She assured me that AT&T would help clean up the consequences of the ID theft, like removing the account from collections, alerting the credit reporting agencies that it should be removed from my report, etc.  I, in turn, assured her that I knew that AT&T was doing that, and that it was good; however, that was not the issue I needed them to address.

I reminded her that in my e-mail to the CEO I specifically requested to receive the documents to which I am entitled under the FCRA.  She asked what that was and what it allowed me to receive.  Oh, gosh.  Maybe this is the whole problem: AT&T is unaware of the federal legislation that is in place to assist victims of identity theft.

I went on to explain that the police officer assigned to my account had requested this information and had been told in no uncertain terms that AT&T would not provide it.  She said that she didn’t know what the officer requested, and that maybe AT&T couldn’t provide what he requested.  I explained to her in general terms what the FCRA entitles me to.  Basically, I’m entitled to any information the account holder would have access to.  I’m pretty sure AT&T is more than able to provide that sort of thing.

Then I mentioned the grand jury subpoena that the officer submitted a month ago for the information and she assured me that “AT&T cooperates fully with the police department.”  I immediately shared with her that “cooperation” was not the impression either the police officer or I got from speaking with the AT&T reps.

She stammered a little and asked if she could call back tomorrow once she had gotten the chance to review the information.  Of course, be my guest.  Please come back with an answer and those documents I want.

All in all, Nancy was very nice but I do not trust anyone at a large corporation to do anything but cover their butts.  I’m pretty sure she’ll “discover” that they were just putting it all together and it’ll be sent off to me shortly.  Riiiiiiiight.

More info after the break!

Edit, 12:38pm: Customer service contacted me.  I briefly explained my beef and was as polite as I could possibly be considering how pissed I am.  I didn’t yell, didn’t blame the rep, and ended the call with a “have a good day.”  That’s all I can do.

Sadly, however, the call accomplished nothing.  The rep told me there’s really nothing she can do about it because the fraud department handles subpoenas and identity theft, etc.  Uh, great.  Then why even get in contact with me if you can’t do anything?  It’s not like my tweets weren’t clear about what’s going on.

Guess I get to talk to the fraud department again after class.  Fucking fanTASTIC.

Edit, 10:33pm: Actually, I’m going to skip the phone maze altogether and call Gina Cain with AT&T’s Office of the President to see if they’ll whistle a tune other than, “Sorry, can’t help you.”

Edit, 10:52pm:  Never mind.  I found something even better.  I sent an e-mail to the CEO of AT&T, Randall Stephenson, regarding this whole debacle.

I definitely tried to appeal to the “I’m a fellow human being just asking for help” perspective, with a little bit of pandering to his power thrown in for effect.  It seems to work on the regular reps, wonder how it’ll work for the CEO?  My e-mail read as follows:

Mr. Stephenson,

I am writing to you because AT&T has severely disappointed me in the handling of two AT&T accounts being opened fraudulently in my name. I have spoken with several fraud department representatives with no hope of getting anywhere, and the police officer assigned to my case has been unsuccessful in obtaining information to which I am entitled under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Yes, the AT&T reps have stopped collections on the fraudulent accounts. The accounts (save the inquiry made when the accounts were opened) does not appear on my credit report. What the reps have failed to understand, however, is that identity theft does not stop when you remove the fraudulent information from my credit reports. The thief is still out there using my information and I have no guarantee that it won’t happen again. If AT&T provided the account information to me when it was requested in January, I would have been able to provide it to a police officer for a real investigation. AT&T tells me they will investigate, but that evidently means, “read your identity theft affidavit and don’t pursue anything.” That’s straight from a conversation with one of your AT&T representatives, by the way.

It might not matter to a faceless representative, or to someone like you who has enough money to make the problem of identity theft disappear, but it matters a great deal to me. I’m a married college student trying to break into the “real” world. I graduate this year and my husband and I plan on buying a house. Not only that, but I will be looking to start a career. How well is that going to work with an identity thief on the run with my personal information? If AT&T would provide the documentation to which I am entitled, I may be able to provide the police with enough information to stop the thief. At the very least it could uncover a pattern of usage that could set the foundation for future investigation should the thief use my information again.

