topic Re: Fraudster porting phone in Account and services

Fraudster porting phone

DS1 — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 11:19:44 GMT

I am beyond frustrated with the response from 3. Someone got a PAC code to port my phone last Wednesday. Even though we warned 3 what was happening, the transfer went through and the phone went dead on Friday. The fraudster has been using my number now for FIVE Days and 3 seem to be doing very little to stop it. Whoever has the number is trying to defraud me using the phone number to access stuff. I am a nervous wreck waiting for the next assault. They are still using the number as I keep ringing it. 3 keep saying wait, wait, wait. This is criminal activity. Why can't the get the new network to just block the phone? I am in despair with all this.

Re: Fraudster porting phone

jr0 — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 12:31:33 GMT

block what phone? if you are not in control of your phone number as it was ported to some other operator.
How did the fraudster got your pac code? I thought a pac code was smsed to the phone number (itself) or have things changed ?

Re: Fraudster porting phone

DS1 — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 12:49:50 GMT

What happens is they contact 3 pretending to be the account holder so 3 gave them the PAC code. We reported this as soon as we got the text message but 3 did not/could not stop it. this happened Wednesday, we lost the number Friday and the fraudster still has it and is using it. 3 will tell you no-one but the account holder can get the PAC code. Clearly, that is not the case. It seems they just contacted customer services pretending to be the account holder and they got it. 3 are absolutely not caring.

Re: Fraudster porting phone

jr0 — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 13:28:05 GMT

even if the fraudster impersonated the account holder, I'd say the porting request should/must have been authenticated/verfied like using 2FA or OTP. Did you receive that?

And if Three shared the pac code over chat or voice, they should have a log and recording of it. But I guess it is what you said, they do not care.

Re: Fraudster porting phone

JadeF — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 10:42:25 GMT

Hello @DS1

Welcome to the Three Community page.

I'm sorry to hear that you've been the victim of fraud.

Sounds like our team have raised the request to get your number back from the provider it has been ported to. It usually takes around 5 working days to retrieve your number and recreate your account.

I don't have access to account information from this community forum, so if you'd like to discuss this further, I'd ask that you chat with the team here.

Jade

Re: Fraudster porting phone

DS1 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 10:19:18 GMT

The issue seems to be that these fraudulently ports are not treated with any urgency. They are managed as routine PAC transfers. I was amazed when we were told that no-one works at the weekend, so they fraudsters happily carry on before anyone bothers to look at the case on a Monday. Nearly a week now and still no result on stopping the number. 3 are a disgrace and facilitating crime. No-one is bothered.