Port Validation Security Measures

[Tank252ca]

There are scams currently where a scammer determines a person's mobile phone number and then calls the service provider to have the number ported over to another carrier.  All calls and texts then get routed to the scammers phone with the new carrier, allowing them to intercept verification text messages and possibly access the person's bank accounts and other services.  Some U.S. providers have increased security by creating a port validation service were clients create a new password which is just for porting phone numbers.  This password is separate and unique from any other pins or passwords with the carrier and must be provided to port the number via a telephone conversation or on-line chat.  Lost or forgotten passwords would have to be corrected in person at a local retail outlet with proper ID.  I could not find any search results under "port validation" on the Rogers site, so if they don't have any such measures in place, I would like this passed along to upper management for consideration.

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[RogersTony]

Hello, @Tank252ca

Scammers are becoming more and more sophisticated so it's important to stay up to date with what's going on to stay ahead of them.

We appreciate you providing us with your suggestion to help make things more secure for everyone on our network. We do require more information to port a number than the customer's name and phone number so we do have measures in place to prevent this type of thing from happening already.

Thank you for your diligence in preventing Identify Theft which has become quite the problem. We will pass along your suggestion for review.

RogersTony

[michaelapc]

Two times my number has got ported in a scam in the past 4 months. We set up a pin on the account, when I called yesterday and we went through the security questions I wasn’t even asked for the PIN number we created on the account, I don’t understand what we’re doing here anymore. No one has contacted me to provide any details or any type of explanation on how it happens and how Rogers is going to keep me safe going forward.

Michael

[RogersCorey]

Good morning @michaelapc!

Welcome to our Community!

Your account's security is of the utmost importance to us. I would like to take care of this for you so that you can rest easy going forward.

There are some measures we can take to prevent port outs. Please PM us @CommunityHelps and I will make sure your account is as secure as we can possibly make it. If you're not familiar with our PMing process, you can find instructions here.

Regards,

RogersCorey

[johnnyvav]

My Rogers number was just PORTED! Though Rogers did recover my number in a few hours from BELL, the criminal tried to withdraw $3000.00 from my TD account. TD stopped the transaction. I dare say that TD has security in place for fraud prevention, but Rogers only thinks they do. Rogers can'y say for sure that my number won't be targeted again. They think they are reassuring me by saying that, in their experience, a number is not targeted twice.

[RogersMaude]

Good day @johnnyvav,

We appreciate you took the time to bring this up to our attention and share your situation with the Community. I can certainly imagine the concern and inconvenience this matter caused you.

We do require the other provider to confirm some personal information to allow the port of a phone number and have measures in place to prevent this from happening to our customers. Unfortunately, it seems like the fraudster may have had access to some of your data already. 

Thank you for your diligence in raising awareness to prevent identify theft. If you require further assistance with regards to this, please don't hesitate to let us know.

RogersMaude

[johnnyvav]

Yes, I called Fraud Prevention and they confirmed that Rogers accepts porting requests from other providers because the other providers are responsible for gathering enough info. to complete the process. In my opinion, this system of doing things is too trusting in today's world. The added security measures in airports is inconvenient but safety comes first.

Also, something Fraud Prevention brought to my attention which no one else at Rogers told me about. They offer a fairly new free service whereby you authorize a Porting hold. If you want to switch carriers, a phone call to Rogers to answer a few detailed questions is all it will take to remove the hold. I had the Fraud Prevention rep. place the hold.

[LauraR1]

My number was ported yesterday and Rogers response was a disaster. No service on my phone but access to WIFI and my work cell. First, they owe it to their customers, who are terrified about what else is happening out there, to explain steps from the moment it’s discovered. This didn’t happen. Once it’s discovered, customer should have access to a dedicated fraud line. They won’t give you a number. And no “customer service” person I spoke to except 1 (of 4) tried to calm me down and take accountability to find more for me. There needs to be safeguards in place if this is a known fraud. So many individuals’ data due to recent data breaches at Uber and Equifax, etc is vulnerable and out there so many of these bad actors have access to enough to port. I know mine is due to the Uber data breach and have tried to change all of my passwords except our phone numbers are use for two step verification so once they have the cell phone number ported and the email address, they can access a lot including financials. Shame on Rogers for not recognizing the severity of the issue and not having additional safeguards put in place. Their risk and cyber security departments should be fired and brought to this century.

[RogersCorey]

Greetings and welcome to our Community @LauraR1!

We have plenty of safeguards and security in place to protect our customer's accounts and identities. One of the best steps you can take is to put an optional PIN on your account that you don't use anywhere else. With a PIN on the account, you must first verify the PIN before any changes can be made to your account.

As long as this PIN is unique and not used anywhere else, scammers and identity thieves shouldn't be able to acquire it through phishing or data breaches from sources outside of Rogers.

It is very important that you keep unique passwords for every single account you own so as to avoid having all your accounts hacked if your data is breached elsewhere.

Regards,

RogersCorey

[Peege1223]

But you don't?

My number was just ported and it is a nightmare to get anything from you people. I had it stopped instantly once I noticed something was wrong (within 20 minutes). When I contacted you, no one asked for my information/pin. How is that possible? They said, oh yep someone ported your number. I asked all of the questions and no one could tell me anything. Where it was ported to, what time anything. Now you want me to create a new account. Cool, but this person is till running around with my information. They said yeah just go get a new sim card and we can get your old number back. Spent my day running around trying to get this all figured out for them to tell me, oh no we need a new account. Now my credit could be effected? Now I have to call all these places and let them know stuff was compromised.

HORRIBLE SET UP AND SERVICE.