How do you reach a human at PM?

[morganplus8]

Someone has closed my acct, they are transferring my phone number to chatr and there is nothing I can do about it. Where are the humans?

[morganplus8]

A lot of guessing going on here. No, this wasn't an inactive acct. Its live and 2 1/2 months left on the renewal and it has been around for many years. There has to be a way for others to not be able to port your phone number. This is a major issue and not good news for PM as there will never be a way to stop this fraud. If someone gets into your acct., you will have the same thing happen and there is zero this company can do about it. The police tell you to call the company, yeah, like that's possible. We have two accts and are long time supporters here, not good.

[mh1983]

Good podcast that touches on the subject too: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/v4he6k

[Dogbert]

---

@JaimeLaPizza wrote:

Wow !  I looked up "SIM jacking".  Scary and not cool !  I always thought that 2-factor identification ("something you know (password) and something you have (cellphone)") could not be worked around.  I figured "Hey I'm the one who has my phone !".  Turns out that with SIM jacking, someone may not have your actual phone but if they can get your phone number to be associated with their SIM card... they will receive all your SMS (and voice calls as well) including confirmation SMS for your 2-factor identifcation !  See this Wikipedia page, it may explain it better than me ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_swap_scam

---

For those that don't want to read or find it too difficult to understand; CBC has a good video on this topic (link).

[JaimeLaPizza]

Wow !  I looked up "SIM jacking".  Scary and not cool !  I always thought that 2-factor identification ("something you know (password) and something you have (cellphone)") could not be worked around.  I figured "Hey I'm the one who has my phone !".  Turns out that with SIM jacking, someone may not have your actual phone but if they can get your phone number to be associated with their SIM card... they will receive all your SMS (and voice calls as well) including confirmation SMS for your 2-factor identifcation !  See this Wikipedia page, it may explain it better than me ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_swap_scam

[GinYVR]

Password compromise and something called SIM jacking.

I posted a Vice story in this thread (do note wording in the story is not PG). All one can do is practice safe internet hygiene.

[stonechucker]

@GinYVR , the first post says it has been cancelled.  Account is now lost.  The user will have to work with the moderators, get a new sim.  Whether authorized by the user, or a stolen phone number via an unauthorized port, or account hacking and port out, the account is gone.

[JaimeLaPizza]

I don't understand how a phone number theft can occur.  Isn't there some central regsitry of phone numbers ?  There has to be, otherwise how would carriers determine if a number can be offered to a customer ?  I agree with @GinYVR that a more likely cause is an inactive account which lead to a number release after 90 days...  Anyway, if there is an expert out there, please give us your thoughts on this

[GinYVR]

@stonechuckerTo provide some context, the OP didn't reveal the issue after much much later in another thread.. I said it is a possibility.

[stonechucker]

---

@GinYVR wrote:

@morganplus8You will have to contact the moderator_team by this link.

A possibility:

Do note if your account has been inactive for 90 days (a few days less than 3 months), the credit in the account and the phone number will be forfeited. That means the number gets released to the number pool and anyone else (including Chatr customers) can pick up the number.

If you suspect it is a valid SIM jacking, make sure you change the numbers that might be used for verification eg cable, some credit cards etc and file a report with the police. Not likely they can do anything but at least there is a statistic.

---

@GinYVR, this is not the case here.  So one has ported a number out, and has forced a cancelation, which immediately deactivates the SIM, and the account.  Please remember this as you are complotely wrong in suggesting this.

@morganplus8 , Contacting the moderators as otherwise suggested is your only option.

[geopublic]

---

@morganplus8 wrote:

Someone has closed my acct, they are transferring my phone number to chatr and there is nothing I can do about it. Where are the humans?

---

@morganplus8  Unfortunately that option is not available here and from your other post it looks like the port has already completed. What happens when you call that number? You should file a report with Police and maybe try calling Chatr to see if they can suspend that account due to identity theft.

[MoreYummy]

Only through the private message system, that's how they offer low cost service.

Maybe you can go to their headquarter, you will have direct contact with human. 

[RossN]

you would not believe the amount of humans that work at PM but mostly you have to reach them online @CS_Agent 

[GinYVR · Accepted solution]

@morganplus8You will have to contact the moderator_team by this link.

A possibility:

Do note if your account has been inactive for 90 days (a few days less than 3 months), the credit in the account and the phone number will be forfeited. That means the number gets released to the number pool and anyone else (including Chatr customers) can pick up the number.

If you suspect it is a valid SIM jacking, make sure you change the numbers that might be used for verification eg cable, some credit cards etc and file a report with the police. Not likely they can do anything but at least there is a statistic.