I am asking you to please provide me with the information the FCRA entitles me to as a victim of identity theft. Speaking with the representatives available through the provided numbers has done nothing but waste my time. You are someone who has the authority to do something, so please help me out. I’m in a terrible situation and it would be nice to see some humanity behind the faceless AT&T company.

In January I received a call from a collection agency attempting to collect on “my” debt of nearly $600 to AT&T.  I have never had an AT&T account, but am an authorized user on my husband’s account.  I explained to the debt collector that it must be a mistake, but she recited my personal information – including my Social Security Number – and I realized I had a problem.

I immediately spoke with the AT&T Wireless Fraud department.  They told me they would stop collection on the account and “investigate” the incident. Yes, those quotes are there for a reason.  Keep reading.  I filled out the required forms and provided identification via mail to prove my identity, and am currently awaiting a response back.  I also filed a police report, but the officer assigned to my case has had great difficultly getting any information from AT&T.  He resorted to serving a subpoena to obtain the documents I am entitled to under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but he was essentially told that AT&T would not provide him with anything.  The officer told me that it’s very common for large corporations like AT&T to refuse to cooperate and there is really no recourse.  Bet you thought ignoring a subpoena resulted in consequences, right?  Me too.  Apparently that only applies to people like you and me.  AT&T is above the law.

Earlier this week I discovered that the thief hadn’t just used my SSN to open an AT&T wireless account.  I found another collection notice in the mail from a different service.  At first I suspected a scam, but in talking with the rep over the phone it seemed that there was another AT&T account in my name.  Thing was, it was an AT&T landline/internet account.  Evidently it’s a department entirely separate from AT&T Wireless, so of course no one at AT&T landline/internet knew a thing about the identity theft on the other account.  I am awaiting a new affidavit in the mail to fill out and send off to them to “investigate.”  I was told it would be here today.  If it’s not sitting in my mailbox tomorrow I’m going to have an unpleasant conversation with the fraud department.

I was speculating as to how many other fraudulent accounts I will eventually discover when I received an email from the officer assigned to my case. It read as follows:

“You’re not going to believe this. . .  I contacted AT&T fraud/ID theft division at (866) 718-2011 and spoke with a representative.  The rep advised me there was really nothing I could do as far as investigating the case and they are not going to investigate it either.  The rep went on to state that there is really no way to determine who is responsible for this and they simply write it off as a loss.  I was literally at a loss for words.  According to AT&T you simply need to fill out the paperwork they sent you and return it.

I told AT&T that they are also a victim in this matter and I was wanting to find the suspect responsible.  They told me “it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack” so they just write it off.  The problem with this is it affects people like us.  They write it off, but you’re stuck with the problem.  It’s frustrating for me, because I can’t do my job and it’s frustrating for you because I can’t do my job to help you.  I’m sorry that I am unable to be of any help, but if anything else comes up I will be glad to try again. Anyway, thank you for your patience and understanding.”

Yep, you read that right. AT&T isn’t investigating a damn thing. Not only that, but I spoke with a AT&T rep at my local AT&T store and he said fraud like this happens all the time. The thieves open an account online and aren’t required to verify their identity at all before the account is activated. There are no checks, no verification processes, and no consequences. I bet AT&T chooses not to cooperate with police because it’s cheaper for them to write off the cost of ID theft rather than enact measures to prevent it.

I have activated 7-year fraud alerts on my credit reports, but it’s not going to help in my situation.  The two AT&T accounts I know about never hit the credit report.  They were sent to collections but since they haven’t been in collections for too long, my credit report doesn’t reflect those collections either.  I’m finding out about these accounts past the time for prevention, so I am just going to have to sit back and see what else rolls in.

