Social media is full of consumers complaining about getting ripped off by their carrier. Today, it is Verizon taking it on the chin. A Verizon customer didn't realize that he was paying the carrier an extra $10 a month thanks to a clever scam pulled off by an employee working at a Verizon authorized reseller location. This Verizon customer ordered a smartwatch from Verizon using the carrier's app. Someone in an authorized reseller store knew exactly when this customer ordered the watch and ordered the same device within 48 hours of the customer's order.
A rep at a Verizon third-party reseller store piggybacks on a customer's legit order to score a free smartwatch
As a result of the scam, the customer received notices for the second watch that he ignored. Notifications confirming the order, the shipping of the order, and the delivery of the order were ignored because the customer figured they were sent because of the watch he did order. The rogue Verizon authorized reseller employee was probably able to get the device shipped to his house or the store he worked at, or somewhere else where he had access to any deliveries.
Verizon looked into the matter, spotted the fraud, but that particular store had already closed down. Verizon did everything it could to make things right. The nation's largest wireless carrier refunded the customer every penny he was defrauded out of, and blacklisted the extra device.
Outside of a Verizon Store. Note the more recent logo featuring the flame inside the letter V. | Image credit-Verizon
Another Verizon customer received two emails from Verizon for upgrades on his lines that he did not request. The subscriber is working with Verizon's fraud prevention team. He goes on to state, "It's totally not cool that someone could get away with charging my account without my permission. And no, it wasn't anyone in my family that did it." A former Verizon employee suggested that consumers use two-factor authentication (2FA) to prevent these types of attacks.
Where's the safest place to order a new phone?
From a carrier-owned store.
44.44%
From a third-party store.
0%
From a carrier-run app.
11.11%
From the phone manufacturer's app or web-site.
44.44%
From a big box store.
0%
Requiring 2FA to open your Verizon app-or any app-can be a good idea. Even if a criminal guesses your password, a second form of authentication is needed to open the app. This would be a code texted to your phone. The attacker would need to have your phone in order to break into the app.
The same ex-Verizon employee wrote, "I obviously don’t know for sure, but if it wasn’t you, or any of your family members that may have access or account managers then it would be likely the result of a phishing attempt where someone gained your login credentials and used them at a later time to process upgrade orders." The Verizon customer said that both upgraded devices that he didn't order were supposed to be picked up at a Verizon store near him. Sure sounds like an inside job to me, especially since the scammer would have needed ID to pick them up. Of course, he might have had an insider at that Verizon store to help him out.
Don't order a new phone from inside a carrier-owned and operated or third-party-run store
This is not the time to be ordering a new phone from a store, especially a location owned and operated by a third-party authorized reseller. There are too many shady things taking place at corporate and third-party stores, regardless of the carrier you're a subscriber of. Your best bet is to buy your new handset from the phone manufacturer's website or app.
Always keep an eye on your wireless account, and if you find extra charges that you don't understand or something doesn't make sense, alert the carrier immediately. Make sure not to give out any personal information when replying to emails or texts that appear to be from your carrier or any other company you do business with. Instead, call the company using a trusted phone number that you got from a verified source.
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Keep in mind that sometimes correspondence that seems fake might actually be legitimate. Once I received an email from Verizon that was rife with spelling errors. Spelling mistakes and poor grammar are usually huge red flags. I obtained a phone number for Verizon and called to see whether the company had sent me this letter. It turned out that it did come from Verizon, spelling and grammatical errors and all.
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