I was scammed by a third party claiming to be associated with AT&T and Target. What should I do now?

If the transaction took place in a Target, it was NOT an AT&T employee nor a Target employee.  Kiosks inside of stores (Target, Sam’s, BJ’s, etc.) are manned by 3rd party companies like Smart Circle. 

Your situation is not uncommon. https://forums.att.com/conversations/wireless-billing/phones-plan-purchased-through-att-kiosk-at-sams-club-pricing-not-what-we-were-quote-by-salesman/62014a96cb29a72cd9ef93bf

Hi skeeterintexas,

I'm now aware that my situation is unfortunately not uncommon, and I'm surprised that these scams continue to exist despite making false promises to so many people. Personally, I've already lost around $1,000 overpaid within just 6 months of signing up with them, which means I could potentially lose $6,000 over the course of 36 month contract. They promised that my bill would be lower after three billing cycles, but those promises turned out to be false. They then made the same promise for another three cycles. It feels like buying an expensive and defective product from a store but there's no option for return or resolution. 6K is a significant amount of money that could have been used for many other helpful things for a family with little kids. I can't help but wonder how much money they are making from thousands of victims like me. Not to mention the stress and time I've spent dealing with this matter.

Just last month, I encountered the same person at another Target store, attempting to approach me with the same pitch without recognizing me as her past client. I asked her what to do next, and she provided a phone number however when I called, it kept saying there were technical difficulties for about 2 hours... The whole situation is incredibly stressful. I want to know how to fix this situation and put an end to these fraudulent practices and prevent others from falling victim to the same scam in the future. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions from anyone here. Thanks.

Your only other option is to file a BBB complaint and someone higher up at AT&T will contact you. If anyone can help, they may be able to.

Thank you very much for the advice, kdfederer, I trully appreciate it.

By the way, I heard about FTC and DCA as well, but I'm not entirely sure about their effectiveness in handling complaints like this.

Do you or anyone here have any insights on which one would be more effective for filing a complaint about this matter? Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm curious if anyone here has taken these steps and what the results were? 

Or, if anyone is interested in joining me to figure this out and help not only ourselves but others as well, please feel free to reach out to me at [email scrubbed]. Thanks.

All agency complaints are sent the the same place so it doesn’t matter which one you choose to file. 

Do you have any records for the trade ins?  

As mentioned above, gather up any and all documentation you have on your transaction and file the BBB and/or FCC complaint. The BBB/FCC won't do anything with the complaint but they will forward it to AT&T Corporate. They in turn will assign it to a Senior Manager in the Office of the President who will contact you, usually within a day or so of them receiving the complaint. That is as high up in AT&T as you can go but they do have the authority and resources to handle issues like this, which is all too common with the Authorized Retail Stores and Outlets.

Hi formerlyknownas yes I do have the records for the trade ins.

Thank you OttoPylot and Lockdowncraziness for providing the helpful info, I trully appreciate it. I will definitely follow your advice and take the necessary steps. 

Again, if there are others who have also been scammed and are interested in joining me in this endeavor to help ourselves and prevent others from falling into similar scams in the future as well, please feel free to contact me at [email scrubbed]. Thanks.

By the way, I'm a bit confused here. Can anyone explain why my email address turn into [email scrubbed] in the above msg and how to fix it? Thank you in advance.

Email addresses are blocked.