Let me tell you, collection agencies are not nice.  They have accused me of trying to evade “my” debt, they call me a deadbeat, they tell me they don’t want me giving them false information, etc.  Luckily I can tell them not to call me again and they must comply, but I’m not looking forward to finding more collection accounts.  What is unfortunate is that I end up being a bitch to the collector on the phone because I’m sick of them talking to me like I’m a deadbeat even after I explain that the account isn’t mine.  And heaven forbid anyone try to contact me at work to collect a debt.  I will raise hell if that happens.  I mean, how embarrassing would that be even if it’s due to identity theft?

I want to spread my story because it is roadblocks set up by the companies involved that can often prevent the resolution of identity theft.  They may remove fraudulent information from my credit reports, but the reality is that there is still some asshole running around out there using my information.  Cooperating with police would at least offer a chance of catching the thief, but in my case AT&T thinks it’s better to keep police in the dark and prevent me from pursuing a real solution.

In my case, my identity is being used less than 70 miles away from my home.  I’m powerless to stop it because no one involved gives a damn about stopping it.  They want to sweep it under the rug and ignore the consequences that affect victims of identity theft for years after the original theft occurred.  For me, it’s been three years since I first had my identity stolen and this recent rash of collection notices proves that nothing was solved the first time.  It’s looking like nothing will be solved this time either, and it will continue to happen for years to come.

All I really want right now is for AT&T to provide me with the documents I am entitled to by law under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the documents that they have refused to provide to either me or the police.  I have filed a complaint against them with the FTC but I doubt much will come from that.  It seems to me that AT&T does not value me or my husband as customers – remember, my husband has an account with them – and it shows in their treatment of my identity theft issue.  In fact, it looks like they shelter the thieves by not cooperating with law enforcement and not conducting any real investigation as promised.  I don’t think I want to continue doing business with a company that sides with thieves.  When our contract is up (and it will be soon), we’re canceling our service.

TL;DR – AT&T won’t give me the information I’m entitled to under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  They won’t cooperate with police and ignored a subpoena.  In my eyes, they’re shielding identity thieves and hurting victims of identity theft.

Please share this story with as many people as possible.  I think that the only way I will see any action taken is to embarrass the hell out of AT&T.  If legal means don’t work, there’s always public humiliation.

P.S. While the accounts didn’t show up on my credit report, two hard inquiries were made and impacted my credit score.  It is worth noting that since I contested the inquiries on my credit report, my score shot up 20 thirty points.  Since my husband and I will be graduating soon and will be attempting to buy a house when we move, this ID theft could seriously fuck up our plans.  If this ID theft continues and affects our ability to get a mortgage, I will be looking straight at you, AT&T, for not honoring my rights as a victim of identity theft.

I bought some coconut oil conditioner last week, thinking it would be nice to use.  I haven’t tried the “real” coconut oil in my hair, but have wanted to.  Problem is, I use coconut oil to cook with, and didn’t want to mix bath and kitchen purposes with the same container.  I thought I had solved my problem by getting the coconut oil conditioner.  Oh, how very wrong I was.

I had just shampooed my hair on Saturday morning when I remembered the tub of coconut oil conditioner.  I scooped some out and slapped one hand on the top of my head, reaching around and grasping my long hair in the other.  I moved my hands to spread it around, then stopped as I suddenly realized that something was very wrong.  The stuff was so viscous it wouldn’t move.  I tried to rinse it off but it just seemed to cling on to my hair and hands.

I panicked, trying to scrape it out of hair, and then grabbed the container to see if I had used it wrong.  I must have missed the words “water-resistant” emblazoned on the container, but I sure saw them now.  Crap, I thought, how am I going to wash water-resistant shit out of my hair?  I have to be at work in thirty fucking minutes!

I quickly shampooed my hair again twice, hoping it would help.  Nope.  I picked up the tub again to read the ingredients, hoping my meager chemistry knowledge would be of some help.  Only three ingredients, and the first one was clearly the problem.  A big problem.

Readers, don’t ever, ever, ever buy hair products that use petrolatum jelly as a main ingredient.

I knew there was no way I was getting that shit out of my hair before work.  I didn’t even have time to Google a way to get it out, much less actually follow any instructions at that point, so I brushed it back into a ponytail then turned that ponytail into a bun.  It looked like I had a helmet of hair.  It was awful.  When I got to work I saw my GM do a double-take but thankfully she didn’t ask what the fuck was wrong with my normally not-weird hair.

