American Expatriate Costa Rica

13,000 phone lines opened with stolen identity

A young professional claims his identity and personal data were stolen to open 13 thousand cell phone lines.

The man, who asked to protect his identity by the effects of the investigation, told the press that it wasn’t until two weeks ago when he realized what was happening.

Agents of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) called him to inform him of an investigation into a possible crime of robbery or theft where a telephone line was used in his name.

The man, 35, explained his situation to the investigators, who immediately advised him to find out the details with the telephone company.

After approaching the company -private telephony- they informed him that there were 12,401 lines to his name. A couple of days later the figure had increased to 13 thousand.

On Saturday night another OIJ officer contacted me again for another case of robbery and theft. And on Sunday, two citations from the Contravening and Small Claims Court came to my parent’s house for the process of ‘mortifying calls’,”

said the victim, who was offered all necessary means by the judicial police to file a complaint for identity theft.

He made the efforts to cancel the telephone lines but the process is barely in the risk department of the phone company.

According to the law, victims of this type of crime must first file a complaint with the Superintendent of Telecommunications (Sutel), and then go to file a complaint with the OIJ.

The main concern of the man lies in three aspects: the suspicion of organized planning to steal identities, the lack of protection of those who suffer a similar situation and how easy it is to open telephone lines.

Since 2014, the OIJ has warned about identity theft to open of prepaid telephone lines.

crhoy.com