that I did not add. When I responded to the question, the automated call connected me with a representative of AT&T. He told me that I had been hacked; notifications were turned off and it was only flagged because the address of the person ordering the phone was different from mine (Orlando FL is quite a distance from Oklahoma City OK).

Everything seemed fine; I responded to the questions, gave the last four of my SSN, etc. as the questions seemed to be in line with what I would expect. I got a picture of the purchase order; the name of the representative was given; then I get a text that says for me to contact the following number (and only the following number) if I have any questions in regards to the cancelled order. He directed me to call the number, to verify ... blah blah. I make the call. We changed the passcode (okay ... I guess) and then he says that he is removing the purchase and there will be nothing there (no record? that should be a flag but it didn't hit at the time) and that he is taking some phone numbers off my account (there are three plus a watch that should be there and I made sure that those would be untouched); also he was going to take two people off my account. There is only one person on my account, and that is ME. He sends me a text, and it said that they are ADDING (name) and that this person could make changes, do upgrades, add new lines to the account, NOT DELETING or REMOVING. I began to balk here. Okay, he says, he will need to file this paperwork and it may or may not be accepted; I could go to the nearest AT&T store in the next 15-20 minutes to take care of this. And no, i couldn't take care of this online.

It is the middle of the day; the middle of a WORK day; getting to such a store and within 20 minutes would be a minor miracle. Okay, then, there are a list of five questions the system generated that I need to answer: what are the first five digits of my SSN? What is my driver's license number? Something about whether I have a loan outside of my home state. Am I a home owner? and lastly, something about my vehicle.

WOAH!!! Hold on. First of all, if I respond with the first five of my SSN, given that I have already given my last four, that would complete the entire SSN. Well he says, there is no way for him to have written it down and the system does not give that to him, so he can't get it. Really? Like there are no paper/pens/pencils at a desk job??!!??

I decline and halt at that point.

I then get online to chat with AT&T; they send me to their fraud line. The first thing the fraud line has me do, before I even talk with anyone, is to change my passcode. Good there. I verify that there has been some activity (passcode had been changed) about the time that I got that call. There is NO record that there was an attempted purchase, even though the "fix" would just halt things as they stood. I verified that there was only one name on the account. Everything seems okay.

This guy may (or maybe not) have been an authorized representative. That was not established. If he was, then I feel I should apologize to him.

But the fraud department didn't say that a representative had been in contact with me, only that the passcode had been changed about that time. Much of what he was saying (if not all of it) could have been read off my account, if he was in it, and it would have sounded authentic.

If he WAS really a scammer, then it was quite "authentic", and the only thing that tripped it was the nature of the questions. The last 4 SSN? Yeah, I've seen that one before and it is so common that it doesn't cause any flags to be raised, but the first five is a completely new one. (FYI, the SSN is a total of 9 numbers). AT&T does not need my driver's number, nor do they need any information about any loan I may have outside of my state. Home owner? My car? I'm not applying for anything so they don't need any of that either.

Thanks for reading. If you have any comments, i would be interested in reading them.

Diana

[consumer.ftc.gov]

Rule #1: never respond to their call. Even if you recognize the number. you call the number on your account, on the back of your credit card, on your statement, on their web site.

Rule #2: see Rule #1

Never respond to such calls in any other way than to hang up and immediately call the company in question to make inquiries with their agents at their official phone number from your bills...

I strongly suggest that you list every piece of personal information that you gave them and consider EVERY item provided as compromised. Phone#/email/account-number/social security/address/mother's maiden name/driver's license/security Q&A...

I would call AT&T again and ask if they can change the account number and security questions, and put a special password-lock on the account to prevent further changes by unauthorized persons identifying as yourself.

I would reach out to the credit bureaus and put an extended fraud alert out AND a credit freeze (not the lesser "report lock"):
[www.equifax.com]
[www.chase.com]

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I think you dodged a bullet.

I think the first thing to do when you get an out-of-the-blue phone call about your account having a problem is to hang up the phone without answering any questions and then initiate your own chat or phone call to ATT like you did.

Unfortunately, this whole thing sounds extremely suspicious.

It looks to me like the call was fraudulent.

'I'll fix it so theres no record' — HUGE red flag.

'Call this number and only this number...' HUGE TWO red flags, sending semaphore.

Those five questions could be legitimate, or part of the data mining.

Some sources use public records to confirm an identity based on the credit card number used for an account.

I have a distrust of associate stores that are not corporate stores, as I've heard and read too many horror stories about employees of associate stores trying to scam customers.

Not that a corporate store is fool proof, but I feel it less likely to be taken at one of those.

The request for you first five digits could also be legitimate since the last for are often requested/required on many sites and could gleened and used for fraud, while the first five would be less common.

I hope this works out ok for you, D.

Keep us apprised, please.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

The only information I gave was the phone numbers already on the account; the last 4 of the SSN; of the three numbers (and he had them with no prompting from me), one was my mom and one my husband; there is only me on the account. The other questions were stuff never asked before, especially from AT&T.

I’ll contact them again and ask about changing and hardening the account

Any other suggestions?

It sounds like your quick reaction helped you dodge a bullet as mentioned above.

You and the other account users should be proactive if the used passwords are shared with other sites.

And keep an eye on your credit bureau reports and CC statements.

I try not to share passwords amongst websites. If you can’t remember them, you can’t reuse them! Seriously, I let Apple generate them, and save them on my devices. If I need them, I can find them. I don’t apparently have the imagination nor the brain power to generate unique strong passwords and then regurgitate as needed. You have to realize your limitations.

That was a scam. 100% You barely made it out of it. They were talking to ATT switching your stuff while you were talking to them providing the information they needed.

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C(-)ris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About 3 years ago I did get a letter from ATT that someone ordered an iPhone using my account. That was a legit letter, I called ATT and they were able to remove it from my account.