When I got home last night I was too tired to do a damn thing with it, and I knew showering wasn’t going to help anything.  I went to bed promising myself that I’d get up early to Google a solution.

I overslept.  Fuck.  I went ahead and hopped in the shower, knowing full well that all the shampoo in the world wouldn’t help.  Just as I thought, it didn’t.  At least by this point a good half of the jelly had either washed out or been absorbed by my pillow while I slept, so my hair didn’t look as helmet-y as it did Saturday.

I just got home and Googled my problem, and thank God it’s an easy solution…it’s just too bad that I didn’t have a chance to look it up before work today because it’s really quite easy and I have everything on hand.  If I had had just 15 extra minutes this morning I think I could have gotten it washed out before work.  Aw.

I’m about to go wash my hair in olive oil, then dish soap.  I’ll let you know how it works out.  If it doesn’t I’m going to smell like olive oil and still have helmet hair, which I guess isn’t too much worse.

Update: It worked.  I’m pretty sure I could have skipped the olive oil, but maybe that’s just because it was so gross.  Perhaps it helped moisturize before stripping everything away.  In any case, my hair is now petrolatum-jelly-free, and hopefully won’t smell too strongly of olive oil today.  I shampooed and conditioned as normal after the degreasing ritual, but I swear I still smell olive oil.  I hope I’m imagining it.

Bonus update:  I Googled the coconut oil shit I used and found out that African Americans are the primary users, followed by Elvis Impersonators.  I kid you not, I found this shit on a 50′s paraphernalia website.  That would explain a lot – go search Google images for Elvis Presley and look at that kid’s hair.  Did he use half the tub to get that look?  Holy shit.  This shit might be great for those stuck in the past, or for those with hair that needs the extra protection, but it is not so great for my caucasian hair.  I have somewhat manageable shiny hair that doesn’t need any extra slickness.  It makes me look homeless and/or socially awkward.  Well, more awkward than normal I guess.

Hubby met with the graduate advisor today and after a pleasant 2-hour conversation the advisor said something that brought tears to our eyes.  He said my husband is the ONLY person they have admitted thus far for the physics graduate program.  He patted a large stack of papers and explained that the committee was still going through them all and wouldn’t send out more letters for at least a couple of weeks.

The graduate advisor approved my husband’s acceptance because:

1) He believes that grades are not an indicator of intelligence or passion.  My husband’s grades are good but his physics GRE was abysmal.  He changed majors late in the game so didn’t have three of the classes it tested over, so about 60% of the test material was foreign to him.  He performed well on the parts he knew, but…yeah.  His mentor included in his letter of rec that he did not believe the GRE score reflected my husband’s aptitude for the subject, and the graduate advisor respected that.

2) My husband submitted his application back in September, months before the deadline.  He double-checked that the department received all of his documents and was very cordial in his correspondence.  This showed the advisor that my husband is on top of things, responsible, and really cares about things being done right and on time.  Regarding the correspondence, the advisor literally said, “You seem like a very nice person.”  Yep, he told us that he has rescinded offers before because prospective students have been rude or thrown temper tantrums.  My husband showed himself to be the kind of graduate student he wants to have at the school.

3) The reason he didn’t wait to send out my husband’s acceptance letter with everyone else’s was to ensure that my husband knew he had a place to go.  The advisor was impressed and wanted to make sure his school’s name was in my husband’s mind while considering where to go.  He also said that if hubby accepts the offer but later finds out he’s admitted to his first choice, hubby should go to his first choice.  I kid you not, the guy told my husband that he shouldn’t go to this school if he got a better offer, and would understand withdrawal in that event.  In short, my hubby IS their top pick at present moment, but they realize other schools probably want him too.  This particular advisor is more about the learning process and less about the end result, which is why he’s so chill with the “go where you’ll be best off” attitude.

