Woman's info used to get cellphone

COEUR d'ALENE - A 65-year-old Coeur d'Alene woman told police that someone in Florida has been using her information for months in order to get a cellphone plan.

According to a Coeur d'Alene Police Department incident report, the woman contacted police Friday morning and told them someone used her name and Social Security number to open an account with Sprint.

"(She) said over the past few days, she has been receiving phone calls from Sprint saying she owed them money," the report states. "(She) knew that was not possible as her phone was under her daughter's account in a family plan."

The woman then told police that her daughter checked with Sprint and was told someone opened up a fraudulent account in her name. When the woman called to get further information, the report states that she was told the account was opened in June in Boca Raton, Fla.

"(She) did not seem to have any idea how her personal information was made available for someone else to use," the report states.

However, she did tell the officer that "some time ago" she noticed charges on her Netflix account in reference to "currency exchanges." She was told by a Netflix employee that they reported the matter as an error "due to similar email addresses," which should have corrected the issue.

According to the officer's report, the woman said she wanted to look into this matter again because of the issue with the fraudulent Sprint account.

Under the advisement of the Sprint employee, the woman asked the officer to take a report of the incident and informed him that the phone company was investigating the matter.