On Wednesday, the 19th of December, my wife received a receipt from the Pacific Centre Apple Store in her email at approximately 6pm. The receipt indicated that she just received a brand new iPhone 5 64GB upgrade on our son’s phone number.
She called the Apple Store at the Pacific Center and spoke to a representative where she was advised that an individual named Patrick was in the store and just received the iPhone 5 upgrades. The Apple representative indicated that the phone was charged against our Rogers account.
We called Rogers immediately to understand what happened here. They advised that someone named Patrick had gained authorized access to her account. She immediately denied any knowledge of knowing any Patrick and also confirmed that the only individuals that should have authorized access to the account was herself and me. Rogers indicated that they would open a fraud investigation.
On Thursday during the day, my wife called Rogers again as she had not heard anything further from the fraud department. She was told by the agent that the case was just opened and that a representative from the fraud department would be in contact.
Today, Saturday the 22nd, both our son and my wife notice that all incoming calls to their phones are not showing ‘caller ID’ and only indicating ‘Unknown’. I called the Rogers customer support line and spent over thirty minutes sorting everything out.
Our account had been changed. We were originally setup under the umbrella of my employers rates using the ‘Friends and Family’ option that Rogers can extend to employees of a business account. Apparently, Patrick first changed our plans to a basic consumer plan. Apple Stores are unable to execute device upgrades on Rogers, Bell or TELUS unless the account is a personal account. This individual (Patrick) obviously knew that and changed the account plan so that he could execute the upgrade. The Rogers account representative I spoke to today was very helpful in getting the account sorted out. I was shocked to find out that ‘Patrick’ not only obtained a 64GB iPhone 5 upgrade on my son’s phone number but also on my wife’s and my number. That means that Rogers was defrauded of three iPhone 5’s.
This apparently is not the first time this has happened to Rogers and it seems obvious to me that there are some fundamental problems;
- How is it possible for anyone to gain access as an authorized contact on anyone else’s account without the account holders express and validated permission?
- How is it possible for the non-account holder to initiate any account changes, again without the knowledge of the account holder?
- What other private information was divulged or made available to this individual? Does he know our address?
I for one will be taking this to the highest levels in Rogers. They need to greatly increase their security protocols to prevent this from happening and to protect the privacy of their customers.
The only factor that gave us any indication that there was something afoot was the fact that my wife received an automated receipt from the Apple Store. If not for that notification, we would not have even had any knowledge of this until our bill arrived.
Hopefully this is recent enough that this individual is caught.
What the…did they know your password on Rogers.com? That’s the only way he could have admin access.
No, we don’t even know who this individual is. Not sure how they obtained access nor were granted access by Rogers. It is under investigation by Rogers fraud department. Seems very strange to me – almost like it was an inside job.
Inside job or someone who used to work for rogers and has knowledge of the system. Hopefully everything works out and when all is said and done i would demand a few perks for your troubles. Good luck
It’s super easy. All you have to do is have that apple rep, not Rogers, apple because you said it was at an apple location. Doesn’t really have much to do with Rogers. There was a lazy rep that didn’t check id. That can happen at bell, telus, roger, Koodo, virgin etc…not saying this is a good thing. But it’s called laziness. That’s not exclusive to Rogers…
This was not Apple’s problem or issue. An individual gained access as an ‘authorized’ contact on my Rogers account. When he went to the Apple store, he provided his name and ID and referenced the account. Apple saw that he was “authorized” to perform the transaction, so they were doing what they would normally do.. facilitate the upgrade.
The issue is how this individual became an authorized contact on our Rogers account.
And I was merely stating that I guarantee that this kind of a situation should not be singled out to Rogers. These kind of things happen everyday. I’ve worked at numerous carriers…get fraud emails everyday. People are deceptive. That’s that. I don’t think it should be singled out to “Rogers security” when I could probably think of a handful of similar situations that are similar at other carriers. Rogers will figure it out, that’s why they have a fraud department , like every other carrier…
I don’t disagree with you here. I don’t believe that this is an isolated situation with Rogers at all. It is indicative of lax security controls likely with every carrier.
Do you keep multiple passwords on your account? That sometimes does the trick. That’s what I do. When I call in or go into the store they practically have to call in each and every time and give passwords to access my account. Don’t know it, can’t access anything.
@Nicole, our account was not very easy to access as it was not the usual consumer account; no changes could be made in store by apple customer service unless specifically authorized by a Rogers rep. No apple rep had the authority to also change the type of the account to make the “transaction” possible… I admire your loyalty to Rogers but the fact that other carriers have the same problem has no value for us: our money goes into Rogers and we trusted Rogers with our personal information… therefore I will hold Rogers accountable!
I just recieved an email from Rogers today saying that changes had been made to my account. When I looked into the details of the pdf , I found that someone had ordered a Samsung Galaxy Note from my account and sent it to Vancouver. I live in the Niagara Region. I called Rogers and informed them of the situation, the Rogers rep told me that he would open up a fraud claim and the matter should be resolved within “the next few business days”. I am so enraged right now ! How can it be that easy for someone to simply order a 650 dollar phone onto my account and then leave me with the hassle of sorting it out.
Which city has this happened in?
Vancouver
Hi. Same thing happened to us on my sons Xperia Arc account. Someone provided our account info… Turns out it was a Rogers Rep…. to a friend and he ordered a new Samsung Tablet, to be delivered to an address 90 miles away under my name. Rogers sent me an email confirming account change…. I called and had them call UPS to stop delivery. In addition, called police and investigation now at point where the Rogers employee has been identified. This is common occurrence. I’ll keep you posted.