topic Re: Preventing number porting / scammers in Get Support

Preventing number porting / scammers

call-151 — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:57:21 GMT

There have been a few news articles lately of scammers managing to port peoples numbers so they can hijack their online accounts.

https://www.straight.com/tech/1332666/west-vancouver-police-warn-about-emerging-mobile-phone-swapping-scam

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-provincial-police-sim-swapping-phone-number-porting-1.5354567?fbclid=IwAR11pRMH-QGaO1EuE__0DsplbHnyIArY5iO8DV-GzhJHL5Yko122tFYhCUM

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/phone-porting-extortion-1.5352300

There is a previous thread here, where the OP's number was ported.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/I-got-scammed/m-p/448412#M100214

Can anything be done such as a "porting lock" to prevent this?

I am concerned that a scammer would be able to steal my cell phone number from Public Mobile without much effort.

Re: Preventing number porting / scammers

geopublic — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 17:48:46 GMT

@call-151 wrote:
There have been a few news articles lately of scammers managing to port peoples numbers so they can hijack their online accounts.

https://www.straight.com/tech/1332666/west-vancouver-police-warn-about-emerging-mobile-phone-swapping-scam

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-provincial-police-sim-swapping-phone-number-porting-1.5354567?fbclid=IwAR11pRMH-QGaO1EuE__0DsplbHnyIArY5iO8DV-GzhJHL5Yko122tFYhCUM

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/phone-porting-extortion-1.5352300

There is a previous thread here, where the OP's number was ported.
https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/I-got-scammed/m-p/448412#M100214

Can anything be done such as a "porting lock" to prevent this?
I am concerned that a scammer would be able to steal my cell phone number from Public Mobile without much effort.

@call-151 I have been asking for an account lock feature since I joined PM but I'm not going to hold my breadth. Most US providers are starting to offer this feature so hopefully Canadian providers will follow.

Best to secure your email and all your passwords as best as you can. Change the name on your PM account to something other than your name. Use an authenticator app instead of your phone for 2FA.

Re: Preventing number porting / scammers

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 17:49:59 GMT

I've never ported a number but I gather a text is sent out notifying the account holder that a port has been requested. I gather it doesn't wait for any reply and depending on any call centre present, if you don't get to it in a short amount of time they just let it go. Say maybe you're not glued to your phone. Or it's overnight.

I should think the request should wait for a positive reply...but apparently it doesn't. Silence is consent. Wrong.

Re: Preventing number porting / scammers

popping — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 17:50:20 GMT

Here is another way how to heck into people's account to change the PIN and add itself to the hecked acount as a level 1 user.

Re: Preventing number porting / scammers

call-151 — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:34:41 GMT

Good video, popping. I am also going to look into these authenticator apps instead of having a text come to my phone.

Re: Preventing number porting / scammers

hss — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:44:05 GMT

A temporary solution would be to have the activity alerts turned on the credit and depit card if your bank supports it and also turn a two way verification on with the email.

I am not comfortable doing two way verification with phone as previously I was not able to log into my account and pay my bills because my phone got lost. Make sure that your banking instition is reliable enough to act fast enough in that situation. I don't really use the Virtual banks and CC companies due to this reason.

Re: Preventing number porting / scammers

geopublic — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:45:41 GMT

@call-151 I use Google Authenticator it works well and most retailers, payment processors support it.

Re: Preventing number porting / scammers

Master2000 — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:51:45 GMT

On Android, I use "VIP Access" authenticator app from Symantec.
Free and easy to use.