In short, today has been awesome.  I’m loving the city – my old hometown where I grew up – and I think we could be very happy here.  Just waiting to hear back from his first choice, then we’ll need to go visit there too.

In other news, my hubby got an acceptance letter from a grad school already!  Three days after the application deadline he was accepted to his second-choice school!  They’re waiving more than a third of his tuition and giving him a teaching assistantship, so he’d basically get paid $1000/month to go there.  We’re still waiting to hear back from his first choice school to see what they offer him.  Second-choice school boasts a safer city, is a gun-friendly area, and has lower cost of living…but first choice school will waive all tuition and give a bigger stipend if he’s accepted.  Then again, first-choice school’s city is not gun-friendly.  They say that when you take the number of guns in Texas compared to the population, each person has 10 guns on average.  Let’s just say we have more than our fair share.  Decisions, decisions.  Things important to us, in order: each other, our dog, our guns.  So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.

Next week we will be attempting to get our hands on a Dan Wesson .357 mag Pistol Pack. WOO HOO!

Oh!  In other-other news, we will not be going overseas as planned.  Long story.  In a nutshell, it’s not our decision but is probably for the best considering our financials.  So I guess that means me buying a new gun recently and my husband planning to buy another one next week is alright.  We don’t drink (often) or smoke or do drugs, but we buy guns like candy.  It’s our only vice.  I guess that’s a good thing in many ways. They’re useful, we typically only buy under market value so that we can recoup any investment, and they’re pretty.  They also don’t ruin our health like other vices.  In fact, since we go shooting outdoors so often I’d argue it’s the only reason we go outside for fresh air.  Three cheers for firearms!

Edit: The comment about money was written in a haze of anger and was meant as an indicator of how much money I’m going to be out once everything is said and done, not counting any additional student loans.  I do not actually want you guys to send me money.  Unless you really are a millionaire, in which case send as much as you want.  Thanks much.

My prof gives us facts and we don’t get into discussions about morality or what we think or even what he thinks.  It’s quite obvious that he finds this part of American history disgusting and depressing, but he means it when he says the classroom is not a forum for airing our own thoughts about the topic.  He is there to teach us a forgotten block of history – a very serious and sad block of history – and he teaches it well.  I love this prof because he tells it like it is and lets you form your own opinion on the matter.  Obviously I would hope no one agrees with the public torture lynchings we’re studying, but if they take the facts and decide they’re for it, then I suppose that’s their right.  I would think they’re soulless bastards without care for human life, but it’s their right to think what they want to think.

I never learned about lynching in such detail before, and I feel anger towards my high school for not teaching it.  I suppose someone high up in local government thought our own history was too embarrassing to teach, or that it wasn’t important.  Perhaps someone in the schools thought it was too graphic for our innocent young minds, or even approved of those torturous punishments.  Personally, I think no one wants to teach it because they want to pretend it didn’t happen.  It is absolutely an embarrassing part of history, but teaching young people what happened – what really happened, not a sugar-coated version – needs to happen lest we forget it entirely.  Americans are up in arms about countries that assert the Holocaust never happened, yet we look the other way when our own people want to forget the terrorism against blacks, citizens of our own country.  That is not to say that the Holocaust is in any way trivial, but I want to impress upon you that lynching is no better.

We’ve been in class for almost two weeks now, and the amount of information we’ve been given is astounding.  I am enjoying soaking up this previously unknown chunk of history and it is changing the way I think about racial relations, especially since I live in a state that actively promoted lynchings.  In fact, early in the 20th century the denizens of my city burned down our courthouse in order to kill a black man awaiting trial inside.  The man burned to death and was hung from a nearby tree once the mob got their hands on his corpse.

This morning was when disappointment made itself known.  We were waiting for the prof to hand out our midterm when he sighed and said, “I need to address something before we begin.  It has come to my attention that there is some dissension among the class about who this class is appropriate for.  By that I mean who should be taking the class and who shouldn’t.  Let me be clear: this class is for anyone and everyone.  This is a terrible part of American history that doesn’t get much attention and I am teaching it because it needs to be taught.  If no one teaches it, we will forget it.  It’s a terrible thing to forget such tragedy.  That being said, if you have a problem with someone or a group of someones enrolled in this class, make it known publicly.  We can address this and get it out of the way so we can continue.  Whether you’re white or black or purple, you need to know this information.  It’s not like you didn’t know what this class was when you signed up, and I’m not gearing it towards any race or attempting to offend any race.  I’m telling you what happened and the views that were prominent in that time.”

