I thought I posted these links before, when I got my phone from dmilton
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=144983
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news...4/04/88853.htm
The second link (quoted below) shows that Asurion HAS been aware of scams like this in the past (April 0
and still has huge holes in their system as evidenced by this thread.
I personally spent two hours on the phone wish Asurion, trying to inform them of this scheme that dmilton is involved in, costing them likely $100k a month or more. They said it sounds like Sprint might be interested but Asurion's job is just to ship phones for sprint after verifying, they said it's sprints money so I'd have to report it to them. I spent another 90 minutes calling every dept at sprint who would listen to me, corporate security loss prevention etc. Eventually they said I'd have to send them an email to some controller/loss prevention dept--they wouldn't even speak to me about stopping a multi million dollar fraud case which has obviously happened to them before this.
Sprint is so negligent here, first by allowing access to private info such as phone numbers addresses and PINs, and also by not closing the gap after they were first burned by the scam mentioned in the article. Come on what would it really take them to fix it? A big warning letter shipped with asurion replacement phones stating it is fraud if you ordered this as a paid phone? A policy to NEVER allow drop ships to an address other than the customer address on record (or to a newly changed address), unless the credit card used for the insurance $50 payment matches a CCV/address verifification?
Eventually the sellers will move on to scam sprint for different model phones. why? asurion will start to get refurb'd diamonds in stock instead of the nicely packed retail boxes.
As for me, I got my refund from dmilton without sending the phone back to the seller (am I THAT stupid? ship it back to him so that he can resell it AND sprint still shows my address as the ship to on the fraudulent phone). I am waiting for sprint to contact me back to follow up, in the meantime I'm using the phone since I had already made arrangements to sell my old phone.
Nearly Dozen Arrested for $2 Million California Insurance Fraud Scam
April 4, 2008
"...Wireless phone dealers, employees and customers were arrested for their purported involvement in a $2 million insurance scam. the Department of Insurance said. "
"...insurance administrator Asurion Corp. (previously lock/line) reported suspected fraudulent claims. "
".... After selling a wireless phone to a customer, a store employee, associate, or owner will file a claim with the insurance company for a lost or stolen phone. After the insurance company sends a replacement cellular phone, the dealer sells or gives away the replacement phone free to a new customer. CDI said this scheme is often repeated on new wireless phone accounts, without the original customer's knowledge that an insurance claim was made on his or her account. CDI's said its investigation uncovered approximately $2 million worth of replacement wireless phones that were shipped out by Asurion as a result of this fraud scheme. This investigation continues, and CDI said it expects to make more arrests. "