SIM Fraud on PM - interesting article on La Presse

[softech]

Interesting article shared on the French side of the forum:

Discounted phone, discounted protection? - The Press+ (lapresse.ca)

Highlights:

"If you pay less for a service, we're not going to invest as much in the system. We are not going to put millions in there when we have customers who pay $5, $10 or $15 a month and it is not profitable. In the end, it is a private company. That's word for word what Annie Montplaisir was answered by a telus privacy officer last March,

.. Telus denies that they are not investing

president of its Mobile Solutions division, Jim Senko. "Public Mobile is a very important brand for us. To say that we are not investing in it is absolutely false," Senko said.

.. but this is what customer got as to what Telus is doing to stop the issue:

When she finally spoke to Telus' privacy employees a few days later, they explained that Public Mobile's system was "older" than Telus' and Koodo's, and that the latter were therefore "more secure." "Every time we talk to [customers of] Public Mobile, we tell them this information, to [encourage them to] move towards a more reliable, safer system," the employee explained.

.. so, the solution Telus has for PM is not to fix system , but to "fix" the PM users.. ask them to move to the "more reliable and safer system", i.e, Koodo or Telus

[benfatto]

@softech  Sad but explains many of PM's weaknesses. Still the bottom line for all customers is "follow your wallet" AND use secure passwords, especially on your bank accounts.  

[esjliv]

@softech interesting article.

I tell ya, I don't miss those posts about fraudulent SIM swaps!

Although, I am sure they can still happen.

And there may have been a couple posts I have seen that may have been due to this, but don't think OPs have come back and said "YES, i was SIM-jacked".

This would have been an interesting report to view of Public Mobile, as well as other providers, so see how they all compared:

• Given the magnitude of the phenomenon, the CRTC asked in July 2020 that all telephone providers submit a monthly report indicating the number of subscribers victims of this type of fraud. The providers, however, categorically refuse to make this information public, claiming that its dissemination would allow fraudsters to exploit the smallest details to perpetuate the attacks.

Sounds to me this is system specific and not a standardized system with all providers.

That would be a nice STAT available, when shopping for cell plans/providers...Security/Safety/Fraud-Free level, or something like that. Wonder if the best security IS actually higher in $'s or just a ploy?