Someone Stole My Phone Number: Does Your Phone Still Work?

May 16, 2016 MLM & Affiliate Marketing News

Fraudsters Can Steal Your Phone Number — And More — Through ‘Porting’

You get a call from your credit card company asking if an unusual charge is really yours. That’s become an effective protection from identity thieves.

Thieves are now stealing your phone number so it rings to them. When your bank or credit card company calls they confirm YOU did make those charges.

It’s called “porting.” Legitimately used, it’s a convenient way to transfer your old phone number to a new phone and carrier or home. Illegitimately, it’s being used by identity thieves to facilitate fraud.

Richard Poethig found out the hard way. The 90-year-old grandfather got a phone call from a woman who said she was conducting a survey about television programming for children, a topic that interested him.

“They asked me three questions all related to children and watching TV, and she kind of caught that I was an older person therefore I had a grandchild,” he says.

He responded to the questions.

Bank of America red-flagged some of the charges and called the Poethig phone number listed in their records but apparently reached the crooks on their cell phone. So they wound up telling the bank that the illegitimate charges are really legitimate.