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A Perth man whose identity was used to set up a fraudulent mobile phone account with Telstra is questioning why more stringent identity checks were not done.
Beau Gellard became aware of the account this week after his mother told him a phone bill addressed to him had arrived at her home.
"My mother lives in Bunbury and I haven't lived there for 10 years," he told ABC Radio Perth.
Mr Gellard instantly knew something was wrong — he did not have a phone account with Telstra, and he had also recently been notified that his credit score had changed.
"I had no idea I was doing any credit changing activity."
Random licence and Medicare details
Mr Gellard said he had spent hours trying to get the account closed and his credit history reinstated.
"I was on the phone for at least two hours and was transferred to five different people," he said.
"The last person I spoke to told me to go to the nearest Telstra store and take my identification and they could do something about it.
"I went to my local store and they told me I had to ring the number on the bill."
Eventually he discovered the account had been set up online, using his name, date of birth and his mother's address.
The applicant had supplied a driver's licence number and Medicare card details, but they did not match Mr Gellard's.
"It's quite concerning," he said.
"Whenever you apply for a product online you get a false sense of security that when you put your driver's licence ID or passport ID into the website that you are somehow secure, however obviously that didn't happen in this case.
"According to Telstra, the person put a random driver's licence and Medicare number into the internet and they were accepted as mine."
Ongoing concerns about credit rating
Telstra has now suspended the account.
Mr Gellard said he was still concerned about his credit score and whether the phone had been used in any sort of illegal activity.
"I have just got married, I'm in the process of looking for a home, and the next step would be to apply for a home loan," he said.
"I work at a bank and I know that one of the variables that determines your credit decision is whether you have had any defaults from a financial institution or telecommunications company."
In a statement to the ABC, a Telstra spokesman said the company had suspended the account and would not pass on any information regarding Mr Gellard to credit rating agencies.
"We have investigated and found that someone has fraudulently used Beau's details to create an account," the spokesman said.
"In fact, some person has actually signed for the delivery of a handset.
"Sadly, this is an example to be extra vigilant with personal details."
But Mr Gellard thinks it is Telstra that needs to be more vigilant in checking identity information when accounts are opened online.
"When you put your ID into the internet, you would expect that a human would check the identification is correct," he said.
Topics: mobile-phones, consumer-protection, information-and-communication, crime, perth-6000