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Urgent Help need, I suspect someone swap my simcard

xypublicmobile
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Hi, My sim card was in good working condition for the past 2 years and it suddenly stopped working 2 days ago.  The phone is working normally using wifi.  I suspect that there is someone changed my phone number's sim card without my knowledge.  The current sim card in my phone doesn't match the sim card number on my public mobile website account. Please help.

22 REPLIES 22


@srlawren wrote:

@quantum-board wrote:

If you share apartment, it is one your roommates. Welcome to roommate country


@quantum-board that's an odd accusation


I suppsoe that's not impossible in some situations, but I will say that I believe that even people who steal from others would be hesitent to take from those they know. Not only would it be easier to get caught, but I would imagine that people who have a stronger sense of guilt when that's the case.

dude65
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@srlawren ....not impossible.

Its a good habit to keep the phone near you in public places. When your at home, I tend to sometimes leave it on a table and do other things.;When your living with others that are not related  (friends)... I would be careful on where you keep the phone.

@srlawren 

Yes those are odd comments from both @telemonster and @quantum-board . I've had room mates most of my adult life (more than 30 years)and I've had a few crazy ones over the years pull some unbelievable antics but ive never had any of them steal, swap sim cards or mess with my phone (except a pay per min 1 800 U KNOW WHAT?!! number once ) that telus promptly reversed the charges after I complained.......

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@quantum-board wrote:

If you share apartment, it is one your roommates. Welcome to roommate country


@quantum-board that's an odd accusation


>>> ALERT: I am not a moderator. For account or activation assistance, please click here.

telemonster
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

the most quiet one. (girl)


@Tiana_V wrote:

@Naepalm wrote:

@xypublicmobile one way you can prevent this is by one using a password that is very difficult to guess for your self serve account. Use an app like LastPass to accomplish this.

 

Another way is in your overview account do not use your first name as your name in the account. Use a made-up name that is difficult to guess. All the users need is your name and account number to do the switch or your IME# 

 

Hopefully in the future Public does something more substantial like a 2FA separate from your phone number to port your number or something. @Tiana_V 


The Public team is currently working hard on a solution to prevent fraudulent port-outs of our customers accounts. We'll be sure to let you all know when its ready!


@Tiana_V  Thanks for updating us on a very serious issue. 

quantum-board
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

If you share apartment, it is one your roommates. Welcome to roommate country


@Naepalm wrote:

@xypublicmobile one way you can prevent this is by one using a password that is very difficult to guess for your self serve account. Use an app like LastPass to accomplish this.

 

Another way is in your overview account do not use your first name as your name in the account. Use a made-up name that is difficult to guess. All the users need is your name and account number to do the switch or your IME# 

 

Hopefully in the future Public does something more substantial like a 2FA separate from your phone number to port your number or something. @Tiana_V 


The Public team is currently working hard on a solution to prevent fraudulent port-outs of our customers accounts. We'll be sure to let you all know when its ready!

@xypublicmobile one way you can prevent this is by one using a password that is very difficult to guess for your self serve account. Use an app like LastPass to accomplish this.

 

Another way is in your overview account do not use your first name as your name in the account. Use a made-up name that is difficult to guess. All the users need is your name and account number to do the switch or your IME# 

 

Hopefully in the future Public does something more substantial like a 2FA separate from your phone number to port your number or something. @Tiana_V 

xypublicmobile
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

A big thank you to moderator_team for resolving the issue so quickly for me.  Now I have my phone number back again.

 

However, how can we prevent such attacks from happening again is going to be a major battle between users and hackers.  I was trying to find out my online account access history, but I can't.  If public mobile can make this information available, it will help users to figure out where the hacker may come from.  The other source may be the kiosks but that's beyond our control.

 

Again big thanks to the moderator_team!

xypublicmobile
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Hi, I don't have yahoo account, most likely hacker created yahoo account using the phone number.  Also, moderator_team has informed me that they didn't do the swap, then most likely it was done at a kiosk.  The chance of access through my online account was low, as the hacker didn't change the password.

@xypublicmobile 

You need to check your email account and anything associated with them. 776836 is the text code for verification from Yahoo.

xypublicmobile
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Physical sim card swap is unlikely due to the pandemic social distancing.  The online account doesn't seem to be hacked.  I suspect either done in a kiosk or through community moderator by pretending to be the owner of the phone number.  It is a good time for public mobile to review the sim card hack attack prevention policy.

xypublicmobile
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thank you for your link, I have sent the message to the  

@geopublic had a good word for another user yesterday I can't find where he/she put it.

 

Check your usage as well, being that it has not worked for two days, you may have missed an opportunity to stop any nefarious actions. 

 

Being SIM jacked you need to go into any of the accounts that use your phone as two-factor authentication, your bank, credit cards etc and freeze them or put them on hold. 

 

Contact the moderators immediately and write in the subject *URGENT UNAUTHORIZED SIM PORT" 

 

This is very serious and you need to take action quickly. 

 

Contact the moderators here:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

 

I hope it all works out and you get this figured out quickly! 

xypublicmobile
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thank you all, I have suspended the phone service and hopefully, the moderator can sort out this issue for me.  I checked the usage history there were calls made to the voicemail yesterday, 2 incoming messages from 81961 and 776836 and 1 outgoing text to 474663 looks suspicious and 1.5 GB data was used yesterday.  


@xypublicmobile wrote:

How do you report stolen phone/simcard?


Log in to My Account / Plan and Add-ons...then click lost-stolen and SUSPEND your service.

@xypublicmobile , lost phone is an action found in the self serve. At this point, the most important thing is to change your password and secure other accounts that are vulnerable to your phone number being potentially in someone's possession.

Barbie2
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@xypublicmobile go into your account click lost stolen is what I would do. 

xypublicmobile
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

How do you report stolen phone/simcard?

geopublic
Mayor / Maire

@xypublicmobile  If someone had access to your selfserve and swapped your sim then they would have changed the password.

 

Are you sure the sim was not swapped at the device level? Did you leave your device unattended?

kb_mv
Mayor / Maire

@xypublicmobile Go into your account and immediately report the phone as lost/stolen. Then contact the Mods through Simon. They will sort it out for you.

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