Does PM have Port Protection Plan?

[ABGirl]

I received an email this am from my brother. It surely got me thinking and wondering if PM has Port Protection Plan in case someone tries to steal my phone number? If so, does everyone get it automatically or it needs activation?

See email below.

** I received this note this morning, interesting **

All,

Just wanted to share some information regarding a scam that I was subjected to last week.  You may have heard about it on the news in the last few days, it is becoming increasingly popular.

On Wednesday evening last week as I was having dinner, I received a text that I didn’t check until after dinner.  It was supposedly from Rogers, my wireless service provider.  It read that “Rogers has received a request to transfer your telephone number to another Service Provider.  If you did not authorize, contact Rogers urgently at 1-877-327-8503.”

I figured this was a scam so didn’t call the number.  But I was curious and did a quick Google.  Turns out this is a scam… but not how I expected.  Within a few minutes after that (about 15 minutes after getting the text) my phone’s SIM card gave me an error that it wasn’t registered to the network.  Why would someone want to steal my cell phone number?

As I was still on wi-fi I called up Rogers and waited on hold.  In the meantime, my Google search had advised me that the intent of stealing your cell phone number is to be able to unlock second-level authentication for services such as PayPal.  If you ever forget your PayPal password for example, you can choose to send yourself a text with a code to reset it.  That’s what happened to me… I discovered I was already locked out of my own PayPal account, all within 30 minutes of receiving the text from Rogers that I didn’t read immediately because I was eating dinner with my family.

Thankfully I thought to lock down my credit card that was connected to my PayPal account.  By the time I called my bank, they advised there had been an attempt to charge ~$1100 to the card already via PayPal. This was probably within 45 minutes of getting that first text.

At the end of the day, other than a huge headache and stress, I didn’t lose anything.  I cancelled and replaced the credit card that was associated with my PayPal.  I went through everything I could think of that uses my cell number as an authentication and changed it, such as my personal Google account, which also could have been a disaster.  I even got my phone number back yesterday, with a “Port Protection Plan” provided by Rogers, which I understand means that for any further requests to port my number to a different provider, they have to call and speak to me first to authorize.  There’s probably ways around that too, but that’s the best protection available at the moment.

What can you do, you ask?  There isn’t much.  Call your provider and ask to have a Port Protection Plan put on your wireless phone line.  Other than that, it’s extremely easy for someone to steal your phone number… all they need is your phone number (super easy to get) and an account number (not sure how to get it, as my phone bills are sent electronically).  And act fast if you get that mysterious text.  Apparently this type of fraud has spiked significantly recently, and with how easy it is to execute and the fact that nobody I’ve talked to since has ever heard of it, I thought I’d spread the message.  Feel free to pass it on

[darlicious]

@Pawprints1986  I don't renew early....im just adding funds to my balance on my account the same as having a credit in your balance or adding funds to purchase an add on etc....the balance will stay untouched until your renewal or you use some of it for a purchase and submit it as payment.

[Nezgar]

@Pawprints1986 you can top up your account balance manually anytime, and that balance will be used to renew your plan.

By topping up and having a balance equal to or greater than the cost of your next renewal prior to your renewal date, you mitigate the chance of auto-pay topop failure on your actual renewal date.

[Pawprints1986]

But if you renew early, doesn't that leave you paying more often? Or do you mean being sure there's room in your account that auto pay is supposed to come out of? 

[darlicious]

@Pawprints1986  You are correct. But it won't affect your autopay. However like many of us here we prefer to manually top up our balance a few days before renewal just to ensure that autopaý doesn't have a chance to fail. I also take a screenshot of my overview and payment history page before and after renewal for my records.

[Pawprints1986]

I just made a few minor adjustments to my name. 

If im understanding it right, this helps restrict the ability to spoof a port request because even if they somehow know my full name and phone number and heck even address (scary!), my name wont match exactly on the spoofers carrier end of things and therefore a port wont be successful? And should I ever decide to port away from public, i should go back in and replace my editions with my standard name?

Also its not for about a month but if this does in any possible way effect my autopay i will come back to update.

[Nezgar]

If you dig in selfserve, you'll see that your "Name" on the overview page of the selfserve portal, is actually separate from the name associated when you register a credit card, so your credit card auto-pay should be unaffected.

[Pawprints1986]

Ok awesome, will do some minor editing! I was just worried about when auto pay time came around and it saw the differences.... But if they just take the charge out with no need for name verification (or I guess I could say I've already verified that at activation) that's perfect 🙂

[darlicious]

@Pawprints1986   Or of course you can put Brad Pitt, Ozzy Osbourne, Wayne Gretzky or Peter Parker if you like....its your choice.

[darlicious]

@Pawprints1986  Yes this is a recommended security option to protect against a fraudulent port request. Making a subtle change to the name on the account. Just don't forget the change for verification or when and if you decide to port out from public mobile.

[Pawprints1986]

Just one thing im still unsure about... can you have your account name be different here than it is on your credit card account used for autopay? If so I thought id change one letter to a symbol on windows character map that looks similar to the regular letter, but harder to spoof like å for example?? would this work/help at all?

[gblackma]

@Pawprints1986  it's so that they can contact you if needed. So, I suppose it is.

[Pawprints1986]

Right, I have those already. Is a secondary contact phone number added security? 

[gblackma]

@Pawprints1986  every account requires it's own SIM and unique email address.

[Pawprints1986]

Oh ok so I can modify my name without issues? I was thinking  it must perfectly match my credit card info....

I  also didn't add a secondary number as of yet, but I could add my mom's number? I didn't realize it meant added security, just thought it was in case your had a landline type thing

[gblackma]

@Pawprints1986  according to @Luddite  the only thing that needs to be real on your account is the alternate phone number. And I would guess the autopay credit card information. So you could put any name on your account.  This is PM's answer to fraudelent porting  https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-help/articles/port-fraud-protection

[Pawprints1986]

I didn't know this was a thing until I was legit trying to transfer my own number and couldn't. Had to contact my carrier to have it removed... 

How can we know if the sms is legit or not? Should we get one?

Is PM working to put protection in place? 

[wetcoaster]

The one thing I did was changing my name on self serve slightly. My understanding is that a port will fail if the account holder name doesn't match. I have a (worldwide) unique name, so the assumption is that someone trying to do an unauthorized port out would have done their homework. By spelling my name differently than trackable by anyone without access to my self serve there's an additional barrier to overcome.

Of course this works only for prepaid accounts that don't directly link the account holder name to the credit card on file or need it for a credit check (which, hopefully, should only be post paid accounts, in which case the provider should offer some additional safe guards...) 

IMHO, those warning text messages don't really help unless they are accompanied by an adequate time window or so before the port is allowed to be continued only with the express consent by the actual account holder. 

[Luddite]

@ABGirl Well, sort of: https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/port-fraud-protection

[gblackma]

Thanks for choosing my response as the solution @ABGirl . Have a great week .

[gblackma · Accepted solution]

To answer your question @ABGirl , no PM does not have a port protection plan. Thanks for passing this on.