Some AT&T customers have been victims of a fraud organized by identity thieves
Customers beware! A recently published report revealed the trouble of some AT&T customers who were victims of a fraud organized by a group of criminals. Apparently, the identity thieves have managed to trick some customers of the US carrier to reveal their personal information, including data of their credit cards, address etc. The way the fraud worked was by promising to the customers a discount for their monthly payments. Most of the people liked the “promotion” and revealed all of the information they have been asked for, including social security numbers. Later on, the crooks have used the data they got to block customers’ SIM cards and to make expensive international calls from the account numbers of the victims.
One of the reported cases was the story of Keith Carter, 35 years old. A person that has presented himself as an AT&T’s employee has called Carter on 12th of August. He informed him about a promotion with a special discount for the next month’s payment. In order to activate the promotion, Carter was asked to reveal his social security number. He gave his number and soon after that his device has stopped working. When he received his new SIM card from AT&T he already had a $2600 bill, consisted of calls made to Gambia, Guinea and Cuba. Carter now reveals his plans to dispute the charges. After the fraud he is considering to change his mobile provider soon.
Few weeks ago something similar happened to the sisters Mari and Candace Sawyer. On 3rd of a September a man that presented him as an employee at AT&T called them. He managed to convince them to give him the social number of the account holder. The results were similar to the above case. Hours later all their phones were blocked. The sisters have already informed AT&T about the fraud. The carrier has issued a statement on 23rd of September to inform customers never to give any personal data to unauthorized people and institutions.
“Never give out personal information in response to an incoming call. Identity thieves are clever – they often pose as representatives of banks, credit card companies, creditors, or government agencies to get people to reveal their account numbers, Social Security numbers, mother’s maiden names, passwords and other identifying information.
If you get a call from a company or government agency seeking personal information, don’t provide it. Instead, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company’s or government agency’s website to find out if the entity that supposedly called you actually needs the requested information from you.
Please let the FCC know about ID spoofers by calling 1-888-CALL-FCC or filing a complaint at www.fcc.gov/complaints.”-AT&T
Source: AT&T
