Help !!!!!

[nanabear2010]

Hi all, my mother lives in a unit which is in a complex with other units. Her neighbour ( who I shall call Jenny  Jones ) called her over and showed her a letter she received from Telstra. It was a courtesy notification from Telstra stating and I quote " Hi Jenny Jones,      we're writing to let you know that Barbara Smith ( this is what I will call my mother ) has recently completed a telstra.com online account registration to access your account.

This registration provides access to your account details, bills and services in My Account and other Telstra online services. If you have any queries or concerns about this registration please contact us via live chat. I have since found out that Jenny does not have a landline and her mobile phone is with Boost prepaid. My mother has no idea how to access the internet and doesn't have a computer. Does anyone have any ideas what could be going on. I did contact live chat but they needed details about Jenny that I just didn't have and truthfully don't want to know. My mother is 81 and beside herself with worry. Luckily for her, Jenny and her go way back but what if this letter had been sent to someone who doesn't know my mother. Any ideas guys.

[ForensicsGuru]

This must be some really bad joke between the residents... I cannot even phantom how that could be real...
Or, very poor and bad taste attempt to discredit Telstra...

[nanabear2010]

Excuse me but this is no joke and my mother is distraught so if you have no solutions please don't insinuate things. The letter is from telstra with a telstra letterhead and these are elderly people

[ForensicsGuru]

I am not trying to insinuate anything, I am trying to help...
I am sorry, but if you give me your e-mail or postal address, I can send you plethora of letters on Telstra letterhead (or other reputable companies and institutions)... Get real, anyone can scan one and then pretend to be Telstra - haven't you heard about such scam e-mails/letter from ATO and other government agencies before?

[nanabear2010]

[DrQ]

If it was legit, they are usually sent when someone who is on another persons account as an authority registers for MyAccount, so you might want to recommend the neighbor checks to see if she has any authorities on the account and correct it.

Again if it is legit, it means someone has registered for MyAccount using the neighbours account information as your mother with your mothers authority on the neighbours account.

If the neighbor fixes up the authority that would fix it to prevent access via that.

[Ozmoz]

Telstra isn't doing anything wrong. In fact, they are letting you know someone might be (Assuming it is actually from them).

I see this letter as a good thing personally.

If it was me I would do what @DrQ has suggested and check who has authority.

[Jupiter]

Assuming that the letter is legitimate (and it does look like it is), then it is definitely something to worry about (especially if you are correct in saying that your mother's neighbour doesn't have any Telstra services).

It may be that someone in the area has been raiding letter boxes or rubbish bins and gained enough identifying information on both your mother and her neighbour to open up an account in your mother's neighbour's name and then added access using you mother's ID.

They both need to give Telstra a call on 132200 and report this, as it could be identity theft in action.

[JesseH]

Hey nanabear2010, 

This is quite strange, I can understand your concern. 

I want to make sure that this is investigated and resolved, can I please confirm if you've got in contact with any of our teams directly as suggested above? If so, what have you been advised? 

If you haven't, that's fine - let me know and I can assist in getting this looked into. 

- JesseH

[nanabear2010 · Accepted solution]

Hi all thank you for your suggestions and ideas. Telstra called me today and it has all been fixed. Apparently the neighbour at some time had given my mothers name to them when she was having issues with her phone ( before the nbn ) when she cancelled the service. My mother knew nothing of this though. Everything has now been fixed.