SCENARIO: You lost your Facebook account to a scammer when he cloned your phone. How in the world was he able to do that for you not be aware of it? I am about to make your head spin.
1) When you get more wrong numbers than usual on your cellphone. A scammer will usually try several attempts to take over your phone by posing as a wrong number and hanging up.
2) You might have seen EMERGENCY USE ONLY on your screen at random times. When a phone is being cloned, service is interrupted for a minute here and a minute there.
3) You might have been the victim of scams on Facebook recently. Some of your Facebook account information becomes known to scammers once you LIKE their pages, join or are added to their groups, or fall for the Free Coins scam by giving them certain information to get free coins that never come.
4) You used your phone to verify your identity to any agency, bank or credit card company by giving them your name, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth. This info soon appears on the Dark Web when a bank or credit card company is breached.
5) You haven't had any interaction with your cell provider other than paying your bill. If your cell provider has never heard from you, a scammer has a better chance of convincing the provider that HE is YOU. Put a security code on your account so that the provider's customer service rep has to ask you for it BEFORE they can conduct any business over the phone.
6) You haven't changed your privacy settings in a long time. Some people never look at privacy settings once they set them up. An update can undo any privacy setting or reset to default.
7) You have no password protection on your device. If your device has no password to get INTO the device, anyone can pick up your phone without your knowledge and change your settings, put your calls on CALL FORWARD or worse.
8) You allowed a stranger to use your phone - even though it was only a one time emergency use. It only takes one phone call to clone a phone. Usually it starts by CALL FORWARD or putting phone on ignore which stops all incoming calls.
9) You lost your phone and someone returned it to you. You never rechecked the settings to see if anything was changed.
10) You allowed someone else (child, adult) to use your phone to play games or to do an internet search.
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PORTING
Once the criminal has 3 out of 5 bits of your personal information, they call your mobile phone service provider pretending to be you, and tell them that you're switching to another company but want to keep your existing phone number.
Transferring your number from one provider to another - for example from Verizon to AT&T - this is a process called porting.
If you have two-factor authentication set up on your bank accounts, or any other online sites, the scammer will be able to get the code needed to log into your account when it is texted to your phone. From there, you could become a victim of identity theft and even have money stolen from your bank accounts.
Porting takes up to 24 hours to complete. During this time both phones will be functional. Any text messages that you receive on your phone will also be seen by the phone that your number is being transferred to. You will not get any notifications that this is being done, unless you have a backup notification - like an email address or second phone where your provider can reach you.
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HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1 -- Ask your wireless provider about port-out authorization - Every major wireless carrier has some sort of additional security for accounts or for port-out authorization that customers can set up.
*****This can be a verification question OR an added PIN /special code (as discussed above) where they have to ask you for it before making any changes. This will make it more difficult for someone to port-out your phone. Contact your mobile provider and speak to them specifically about porting and/or port out security on your account.
2 -- Watch out for unexpected "Emergency Calls Only" status - Call your mobile phone company if your phone suddenly switches to "Emergency Call Service Only" or something similar. That's what happens when your phone number has been transferred to another phone.
3 -- Be alert about the communications you receive - Watch out for phishing attempts, special alert messages from financial institutions, texts that are code responses to two-factor authorization requests.
****If you are getting a code that you didn't ask for, you'll know that someone asked for it, and you need to change passwords on your Facebook, Google, bank and credit card accounts immediately. BUT FIRST - on your Facebook account, check SECURITY AND ACTIVITY tab to make sure YOU are the only person on your account at the moment.
*****If you see login locations from strange locations on that screen, then YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Immediately click END ACTIVITY on every entry. After you are sure you are the only one left on your Facebook account, CHANGE PASSWORD.
If you accidentally End your Own Activity, no worries, just log in again. When you know you are the only one on your account, then change password immediately so scammers can't get back onto your account.
The best protection is using a landline to call every credit card, bank, and especially your cellphone provider to put a code on your accounts so they have to ask you for it before proceeding to do business. IF THEY DO NOT, make sure the CSR agent knows they screwed up by not asking you. It will be duly noted and each CSR after that one will be prompted on their screen to ask you for it. Using a landline to make these calls is added security in case your cellphone is already compromised.
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