How To Protect Yourself From "Port Out" Scam?

[SofianH]

Hello all,

I recently came across a scam that is becoming more prevalent, known as the "Port Out" scam. You can look it up on your own if you want to know more about it.

To make it simple, thieves are porting mobiles numbers without consent of the official owners and then after gaining access to their mobile numbers, generating 2FA text message codes to gain access to other online accounts.

I read somewhere online that we can request our mobile provider to "lock" our number in so that nobody is able to port out our number without having to go through a few extra security measures.

From my understanding, as it stands today, all it takes to port a number out is ones account number which is not too difficult to find nowadays.

Should I be concerned about this scam? How can we lock in our number with Public Mobile?

[darlicious]

It really shouldn't be that hard to put a tab in ones account that is locked or unlocked for porting. Similar to the hold for your credit card or the lost/stolen feature. ( This will work if you do it as soon as you get the porting text but it's not a solution just a last minute act of desperation.)

Or even a post it note feature for your overview page for a moderator to see when they are given a port request.

[Triguy]

Here is an article from CBC.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/pei-woman-nearly-loses-dollar2k-from-cellphone-fraud/ar-B...

[computergeek541]

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@prent328 wrote:

Is there a solution yet to this problem via Public Mobile?

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Currently, I do not believe there is any system in place except needing the new carrrier to provide required account information. Public Mobile does send a text message informing the customer of a pending port out, but if the customer doesn't respond, the port will go through to the other carrier.

[gblackma]

@prent328 another PMer was told that all the Telus companies would have it in place by April 30. Currently changing your name on your self service account would stop this. Any name would do ie Donald Gump. Stay safe. 

[prent328]

Is there a solution yet to this problem via Public Mobile?

[Danitup]

Great info. 👍👍👍

Thanks for this post

[will13am]

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@chukdefatey wrote:

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@mimmo wrote:

To port successfully you need

Account name

Account number

One of: account number. Account pin or imei

If someone hacks your account then they could port.  

Use a Gmail alias as your user name and make a small change to your name

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Actually Small Correction/Addition: Actual Account Name is not needed for Wireless to Wireless Port. It does require a name but it can be any name as long as you have 'ONE' of the 3 things you mentioned, your Port will go through.

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From where did you get this information?  

[chukdefatey]

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@mimmo wrote:

To port successfully you need

Account name

Account number

One of: account number. Account pin or imei

If someone hacks your account then they could port.  

Use a Gmail alias as your user name and make a small change to your name

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Actually Small Correction/Addition: Actual Account Name is not needed for Wireless to Wireless Port. It does require a name but it can be any name as long as you have 'ONE' of the 3 things you mentioned, your Port will go through.

[cavemantoronto]

@SofianH 

Your only protection is to not give account info to anyone but phone companies.

[GinYVR]

@SofianHYou can protect yourself from one of the fall outs of the scam by not using your cellphone number as a 2FA method but use a software based ones like Google Authenicator, Authy or even LastPass and have backup devices.

As for the protecting/ stopping SIMjacking, requires not just Public Mobile but all the Canadian carriers to agree to a safe protocol.. if not, then it will generate extra workload for the automated process we have right now. Since Public Mobile is the lowest tier of Telus, I won't expect them to lead in the security / safety area. In fact the long lead time for Moderator access would cause people to be able to get away with it. A few instances I remember seeing on this forum happened on a long weekend.

Right now, only some carriers in the States have extra safety features.

[mimmo]

To port successfully you need

Account name

Account number

One of: account number. Account pin or imei

If someone hacks your account then they could port.  

Use a Gmail alias as your user name and make a small change to your name