom's SSN. They still
>> wouldn't help me.
>
> Anyone can give a SS # - this is part of ID fraud - what is being done is for
> the protection of the customer. Sprint cannot see through your phone to see if
> you are telling the truth - you could simply get a Power of Attorney and Fax it
> to Sprint and this would be handled.

If Sprint "cannot see through the phone", how do they verify anyone's request
to cancel their own account? I'm pretty sure that it's trivial for someone in
the same household to have all the information necessary to satisfy Sprint.


--
John Richards

---

› See More: Cannot cancel Sprint PCS

Isaiah Beard wrote:
> RHertz wrote:
>
>> I provided necessary authentication, including my mom's SSN. They still
>> wouldn't help me.
>
> Having someone's SSN doesn't mean you are authorized to be their power
> of attorney, which is what you need to handle the business affairs of
> someone else.

I think you overestimate Sprint's security procedures.
What if the OP was a female, impersonated the ill mother and requested
Sprint to cancel the account. What else would she need beside the SSN
to make it happen?


--
John Richards

In article <morLb.54988$Vh4.29252
@newssvr31.news.prodigy.com>, John=20
[email protected] says...
> If Sprint "cannot see through the phone", how do they verify anyone's req=
uest
> to cancel their own account? I'm pretty sure that it's trivial for someo=
ne in
> the same household to have all the information necessary to satisfy Sprin=
t.
>=20

Generally true. But when a male voice comes on claiming to=20
be (and I'm just inventing this name here, sorry if I hit a=20
real example) Jennifer Morrison, then I as a responsible=20
rep should really question that claim and force him into=20
one of our stores with two ID's, one of them photo, before=20
we fulfill any account-impacting requests.

I've had a few guys claim to be their girlfriends. Oddly,=20
none vice versa so far. In Tech Support, it's not really=20
*that* important to whether we get the phone working or=20
not. But the moment it starts to stray into talk about the=20
account itself, I have to be polite but blunt with the=20
caller.

--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 05:56:34 GMT, "John Richards"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Readnewsgroups wrote:
>>> I provided necessary authentication, including my mom's SSN. They still
>>> wouldn't help me.
>>
>> Anyone can give a SS # - this is part of ID fraud - what is being done is for
>> the protection of the customer. Sprint cannot see through your phone to see if
>> you are telling the truth - you could simply get a Power of Attorney and Fax it
>> to Sprint and this would be handled.
>
>If Sprint "cannot see through the phone", how do they verify anyone's request
>to cancel their own account? I'm pretty sure that it's trivial for someone in
>the same household to have all the information necessary to satisfy Sprint.

His Mother password protected the account, which precluded her
tactless Son from cancelling her account.

Tom Veldhouse

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 02:35:29 GMT, Orac <[email protected]> wrote:

>In article <DjfLb.70340$hf1.25400@lakeread06>,
> "RHertz" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I provided necessary authentication, including my mom's SSN. They still
>> wouldn't help me.
>
>You'll need more than that. A Social Security number does not prove that
>you are authorized to speak for your mother.
>
>
>> Its obvious that Sprint only looks out after itself. They sure don't look
>> out for their customers!
>
>The others are right, I believe. You need to have Power of Attorney for
>her affairs. For instance, how do you take care of your mother's other
>business? I'm sure the bank didn't just let you start depositing money
>into your mother's account or writing checks on her checking account
>without Power of Attorney.

They will let you start depositing all the money you want .... it is
the withdrawels they won't be too happy about.

Tom Veldhouse

You would be stunned at what you can get when you lie and claim to be a priest
calling for a sick relative, such as unlisted telephone numbers; I have grownup
quite a bit and no longer do these things. People will tell you what ever they
need to on the telephone to get what they want, just look at the retention plans
and how some of us got them. The down side is that when you really have a
problem you now have to jump through hoops.

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 11:11:14 -0500, "RHertz" <[email protected]> wrote:

Here is the real problem, you are justifying loosing your temper as if that
makes you attitude alright. You have also called the rest of us who have to
wait in the call hold "common scum", as if you are so much more important the
everyone else that you should not be inconvenienced for even one minute. If you
came to my business with this tone I would just toss you out, if you came in and
acted decent I would jus treat you like the rest of the "common scum."

I do hope that your mother is getting the best care.

If I lost my temper with
>Sprint, there's the reason. Here I am, trying to solve what should be a
>minor matter, and first you treat me like common scum by forcing me to wait
>for a prolonged period on hold. Then, I am told I have to go to a Sprint
>store to resolve a problem, and when I get there, I am told that I have to
>call. I was thus lied to.
>

If I might make a suggestion, with your mother being sick you really do not need
this aggravation from the usenet. If you stop posting we will eventually stop
posting, and this will all go away. Do you really need this aggravation?

