It has happened again (the first time unsuccesful!) this time the perp. succeeded in getting my number and closing my account!!
Fraudulent activity - unauthorised PAC request
I no longer have access to my phone (it is now a brick!)as someone has hacked it and my original account has been removed.
Sequence of events:
Wednesday 24th 5:29pm
SMS received stating my PAC ***** expires on the 25th.
I had not requested any changes, and did not see this message until the next day along with another message that showed the change had been made
Thursday 25th 8:05am
...weve received your switch request from your new network...
I only found out there was an issue when I attempted to make a transaction using my mobile and nothing happened. Then found it impossible to call out and my wife tried calling me only to be met with a message that it has not been possible to transfer your call.
I cannot for the life of me understand how such a change can be made so quickly and the account breached so successfully by hackers. This phone is generally only used for emergencies and contact for family and friends. Personal details only known to me other than email address.
I did contact customer services later that day by the online chat method (appears to be the only way) and after confirmation of who I am including quoting the PAC the agent said that there was nothing she could due to the fact that my number had already been ported to Vodafone. However, she would pass this on to ID Technical people and they should be able to resolve this and return my number. This may take up to 48 hours and should this not happen I would need to contact ID again.
Reading previous threads here I am concerned that this may not be the case and would like some assurances that my number can be reinstated to my account.
I also feel strongly that there is not enough security in place to help prevent this type of occurence.
Surely just providing a mobile number should not be enough nor sending an SMS message that may or may not be seen before changes are made - as can be seen by this case where account closed and number ported within a 15 hour timescale!
Many companies now use 2 factor authentication as a more secure method that will at least allow a victim a chance of responding. So is there any better way for me to secure my account, perhaps I am missing something?
