Called from unknown # with loyalty offer "upgradation" (sic).

[Nick_604]

I received a call today (01/10/2023) from an unknown number. The caller, speaking quickly but with a South-Asian accent, claimed to be from Rogers. Because I'm a good customer and always pay my bills on time, he was pleased to present me with a phone "upgradation" (sic) as  part of their loyalty offer. 

I'm a cautious person by nature, so already there were a couple of flags: The unknown number on caller ID and the fact that he offered me an "upgradation", something he was unlikely to have learned if he genuinely was working for Rogers. It turned out the "upgradation" consisted of either a GalaxyS23 Ultra or an iPhone (can't remember which model). He assumed it was a foregone conclusion I would accept and wanted to know which of the two phones I would like. I asked him, since I'm on a lease, whether I'd have to return my present phone. He said no. I could keep it.

At this point I started to become very suspicious. I believe in the old adage, "If something is too good to be true, it probably isn't". I told him I wanted a bit of time to think about it before I committed. He countered by asking when he could call back. I said I would rather call Rogers back and asked him what program I should refer to when I call back. He confirmed that it was under the loyalty offer.

I'm 80/20 on this one, meaning 80% chance it's a scam, but I'm going to call Roger's tomorrow to see if this is a bonafide offer. I'm curious whether anyone else has encountered such a call.

[Pauly]

its a scam

[rmo]

I had the same call with what appeared to be a local number. Could barely understand her and she said that i get to choose the iPhone 15 model I wanted. I played along until she past me on to her manager where he pressured me for my mailing address and email. I told them to send it to the one listed to my account, but they need me to tell them so they could verify it is the right one.

[Datalink]

If you scroll down thru a few pages in the forum, you'll see many examples of these scam calls.  It appears that Rogers customers are a major target for this scam, for some reason.  Don't know why these type of posts don't show up in forums of other ISPs / Telecom companies.  

The scam appears to run in the following fashion:

1.  A supposed "Rogers rep" calls you, offering a great deal on a plan and new cell phone (its really to good to be true).  At this point you should just hang up.  For those who fall for this, you probably end up sharing account details, allowing the scammer access to your Rogers account (don't do this .... hang up instead).  A cell phone is dispatched to your address, but, it won't be the phone that you requested.  It will be the phone that the miscreant is actually after in this particular call.

2.  At some point, the phone arrives, and, .... its the wrong phone, or the scammer calls back, and tells you that the phone that was shipped is the wrong phone and sends you a shipping label to send the phone back.  That might be via Fedex or UPS or other company.  The shipping label will not be the correct Rogers return address, it will be the address where the scammer can receive the phone.

3.  Now, if the scammer pushes his luck, he'll arrange for a second phone to be shipped out to replace the first.  That might be a carbon copy of the first paragraph. 

4.  At some point, you realize that the phone that you returned is not taken off of your account, same for the potential second phone.   

5.  Calls to the scammer cannot be completed as the phone number was taken out of service.  

At this point you realize that you've been scammed and that you need to call Rogers to sort out the mess that you've been left in.  

At this point you should change your account password using a trusted device that you've checked for malware and spyware.  

You should contact the moderators at @CommunityHelps for further guidance.  Eventually you will end up talking with a real Rogers Customer Service rep to get the ball rolling in reporting the scam.

Here are two Rogers pages about various types of scamming:

https://www.rogers.com/support/billing-accounts/how-to-spot-a-telemarketing-scam

https://www.rogers.com/support/billing-accounts/how-to-identify-and-handle-fraud-attempts-via-social...

[Pauly]

I dunno man, I have never encountered any scams, was there a recent  data breach and somehow rogers customers are the target of this? because it seems to be happening way too frequently now a days.

[Justifyd]

I received this call today around my lunch break. Same spiel of pick which phone. I went along with it. They never asked for credit card info or to click on any links. Got an email from stating my phone is being sent to me in 2-5 business days. I had a follow up call making sure I had agreed to what was said. But the strange thing was he accidentally sent me two iPhone 15 pro max phones and said he had canceled the second one.
I used the Roger’s ai system Anna to track my package and now I have a secondary phone number… I assume was the second phone he cancelled.

If I find out more info about what’s going on I will update this and let you know if it’s legit or not.