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 11:16:14 -0500, "RHertz" <[email protected]> wrote:

>My mother only became ill in September. She was paying the bill up until
>that time. It is only now that I have had time to deal with this matter,
>and get the account formally cancelled.
>
>But I guess you are too insensitve to understand complications like that.
>Perhaps you should work for Sprint. They only hire the insensitive.
>

Orac wrote:

> In article <DjfLb.70340$hf1.25400@lakeread06>,
> "RHertz" <[email protected]> wrote:

> The others are right, I believe. You need to have Power of Attorney for
> her affairs. For instance, how do you take care of your mother's other
> business? I'm sure the bank didn't just let you start depositing money
> into your mother's account or writing checks on her checking account
> without Power of Attorney.

Actually, some smaller banks will still allow deposits into an account
without asking for ID. Even some big banks, like Wachovia, will allow
it as long as the deposit is under $1,000 (why the limit, i'm not sure).

Withdraws and drafts, of course, are a different matter.

>


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Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

Thomas T. Veldhouse <[email protected]> wrote:
>>business? I'm sure the bank didn't just let you start depositing money
>>into your mother's account or writing checks on her checking account
>>without Power of Attorney.
>
> They will let you start depositing all the money you want .... it is
> the withdrawels they won't be too happy about.

In some places.

In Southern California, probably not. Banking rules are very strict here.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services
22674 Motnocab Road * Apple Valley, CA 92307-1950
Steve Sobol, Geek In Charge * 888.480.4NET (4638) * [email protected]

John Richards wrote:


> I think you overestimate Sprint's security procedures.
> What if the OP was a female, impersonated the ill mother and requested
> Sprint to cancel the account. What else would she need beside the SSN
> to make it happen?

A password, actually. Each account can be protected with a password
with a password, and is different from your SSN or any other identifying
info, to prevent just that sort of thing from happening, and every
Sprint rep will tell you about this upon establishing a new account.
One a password is set, no changes will ever be made until you can come
up with the password. Have you set up one on yours?

Of course, if one is stupid and refuses to set up a password, then the
reps must rely on your SSN to make changes.

And besides, while I concede that a foolishly unprotected account could
possibly be compromised by a successful impersonator, that doesn't mean
Sprint should drop their security policies and make EVERY account
vulnerable to attack.


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Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 09:49:16 -0600, Steven J Sobol
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Thomas T. Veldhouse <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>business? I'm sure the bank didn't just let you start depositing money
>>>into your mother's account or writing checks on her checking account
>>>without Power of Attorney.
>>
>> They will let you start depositing all the money you want .... it is
>> the withdrawels they won't be too happy about.
>
>In some places.
>
>In Southern California, probably not. Banking rules are very strict here.

I can't speak for S.Ca, but I have walked into the bank many times
over the years and deposited checks for other people while there on
other business (for myself). If one wants to hold cash (deposit only
a portion of a check), then one must sign the deposit slip and thus a
withdrawl ... and the bank will deny without proper ID.

Tom Veldhouse

Thomas T. Veldhouse <[email protected]> wrote:

> I can't speak for S.Ca, but I have walked into the bank many times
> over the years and deposited checks for other people while there on
> other business (for myself). If one wants to hold cash (deposit only
> a portion of a check), then one must sign the deposit slip and thus a
> withdrawl ... and the bank will deny without proper ID.

Aah. Yeah, I can make deposits for other people here too. What you can't
do here that banks in other areas let you do is deposit a third-party chekc
into your account.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services
22674 Motnocab Road * Apple Valley, CA 92307-1950
Steve Sobol, Geek In Charge * 888.480.4NET (4638) * [email protected]

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 12:58:09 -0600, Steven J Sobol
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Thomas T. Veldhouse <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I can't speak for S.Ca, but I have walked into the bank many times
>> over the years and deposited checks for other people while there on
>> other business (for myself). If one wants to hold cash (deposit only
>> a portion of a check), then one must sign the deposit slip and thus a
>> withdrawl ... and the bank will deny without proper ID.
>
>Aah. Yeah, I can make deposits for other people here too. What you can't
>do here that banks in other areas let you do is deposit a third-party chekc
>into your account.

I don't believe that is allowed here. But then again, Minnesota likes
to do what California does, just on a smaller scale ... and sometimes
the reverse happens on a bigger scale (i.e. police putting out car
bait for theives! ... that was started here).

Tom Veldhouse

I don't think you can activate service without a password.


Isaiah Beard wrote:

> John Richards wrote:
>
>
>> I think you overestimate Sprint's security procedures.
>> What if the OP was a female, impersonated the ill mother and requested
>> Sprint to cancel the account. What else would she need beside the SSN
>> to make it happen?
>
>
> A password, actually. Each account can be protected with a password
> with a password, and is different from your SSN or any other identifying
> info, to prevent just that sort of thing from happening, and every
> Sprint rep will tell you about this upon establishing a new account. One
> a password is set, no changes will ever be made until you can come up
> with the password. Have you set up one on yours?
>
> Of course, if one is stupid and refuses to set up a password, then the
> reps must rely on your SSN to make changes.
>
> And besides, while I concede that a foolishly unprotected account could
> possibly be compromised by a successful impersonator, that doesn't mean
> Sprint should drop their security policies and make EVERY account
> vulnerable to attack.
>
>