Hacked 4 times

[Smithy1496]

4 times my daughter has had her phone number stolen. we keep getting it back after traveling to the nearest three shop 15 miles away. All accounts in the phone hacked. Someone is ordering an eSIM in her name and changing personal details to do this. Three have said she can’t change number as with the fraud department. This is ruining her life. Been on to national fraud line and ofcom won’t take the case for 3 months. She has just renewed her contract before this happened. Three is no help. No one calls back no one can help. We can’t even make a complaint 

[Smithy1496]

Apparently three have said it a nationwide problem 😡😡😡so no help again. Looks like I’m changing supplies and taking all 3 contacts with me 

[PeteG]

Hello.

It's disappointing to hear that's happening to your daughter. I'm not aware of any nationwide issue specific to Three. Fraud is of course always a problem that business are working to protect users from. 

This has happened to your daughter 4 times, how many times has it happened to your other 2 contracts? 

Pete.

[Smithy1496]

Yes 4 times for my daughter’s phone.i do appreciate hacking is on the rise but 4 times in a row and three haven’t found the solution or allowed her to change numbers. Then was blacklisted which no one told her was going to happen and another 48hrs to get unlocked. When she was in the shop she was not the only person this was happening to. 
as for my contracts not happened to me I said I will be moving suppliers. 

[PeteG]

Given that it's only your daughter that's been hacked, and she's been hacked 4 times, isn't it worth considering that the issue is being cause by something she is doing on the phone rather than something wrong with the network? 

The network can only protect your information up to certain point, things that are within the networks control. If the user is doing something externally, or has something on their device that might be leaking their information, Three would be powerless to stop that, as would any other network. 

I'd recommend a doing check of the device for apps that may not be on the level. Depending on your daughters age, it might also be worth reviewing what she has access to, what services she chooses to share her info with, and what info she shares. 

If you want to start fresh, it might be worth performing a factory reset of the device, this will restore it to new and it would need to be set up from scratch again. I'd recommend changing the password for the email address that's going to be associated with the phone, and then I'd recommend changing the passwords for any other services she signs back into on the phone, to ensure they are secure. 

Here's some online Information you could pass along to your daughter that she can use to help keep her details safe online.

You mentioned that the number was not able to be changed, we're unsure why that would be the case. A number change is an option for anyone who would like one. It's possible that it wasn't an option during the process of you trying to recover her account or something like that. If it's still something you want to do, it would be worth asking the team to make the arrangements again once the current issue is resolved. 

Pete. 

[Smithy1496]

Hi. My daughter is 29 and a single parent. Very safe when it comes to online. Some of the problem is miss communication between shops and three call centres. She was told twice that the situation had been reported to fraud unit and hadn’t. How can someone order an eSIM in her name and three not question it. This is the issue we have with three. Where was the security. Once eSIM issued without her permission then all accounts start getting hacked. I don’t know about you but telephone number is link to personal account information. 

[MZone]

Have you tried changing the password for your My3 account?

[Smithy1496]

Yes several times but had to change email address aswell. The verification codes go to the phone that’s been hacked. The call centres didn’t seem to understand that so off to three shop to verify her identity. Then 5 days later this all happens again. 

[concerned_user]

[URGENT] Three needs to come up with 2FA or MFA for access to the online account and especially when requesting for replacement e-sim. At the moment, once online account is hacked, the victim will lose its life.