cellphone number porting scam

[Ronny_Wong]

Hi all,

recently I've come across an article on a scam that concerns me and perhaps everybody who happens to have a cellphone (which is just about everybody). The fact that scammers can actually port our number(s) to another phone company without our direct consent is kinda scary. If it happens once, who's to say that it can't happen again. Having said that, does anybody know what we can do in the event that it happens to us?

If anybody wants to read up on the article:

https://globalnews.ca/news/6544138/cellphone-porting-scam/?utm_source=GlobalBC&utm_medium=Facebook&f...

[darlicious]

@Ronny_Wong 

    To protect yourself from a possible porting scam under the current conditions for phone number portability and public mobiles policy there are several things you should do to make it more difficult for fraudsters to achieve.

1. Have strong passwords for your self serve and community accounts. (Access to your private messages with the moderators can contain secure information such as your pin # and security question and answer.)
2. Alter your name on the account slightly ie. Jon Smyth instead of John Smith. Or completely change it to Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne or Colonel Sanders the choice is yours.
3. Keep your account information in a very secure place...email, pin#, security question and answer, alternate number so no one else has access to it.
4. Have a strong password to your email and use all available extra security features and verification methods available to you.
5. Do not display your phone number or email needlessly on the internet or give it out freely to unknown sources.
6. Since the goal of a porting scam is to obtain access to your finances use all extra verification methods and questions on your accounts (bank, credit cards, pay pal etc...) Set up secret code words for telephone access to credit cards so the customer service agents will not discuss your account without that secret code word. This is in addition to the fall back option they may use as an identifier which is often your mother's maiden name.
7. When possible use a long hard to guess username on accounts rather than the card number  associated with the account.
8. Change your verification method with your financial institution from your email and phone number to a mail only or in branch with two pieces of id or to a very trusted family members phone number (like your parents or your adult childrens) or a landline without automated voicemail.
9. Do not remain signed into your apps or accounts on any of your devices and do not have browsers such as Google or Firefox save your passwords for you. Use a separate secure application to save passwords for you.

These suggestions can help protect your phone number from being ported fraudently and protect your accounts from identity thieves and fraudsters.

[gblackma]

@Ronny_Wong  change your name slightly on your PM account. This should also help to block the port.

[geopublic]

@Ronny_Wong  

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/JUST-GOT-SIM-JACKED/m-p/504697

Until the majority starts calling up their MPs and complain nothing will change.

Governments need to force providers to implement security controls.

[scorpio17]

You are right, but companies do not care about this problem.

This must be done by the government. Only after that the companies will do something.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I think it should be something like those unsubscribe texts.

You get the text. You reply with the unsubscribe. Good. Carry on.

You get the text. You don't reply for say 24 hours. The port fails. No harm, no foul.

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[Anonymous]

I think it should be something like those unsubscribe texts.

You get the text. You reply with the unsubscribe. Good. Carry on.

You get the text. You don't reply for say 24 hours. The port fails. No harm, no foul.

[Dunkman]

@superhamster 

You have valid concerns.

The mobile companies are supposedly going to implement a system to make it more difficult for scammers to port our number.  

[superhamster]

When I ported to PM from Rogers, it was stupid easy to do and all I needed to provide was my phone number and name on account. It was done in less than 45 min. To stop scammers there needs to be more steps in making sure the port was initiated legitimately. 

[Dunkman]

@Ronny_Wong 

For somebody to port your number, they will need access to the following information:

PM account number

PM Account holder name 

PM phone number.  

Need to have strong password to your email account and  self service account to protect your account number information.  

Here is a help article on this situation:

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-help/articles/port-fraud-protection

[superhamster]

When there's a request to port a number, the current service provider will text you and say a port is in progress and to contact some 800 number immediately if you didn't initiate it, at least Rogers does. 

What would happen if a scammer tried to SIM jack a PM customer? Since all help and customer service is through this community, who would we contact for immediate assistance?