Rusty's Ramblings

[Geo]

If they have the account number and SSN, ATT has no idea who you or they are - and they have the right credentials to prove that they are a part of the account.

When it happened to me, I ended up closing the account and opening up a new one.

Okay, I can see someone getting a hold of an account number or just trying a random one and getting lucky. What's SSN? Password?

[Buster's Uncle]

Social Security Number

[Unorthodox]

If they have the account number and SSN, ATT has no idea who you or they are - and they have the right credentials to prove that they are a part of the account.

When it happened to me, I ended up closing the account and opening up a new one. 

All someone needed was hEt's name and a hospital automatically registered her as my wife.  Ironically the discharge forms thus gave the imposter all hEt's info. 

We had to prove she was no the person pregnant with a broken arm in a hospital in salt lake after the bill come, and had several credit cards in her name.  Clearing that was a process that ended up freezing all accounts everywhere and starting over with no warning.  Literally all accounts froze with no chance to pull out cash overnight. 

First time I've requested a physical check and had to go to the bank for ages. 

[Geo]

Djeez. Is imposting a national sport or something in the US? And this hEt imposter even already had credit cards on her name? So it follows that this imposter had your address data as well before she even set foot in the hospital?

On the healthcare department here it is pretty standard nothing gets done if you can't show an ID card. Since a couple years the SSN card functions have been replaced with ones ID card.

[Rusty Edge]

I'll tell the story when I find the time. In short, a subcontinental Indian who could barely speak English was able to solve the problem without closing the accounts and starting over. The two previous techs essentially changed the locks on the house without making sure there were no burglars still in the closets.

[Geo]

 

[Rusty Edge]

Someone added him/herself to your ATT&T account? How is that even possible without an ATT&T employee (or affiliate) doing that?

Besides hacking of course.

I don't know how it was done. They went to a store ( I don't really know which. The first customer service person said it was done at an Apple Store. Don't know if that is the truth, that person was better at being nice than knowledgable/credible ) and bought iphones. I don't know what form of I.D. they presented, who they claimed to be or what story they told. 

Any time we tried to change anything at the local ATT store in past years, we had to do things like produce driver's licenses, phones with numbers of record for the account, and they had to talk to my wife, who is authorized to make changes to the account. I am not.

Maybe they hacked AT&T, or maybe it was an inside job/collusion, or just a sales rep more intent on getting a commission.

At any rate, people with first and last names of another ethnicity than myself and my wife added their names to our account, and got a phone with my phone number, de-activating my SIM card in the process. I haven't bought a new phone for years, so I'm eligible for a new one on credit/contract.

( to be continued..)

[Rusty Edge]

I was particularly happy that we had retained our land line. It would have been hard to straighten this out otherwise when both of our cell phones were disabled. I don't know how somebody who only was a cell phone would deal with this, especially if they used iPay. They would probably be stressed out.

That's not to say that my wife wasn't stressed. She was. She has no patience for being on hold. Probably comes from being a Chief Accounting Officer. Anyway, the other cause for stress was worrying about whether the intruders could access her email, which was AT&T going back before the turn of the century. Because from there, people could figure out banking and brokerage and PayPal, etc. etc.

Essentially there were 3 episodes and 3 iPhones. The people used addresses in the Bronx and Yonkers, but maybe those were red herrings. We live near Milwaukee. The timing was good on the part of the thieves because holiday hours were curtailed, and we had to deal with customer service/tech/ fraud division each episode. The thieves could apparently type as fast as the techs, making changes difficult to institute. One of the AT&T people locked down my wife's e-mail and other accounts, and knowing that one of the thieves was still named on the AT&T  account last she saw it, made her nervous when she couldn't see her e-mail to know if anybody was in it.

As it happens, her Surface Pro system had an auto access to her e-mail, and she was able to get in that way because it was on to tell her what number to call at AT&T. But essentially it was the same issue. She had access because she was already in when they changed the locks.

At least she's been changing passwords to various accounts and did a scan of her computer. We've been using PC Pit stop/ PC Matic  for years, and the white list approach seems to work well, although sometimes it warns me about safe sites.

The first night we were assured the tech people would take care of everything over night. The second night we were waiting for a designated corporate store to open at 10AM, as it turned out that was so we could present a photo I. D. to proceed. If only AT&T had access to caller ID.

It did not help the stress level that at one point that two departments were insisting we needed to deal with the other instead.

But everything has been working well for about 30 hours so far.

[Rusty Edge]

Djeez. Is imposting a national sport or something in the US?

It's a problem.

I think there are a few explanations, and I'll try to avoid political solutions here.

* We have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. If they go to work or school, they need an SSN. So that creates demand for identities.

*Also, there is an opiate epidemic, so people are desperate to get their hands on anything of value so they can buy it, or a new identity so that they can get another prescription.

* This kind of crime has a risk/reward ratio that is favorable for the criminal compared to other types.

[Geo]

With it solved for you and your wife, will those thieves still be able to use their phones after a fashion? Like getting a contract with another communication company?

[E_T]

If they have the account number and SSN, ATT has no idea who you or they are - and they have the right credentials to prove that they are a part of the account.

When it happened to me, I ended up closing the account and opening up a new one.

Also, possible Social Engineering for things like Security Questions.

I, almost always, use fake answers for my security questions, thus no amount of Social Engineering is going to even come close to guessing them...

Other things are Strong Passwords.... and different passwords, with different levels of "strength", for different things that are not too important if they crack the password to 'you bet they aren't getting this one' ...   

[E_T]

With it solved for you and your wife, will those thieves still be able to use their phones after a fashion? Like getting a contract with another communication company?

They likely sold the phones for some drugs...

[Geo]

With it solved for you and your wife, will those thieves still be able to use their phones after a fashion? Like getting a contract with another communication company?

They likely sold the phones for some drugs...

Ah yes, profit...

[Rusty Edge]

Our phones are still working. ET knows more about iPhones than I do. I'll assume he's right about the drugs. It seems all they were after were free phones, or maybe all they knew how to get.

[Rusty Edge]

We have to go back to the corporate store tomorrow with my mother-in-law's phone to get it re-activated.

Came across this tonight-
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/business/dealbook/phone-hack-bitcoin-virtual-currency.html?mcubz=0


[ Mr. Perklin and other people who have investigated recent hacks said the assailants generally succeeded by delivering sob stories about an emergency that required the phone number to be moved to a new device — and by trying multiple times until a gullible agent was found.
“These guys will sit and call 600 times before they get through and get an agent on the line that’s an idiot,” Mr. Weeks said.]