No one spoke, and everyone looked around in bewilderment, wondering who had a problem with a person (or persons of a particular race) taking the class.  I can see two likely scenarios:

1) There are four blacks in the class but the rest of us are white or asian.  The one black male seems to throw himself back in his chair and present an attitude during class; everyone else in the class is leaning forward in their chairs at rapt attention.  He may have argued with the prof that he’s being too graphic about the lynchings, that it’s offensive to him and the class is geared for white students.

2) The more likely scenario is that a white student was upset and confronted the prof about how whites who lived in the era we’re discussing (1890 onward) seem to be villainized in the class.  Of course they’re going to sound bad…look at what they did!  They would take photos of themselves next to lynched blacks and they put them on postcards, for God’s sake!  The Postmaster General allowed those postcards to be sent via U.S. Mail.  People wrote things on them like, “This is the barbecue we had last night,” and sent them to family.  The federal government, to this day, has never legislated against lynchings.  People took souvenirs from the lynchings including pieces of rope, body parts, and clothing of the lynched person.  They had no respect for the lives of blacks, treating them as inhuman beasts.  I’m embarrassed by the history but I’m glad I finally know the extent of the cruelty.

In short, in the case of either scenario, I’m disappointed that someone even brought up the topic of what races are taking the class.  It’s history that includes us all and it’s taught as bluntly as possible.  There is no sugar-coating and it’s presented for what it is.  Anyone who signed up for the class was required to have an office visit with the prof, and he explicitly told them what to expect.  It’s a damn shame, but I guess not entirely unexpected in my southern still-racist town.

As a server, this is annoying as fuck because parents tend to give kids messy foods that are incredibly difficult to get off of the carpet.  Macaroni and cheese – and pasta in general – can be mashed into carpet and our carpet rollers (referred to as hokies) do NOT pick it up.  I have to pick that shit up with my bare hands, which does not make me happy in the slightest.  Crackers or cereal, when mashed into the carpet, are equally impossible to get out of the carpet since the little crumbs lodge themselves in the fibers.  I can’t hokie it up, nor can I use my fingers to pick it up, so my section will look like crap for the rest of the night and I will spend twice as long cleaning it up at the end of the night before I can go home.

The biggest reason I find this practice distasteful is also the reason this post is on my personal blog, not my work blog.  I want you all to think about this for a second.  What might be on that table that your baby is rolling its food in before eating?  If you answered germs, you’re wrong.  By the way, germs help build a strong immune system and kids should be exposed to as many as possible.

If you answered bleach, you win!  We wipe down our tables with a bleach-based sanitizer, and I don’t mean we lightly mist the table and wipe it clean.  We soak that table in bleach mixture, then wipe it around because the towel doesn’t soak it all up.  It will dry quickly, but that means a large amount of bleach is probably still on the table.  I don’t know about you, but last time I checked, bleach is very bad to ingest.  Letting your baby eat directly off the table is not only annoying as fuck for your server, but also not good for your baby.

I was just thinking about posting this during lunch, and I decided I had to when I looked at the adjacent table and saw a cute baby dressed in pink, shoveling food into its mouth directly off the table.  I cringed and almost said something, but the mom was obviously too busy with her iPhone to feed the kid herself, so she probably wouldn’t tear herself away to listen to me.

I understand that kids under a certain age can’t be trusted with plates, but that doesn’t mean your kid has to eat directly off the table.  I’ve seen parents use these disposable sticky placemat-type things so that their kid can eat off a bleach-free surface.  Hell, you could even buy a durable plastic placemat and rig it to work in the same way if you didn’t want to spend money over and over to keep your kid from eating bleach.