[boxermansr]

Tried to post this awhile ago, but the page kept timing out, so I'll just copy/paste what I posted over on another forum.. This is what I *think* is going on with these claims, and what not.

We'll use three people, John, Paul, and Joe (makes it easier, hah), who are the buyers, and we'll say the seller is Dave.

Dave lists Touch PRO's (or diamonds) for sale. John, Paul and Joe all pay for them. Dave doesn't disclose to his buyers that someone else will actually be shipping the phones to the buyers (in this case, Dave himself, doesn't even know that the phones that.. we'll say Steve (the one whos filing the claims with Asurion/Sprint), is shipping, are in fact being obtained via fraud).

Now, to make the most sense of this, we'll say that all three buyers HAVE insurance, here's how *I* think it's working out, as far as claims go.

Steve gets the orders from Dave (name to ship to, address, etc). Steve himself (or someone who Steve has on the inside of Sprint) is obtaining account information (since Sprint AND Asurion both "claim" that the account holders PIN is needed to file a claim) - I don't see how else Steve could be getting that, unless he works for, or knows someone who works for Sprint.

Anyhow, Steve files a claim using John's account information (his wireless number and his account PIN, which he, as not yet determined, obtained). Instead of having that phone shipped to JOHN, that phones going to PAUL. Then, Steve files a claim on Paul's account with Paul's information, and has THAT phone shipped to JOE.

Now, we can't go past Joe, since we only defined three buyers here, but either Joe will get the phone that will be sent based off a claim of the next buyer, or Joe won't get anything at all (he'll end up getting a refund from the seller however).

Joe may not get his phone for a few reasons; mainly because Sprint/Asurion don't have Touch Pro's right now (or are getting them slowly back in stock).. however the scammer (Steve) may, or may not still go ahead and file a claim using Joe's information to fulfil the phone order for the next buyer. Joe will still end up not getting anything from the seller (who in this case is still Dave, since he's the one who listed the items).

Dave keeps trying at this point to contact Steve, who pretty much has up and vanished, so, Dave has to start refunding people. NOW.. IF Steve did file a claim with JOE's info, then Joe *is* going to see a 50.00 deductable charge on his next bill.

It has nothing to do with whether or not joe ever got a phone, it has to do with the fact that a CLAIM was filed on HIS account.

This is exactly what happened to ME. I purchased the phone, and ended up getting a refund. The scammer (Steve) still had my information that Dave (the seller) had forwarded to him when I paid, therefore, Steve went ahead and filed a claim with MY account, to fulfil someone else's purchase.

I try to think of this as a chain, it goes from one link to the next, and so on.. If my explaination sucks, I'm sorry, it's been a long day, and this is the best way I could think to explain it.

For those who have purchased from certain buyers, there's nothing that I can tell you will ENSURE that you will, or that you WON'T see a charge on your bill. If you DON'T have insurance on your account, most likely you WON'T be charged a deductable (you can't be, cuz you don't HAVE insurance) **BUT**, don't be surprised if Sprint does contact you, telling you that you have a device that was obtained via an insurance claim on someone elses account.

Asurion does have the ESN's of these devices, and I'm pretty sure at some point they will research where they went, and who's accounts they are on. It completely sucks that the innocent people get screwed here.

I managed to get the 50.00 deductable credited back, my next concern was them blacklisting the ESN on my current phone (since they were expecting a phone back from ME, based on the claim that was filed). They also took care of that, so I won't have to worry about the ESN being blacklisted either.

Anyhow, no need to drag this post on forever. In a nutshell, I think this is how the scam is working. Sucks for the original seller (but then again, it's probably not wise to let someone else handle your orders for you, and mess your feedback up), and it sucks for the buyers. The ones who get hit with the charges, and the ones who potentially will get calls from Sprint (I'm not saying anyone will, I don't work for Sprint, but as others have pointed out, Sprint and Asurion KNOW the ESN's of the replacements they send out). I can only hope, that to be fair to those folks, that Sprint works some type of deal out with them, since they were the unwitting victims of someone elses BS.

Also - that to those who are getting insurance flyers, and/or return kits in your box, that's there mainly because Sprint's expecting the "broken" phone that was claimed, in order to send you the new one, back in.

Just because they are there, doesn't mean that YOU will be hit with a charge (someone else probably already was, that being the person who's account the claim was filed UNDER).

As I said though, there COULD be a chance that in those cases Sprint does contact those people. Don't quote me on that, because as I said, I'm speculating. I just feel that anyone who THINKS it could happen, hold onto everything if you can (the box, any papers that came in it, etc).